Delay Relay Question

rbarragan

Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2005
Hello all I have the crappy original delay relay and it just stays running no matter what untill I unlpug the relay. But people say you can leave it unpluged and all will be ok. Well I took her for a drive the other day with the relay unplugged and I overheated. How do you guys leave this unplugged? Please help with what might be going on.
 
Hello all I have the crappy original delay relay and it just stays running no matter what untill I unlpug the relay. But people say you can leave it unpluged and all will be ok. Well I took her for a drive the other day with the relay unplugged and I overheated. How do you guys leave this unplugged? Please help with what might be going on.

The Relay lets the fan come on after you turn off your car to cool down. It has nothing to do with overheating while driving. It is the last relay on the driverside inner fender. Make sure you did not disconnect the other two relays. 1st one controls the regular fan operation turns it on once the temps reach a certain level.
2nd relay turns the fan on high when you have the AC on.
make sure the 1st two relays are plugged in then let the car run and see if the fans come on. Do you have a Temp gauge or a scanmaster to know what the water temp is?
 
I know I unplugged the delay relay I checked on gnttype for the relay diagram just to make sure. Does that mean the regular operation relay is bad?
 
I know I unplugged the delay relay I checked on gnttype for the relay diagram just to make sure. Does that mean the regular operation relay is bad?
Have you checked to see if your fans is coming on at around 177*? If it doesnt, then you have one of several issues..... fan connection, relays, fan temp sensor, or fuse link to starter....
 
Thank you venom. I knew most of this information. The delay relay is unplugged. I drove the car and it still over heats. That means the fan isn't kicking on would this tell you the relay to the fan is bad?
 
I guess this is obvious, but I'm going to say it anyway...... do you know the fan isn't coming on when it overheats? It is possible to overheat for other reasons no fault of the fan or it's relays/temp switches.
 
Thank you venom. I knew most of this information. The delay relay is unplugged. I drove the car and it still over heats. That means the fan isn't kicking on would this tell you the relay to the fan is bad?
Run the car in park and at idle until it warms up...... At around 177* your fan should kick on. That is the first thing you should be checking.... Why is that hard to do? Unless you help us help you, you will never get it fixed.......
 
Understand. Why is it when I plug in the delay relay the fan kicks on right away and everything is great? I just have to unplug it when I turn the car off lol. I will connect the Snap On modis and see if the fan kicks on at 170. Let you guys know.
 
NOBODY RUNS THE DELAY RELAY........... Your fan will run and operate without the delay relay. That is a given. You low fan relay (the first relay turns on the fan at operational temps and turns fans off when it cools...... The high fan relay turns on your fan when you turn on your AC. So you need to verify if and when does your fan ran. It will run at the same parameters at idle or drive. You can use your scan tool to verify if the ECM is sending a signal to the relay to turn on your fan or not.
 
Understand. Why is it when I plug in the delay relay the fan kicks on right away and everything is great? I just have to unplug it when I turn the car off lol. I will connect the Snap On modis and see if the fan kicks on at 170. Let you guys know.
When you unplugged the relay, did you unplug 1 or 2 connectors. The correct relay has 2 connectors to unplug. Just checking.
 
Understand. Why is it when I plug in the delay relay the fan kicks on right away and everything is great? I just have to unplug it when I turn the car off lol. I will connect the Snap On modis and see if the fan kicks on at 170. Let you guys know.

The reason is the delay relay is stuck....ON.......

The fans normally (without the delay hooked up) have two ways to come on.

1.) a coolant temp switch in the block shorts to ground at around 170 something and makes the poles on the low speed relay.
2.) the a/c when activated activated makes another relay that puts the fans into "high"

the reason the appear to work when you plug the delay relay in is because........believe it or not..... the delay relay is malfunctioning. It's whole purpose is to continue to run the fans after the ignition is turned off if the engine is still hot. The problem when the delay relay fails, is that it usually sticks on while the car is sitting in the garage with the engine cold and with the fan(s) draining the battery, you will come out to a dead battery........
 
Understand. Why is it when I plug in the delay relay the fan kicks on right away and everything is great? I just have to unplug it when I turn the car off lol. I will connect the Snap On modis and see if the fan kicks on at 170. Let you guys know.

Your car doesn't overheat with the delay plugged in because the low speed circuit is not working. The high speed speed circuit, AKA Delay Relay, takes over. The fan runs on high speed, cools the engine down.

Check your low speed resistor; it's probably bad.
 
Here is the fan circuit......

cooling_fan_circuit.jpg


Hope this helps.
 
You can test the low speed fan without starting the engine; just jumper pins A & B (upper right 2 pins) on the ALDL/OBDI connector and turn ignition on, engine off. Use a paper clip for the jumper. This puts the ecm in diagnostic mode and it will energize the fan along with solenoids like EGR, TCC, etc.

Put a voltmeter or test light on the wire at the fan, connected to the square resister. I'll bet you have no voltage there.
 
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