how much driving before the vent kicks in?

[pisquano]

I drove my cooper S about 30 mins, looking for a parking space, so going really slowly most of the time, it was around 23 degrees

when i finally stopped the car. ,the vent kicked in to cool the engine, quite loudly, for like 3 mins

this is quite normal, butr I wonder: how long should the car go before it's reasonable for this to happen?

i ask this because in the past i had a lot of problems with the cooling system so i'm always alert (vent housing replaced, leaks in the coolant tank...)

[MINIAC]

The radiator fan kicks in when water temp reaches about 105C. Driving for a length of time where there's little air flow on the radiator is going to cause the temp to rise.

If you're concerned about monitoring water temp I'd recommend getting a Scangauge.

[pisquano]

sure...

i guess i'd just like to know how much driving, or stop and go driving is considered normal to cause the rad fan to kick in after you shut down the engine...today was hot (for London) but still not very hot...

it doesn't normally happen to me, but when i first had problems with the fan, the first "symtoms" were that the vsar would overheat, and the rad fan would kick in ofter even whilts driving