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fan of the radiator not turn off

8K views 11 replies 4 participants last post by  buck-eejit 
#1 ·
Hey

I'm new here in the forum

I've been trying for a long time to solve a problem with the car

And not getting any normal answer, even in the main garage of the company ..

Perhaps one of you has come across this phenomenon and solved it.

The fan of the radiator in almost any situation works and non-stop at all, until I turn off the engine.

Even if traveling on an open road, on cruise speed, it keeps working.

If I turn off and restart the trip, then the fan does not work, but if it gets back to work, then again it is non-stop.

Has anyone encountered a problem?

The company noted that the computer decides how much and when the operation will continue, and that for them everything is normal in the car ..

Why should a fan work if I drive on an open road and there is a flow of air on the radiator ??

I have never encountered such a phenomenon in any vehicle
 
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#3 ·
Hey NigelK

Right, I did not write anything about the vehicle's data ..

Nimi one 2012 engine 98 hp gasoline manual

Location: Israel

And the problem appears whether or not air conditioner.

I personally drive without air conditioning in 90% of the time

And the new and original thermostat, because we thought it would solve the problem ..

We tested air conditioner compressor, water pump, new radiator also, pipes, leaks, all in excellent condition!

And in the main garage they did not do too much

They just said the computer did not find a problem.

So I asked if it was normal for Venta to work non-stop. He said that apparently this is the way the vehicle is designed, and the computer determines according to the conditions.

In short, even they do not know to diagnose a malfunction.
 
#4 ·
Thanks Nimo. Well I'm thinking Israel is pretty warm so fans would be on a lot. Probably on most of the time. If it cools down at night and you take the car out, is the fan on a bit less? It may be that cars exported to hot climates, like Israel, the ECU and sensors are set up to run the fan most of the time.
No codes showing. Maybe the garage is correct. Just how it is. Does the temp gauage stay steady all the time in whatever position 'normal' is?
 
#6 · (Edited)
Lol

I wanted to mention the fact that it's very hot in Israel, but you understand the matter quickly ..
As for the changes between day and night, you are also right.

The fan works almost the same thing in the evening, probably dependent on the weather.



In the "normal" condition of the weather, the temperature
Between 82-82 and the fan works continuously!

In the winter I noticed that he was putting the fan into operation at about 104 degrees Celsius
Then lowers to 90 and the fan stops until again the engine reaches 104 and again the fan works.

There is no doubt that in the winter the fan behaves more "normal"
What I was less pleased with was the fact that in the garage, an official importer, people who are considered professional, do not know how to give me a clear answer

Is this normal and so is the rest of the vehicles of my model?

Can not answer for sure except "The computer has not detected any problem code"

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that maybe that's really how it should work.
Only that I never encountered a vehicle with such a long cooling behavior in the summer.




Maybe there in Kuwait it's perfectly normal?

Now you are in England, almost the opposite of Kuwait, and you must be happy! :)
 
#7 ·
I've never really rated the knowledge of the techs at most main dealers (or importer in your case). They are part stoppers. You need to find a proper 'engineer', an independant, a garage run by enthusiasts. I don't know how things are in Isreal, but see if you can find what we call an 'indy' here, an independant Mini specialist, not a main dealer. You can just as well use a BMW 'indy' - they can all do Minis as they are BMWs.
Another thought. See if you can find and speak to another Mini owner with a similar year and type of Mini as yours and ask them about how often, how much their fans run.
And has the cooling system been flushed to make sure the radiator is really clean and new correct coolant put in?

Kuwait was pretty OK. Not sure England makes me happier. Cold and dark too much of the time.
 
#8 ·
Hi nimo. I had a 2012 R56 N18 MCS with fan problems and the following post by RobboMCS on NAM seemed really helpful:
(This was happening in my case before the "temp sensor relocation + new wiring cradle general recall/service fix around 2012/2013" which seemed to imply that there was a quality control mis-match between ecu and temp sensor. When you changed the thermostat I wonder if you, unfortunately, replicated the problem?)



"To understand what is going on here, you have to understand that there is a temperature sensor that tells the ecu what the temperature is, and a mechanical thermostat that opens at a certain temperature and regulates water flow and therefore the temperature.

What is supposed to happen is that the mechanical thermostat is set to 105C (221). When the car is moving with good radiator flow the temp should stay at roughly 105. Once the temperature goes > 106 (223) the electric fan cuts in. This usually because the car is stationary, with no airflow.

The problem is that the mechanical thermostats seems to be a little inaccurate and out of sync. There are a whole lot of thermostats that seem to run at 107-108C (224-227F). What happens in this instance is the thermostat doesn't open water flow properly until it reaches its temp, so driving around the temp will be 107-108C. This confuses the ecu, as the temperature sensor reads >106, so it activates the fan.

It is also possible to have the reverse problem, ie an accurate thermostat but a miscallibrated temperature sensor which reads the water temp higher than it actually is, which can produce exactly the same problem.

If this is happening, the fan is not just running when you stop the car, but nearly all the time, even driving around. When you stop it will run until the temp drops to the 106C number.

So if you are lucky and have a "normal" thermostat that runs around 104-105C you won't get the fan operating when you stop very often. If you have one of the thermostats that runs at 106-108C you will get it a lot.

Does this matter? Not really from an engine point of view. However, it must be increasing the risk of fan failure in the long run.

Also, just out of interest, there are actually 2 thermostats operating in 2 stages. The main one runs as described above. There is a second one set to 85C (185F). When the ecu detects high turbo load from aggressive driving etc it opens the second stage, and the temps drop down significantly.

Robbo"

Hope this helps...
 
#9 · (Edited)
Hey NigelK

As for comparisons with people who have the same vehicle from the same year, I did not get to know

As strange as it seemed. So I asked people that I met on the street by chance, and there was not too much information (not everyone is really interested in how things work)

So I asked and explained to each mechanic what exactly the problem was, in my opinion.

We tested a water pump and it flows very well.
A new original radiator installed at the company two years ago.

The new thermostat they put in my garage

Check carefully that it matches the specific model, so I do not really think there's a problem with it. It is also original of course. I will not give up, I will solve this problem.

About the rain and gray in England, probably too much of anything in winter / hot weather
Becomes oppressive after a long period of time


Hi cjm

As for my thermostat, it opened strangely.

In the winter, it reaches 104 degrees Celsius and then the fan works. In my model there are no two stages of fan, there is only the second stage and it is noisy.

In summer however, the fan comes into play even at 93 degrees! And it does not stop even when it drops to 82 degrees Celsius and a continuous ride,

As for the heat sensor, I was told that if it was improper, then neither would a data reading be given.

It does not seem normal to me that I'm also driving and even if I stand there for a long time - a fan works without stopping at all until the engine turns off and it does not matter if the temperature has dropped below 82. This is very disturbing, both in terms of wear of the fan and unnecessary noise is the problem.


And thanks to all those who answer and try to help, very much appreciate! :)
 
#10 ·
Hmm it sounds like your temp sensor isn't talking - or the ecu isn't listening.

Is system pressurizing, I wonder? How about substituting the expansion cap for starters? And check for a hose leak?

Yes, your One has a one-stage fan...

Also, are you sure you're reading the thermostat sensor and not the ecu data? I presume you're using the OBD port and, if so, I'd suspect it's giving you ecu data which may be different to temp sensor data. If they're different then it all switches to 'default' mode with continuous (loud) fan as RobboMCS explains...

I have no idea as to why it works ok in the winter time, tho...

Pls keep us posted.

ps IMO I think it's 'normal' that your fan should keep going until below 104C even with the engine turned off. This makes me think that the ecu and the temp sensor are not talking or don't agree.
 
#11 ·
So
The mechanic who treated my car since I bought it

was kind enough and he tried all the options to check for a whole day and I saw the job.

After covering all the possibilities

He concluded that apparently the computer was instructing the fan to go to work

But does not cut it off when necessary.

As if the data transmission problem of engine management software ..

Needless to say, everything is done with an original BMW data computer and software

We've also updated a software. After one hour the computer updated each item in the car, only one thing was not updated

And this engine management ..

The mechanic told me to come another month or so He needs to get current and new software and maybe it will help.

I have no intention of investing in an engine management computer, if that's the problem. This is 3000K

And that's a lot of money. At most we will change a fan if it crashes at some point.
 
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