This 1999 Plymouth Voyager came in with the complaint that the cooling fans do not operate. It is a very common problem on Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth minivans. The surprising thing to me on this one was the location of the cooling fan relay or module. The relay is located below the driver’s side headlight assembly. Most are located under the vehicle on the subframe near the driver’s side of the radiator. The last picture in this post shows the normal location.
Knowing that i had to get to the relay to test I removed the headlight assembly by removing the three 10 mm nuts on the back side of the headlight. I also had to remove a single 10 mm headed bolt at the top of the header panel.
With all of the attaching hardware removed I pulled the light assemble out and disconnected the wiring.
Next I had to remove a phillips head screw from the outer edge of the plastic cover.
With the screw removed I could lift the outer edge up and release the hook on the inner edge.
Now I can get to the relay for testing.
I released the lever at the left edge of the red locking bar. Then I pushed the bar to the right.
Then I started testing. I use a very sharp pick attached to my voltmeter lead and gently push into the wire to look for voltage. I have found that in doing this the wound is self healing. If for some reason I feel that I may have damaged the insulation, I wipe some silicone sealer sealer across the wound.
I use a scan tool in conjunction with this procedure to command the fans on and look for a change in voltage on the green command wire from the engine control computer. If I see the needed signal and the fans do not operate, I then check for power on the gray wire and ground on the black wire.
If everything has checked good so far I finish disconnecting the harness from the relay and jumper the gray and dark green wires together.
I will also do an amperage test with a clip on amp probe around my fused jumper wire.
Diagnosis of a faulty cooling fan relay or module. This is the first one I can remember seeing that is riveted on most have two 8 mm headed screws holding them on. I used a cut off wheel grinder to remove the rivet heads. Then a hammer and punch to drive the remaining rivet through the hole. I did have to twist the rivets with a pair of pliers first to loosen them up.
I used screws and lock nuts to hold the new relay in place.
Plugged the wiring back up and pushed the red locking bar back into place. I tested the fans and this one is fixed. Now I just have to put it back together.
Notice the three holes in the metal in the center of the picture. This is where the relays are normally found. The two outer holes are for the mounting screws and the center one is an alignment hole. There is a matching tab on the back of the relay.
Thank you very much for advise on finding fan relay under driver side head light. I drilled out rivets, replaced relay and the over heating problem solved. Also check engine light off both fans kicking in with ac full blast ty u again saved me allot of dollars taking it too a shop.