I have recently made some investments in my 1992 Honda Accord EX including having the air conditioning recharged (R12 is like gold these days). The mechanic discovered that the electric fan on the radiator that according to him is the air conditioning fan is intermittent. It runs strongly, but switches on and off at times which is not helping the car stay cool. My question is this: is it more likely to be the fan itself that is failing, OR a relay or sensor that controls the fan. I’m thinking I might tap into the hot wire with a voltmeter and see if the voltage remains present when the fan stops, which would make it the fan, but honestly I’m not entirely sure where this lead is. Odds are fan? Or controlling device? Thanks!
You could have converted to R134a and saved a lot of money. In any event, the fan controller has problems. The relay works to turn the fan off and on when the AC is off. There is another controller that operates the fan when the AC is turned on. The problem may also be in the engine temperature sensor. Any good AC shop will spot the problem in a heartbeat. A good mechanic can “hotwire” the fan to see if it keeps running. I bet it does. You really need a good AC shop.
I believe the fly in the ointment is finding a good, or honest, technician. So far I’ve only run into opportunists. The general feeling I’m getting is that the fan itself is ok - that would be fairly simple to change out, and I’m sure I could find a used one cheap. It gets expensive when the wiring disappears into the abyss.