Temperature gauge/ radiator fan control

[miamatt]

After my 1994 Lincoln Continental Executive overheated, I discovered a huge hole/crack in the radiator, and also a crack in the engine coolant reservoir. I patched the reservoir leak and replaced the radiator. The car has driven OK in limited action since (just put in new radiator yesterday), but two concerns remain:

1) The dashboard temperature gauge simply lights the top two and bottom two bars (pic attached)

2) The radiator fan does not come on (I cannot be certain the engine has gotten hot enough to require it, due to dashboard gauge malfunction)

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that such a display on the dashboard gauge was an error signal of some sort. So my concern is the engine potentially still overheating due to the fan not engaging (temps are in the 80s in south FL even now), and not getting any sort of dashboard warning.

The other thing to mention is I noticed the car AC, which prior to this incidnet blew very cold, now tends to blow warm when the car is idling (at least some of the time), and cold while moving. Also, I noticed the radiator fan does not come on while idling with the AC on... not sure if that is abnormal or not.

I am pretty new at DIY repairs, doubly so for electronic components/sensors, and I would appreciate any suggestions on where to start troubleshooting this. I don't have a multimeter but was thinking of picking one up. Thanks for reading.

 

[dfoy50]

i dont know how much this will be but here it goes first off you really need a vom to trouble shoot this kind of stuff. the fan does need to be running if yous a/c is on particularly when idling . that is why your a/c is not getting cold while your idling you have to has airflow over the condenser for the a/c to work . i know this because i am a retired refrigeration tech (35 yrs exp). your going to need to find out if the fan motor is bad or you might have a blown fuse , bad sensor. ect . if you go to www.bbbind.com . they have schematics online it is free. they are in the tech info tab . i looked at the schematic and the fan is controlled by the pcm module and the ccrm module .it looks like your going to need a volt ohm meter to accurately diagnose this. you can also search for related posting's by using the search function (top right corner of this page). i hope this helps


an american indian saying nly a white man can cut a foot off the end of a blanket and add it to the top and think it is longer

 

[bradyelich]

assuming your dash lights are all good, maybe you need to reset it?? I hope you disconnected your battery before working on your car. You may have computer issues. Or, the mechanical route: You replaced the rad, in doing so, or from the object that hit your rad, may have caused the condenser coil (the small skinny rad up front) to leak. Get the A/C man here to tell you how to pressure test, what to look for. Dont cheap out, buy a new one, cant be repaired or cleaned anymore due the metal being so thin and tubes so small. Rent or buy a set of A/c guages, and find a shop manual. Helms.com if you dont know where to start. Let us know what you find out.

 

[MooJohn]

A majority of cars use two water temp sensors - one to feed the dash gauge, the other for the ECU to monitor. While I don't know the specifics on your car, see if there are two, that they are connected and they aren't swapped.