help with cooling

[twrtoad]

I would first like to tell everybody thanks for reading this as I search for help. I bought a 1994 toyota camry as I drive a long ways to work and wanted better gas mileage than my current vehicles. I have always had older vehicles with belt driven fans so electric fans are new to me. Why they got rid of belt driven and went electric is beyond me, As I am finding out now there is just something else that can go wrong. So here is the deal it is a 1994 toyota camy 4 cylinder engine. the cooling fans work when the ac is on but not when it is off. My neigbor said it might be the temp sensor in the radiator. 28 bucks later thats not it. Then he said it might be the relay. So I did some research and found out there are 3 relays, tested all them and they seem to be functioning but replaced them anyways. What else is in the system that could be failing. I did jump the fans and they do work. One person it might be a bad ECU but what the hell is that and where could I find it. Is there anything else in the system that could be going wrong, any fuses, I could not find any label fans. Thank you all for the help and I really appreciate it.

[LynchburgCSI]

I assume you have the 4cyl. Also, belt driven fans wouldn't work on a transversely opposed engine. Think about it.

Is the engine overheating or staying in normal range? The fans on these cars do not like to turn on unless they absolutely need to. There's a million threads here where people have thought theyre broken. I say, leave it alone unless the car runs hot.

[twrtoad]

I know it would not work, i was just venting, I have looked at alot of the other threads and they all say just about the same thing so I quess I need to break it down more, my appologies. That is why I asked questions that I could not find that you did not answer but with just a simple there are other threads. And in my original post I clearly said it is a 4 cylinder so i question even if you read it or just read the title and responded with a generic answer of there are other post. does it have coolant...yes. Do the fans work if jumed...yes. relays all tested good but replaced with new just in case...temp sensor in rediator...replaced. So i was told about a ECU that is supposed to be in the system, dont know where it is and that is why i asked. also is there a fuse somewhere in the system, I could not find one labeled fans... The car has not overheated becasue as soon as the needle hit the red mark I shut the car off. If the fans do not kick on until the needle is in the red then it is a bad design.
thank you all for your help in advance.

[LynchburgCSI]

So the car IS running hot (needle hitting the red)? Good...okay. Definitely have a problem then.

I'm not 100% sure if there is a fuse in the system. I'd check camrystuff.com for the FSM if you want to be super through about it. Otherwise, the ECU may be the issue. (The ECU is behind the passengers side dashboard/airbag by the way.) I'd wait for someone more experienced with this issue to chime in though.

[twrtoad]

cool, thanks for the info, I'm just fustrated as hell. bought the car and there was supposed to be nothing wrong with it and in excellent condition. I dont think the fans have ever worked since I bought it becasue I have always had the ac on until I drove home from work and it was cool so i turned the ac off and that is when I found out the fans did not work. It has been almost impossible to find out how this circuit goes.

[Stillrunning]

If you disconnect the radiator coolant switch do the fans work?

[twrtoad]

got it fixed, replaced the ecu and it started working, dont know what would make something like that go bad but after I pluged the new on in and let it idle, when it warmed up the fans kicked in and started working so that must have been the problem.

[peshwa]

Thanks for the update! Did you have to pull out codes related to the ECU going bad? how did you diagnose this is an ECU problem?