I have a 2013 Hyundai Elantra 4-dr GLS. I have 108,000 miles and the temperature gauge goes past the middle mark, while I’m sitting in traffic. Once I start moving it goes back down, I stopped and checked while it was hot and the fan WAS NOT RUNNING! I took it to an independent garage. They diagnosed it while it was getting hot. They advised me to replace the fan and the Thermostat plus the coolant with a pretty hefty price. Can anyone advise if this is all necessary? Please let me know if can.
Well it will less expensive then a rebuilt engine that is ruined because of over heating . Of course you can get a second opinion but it might over heat while you are driving around doing that.
The fan motor may be bad, or its relay if it has one, or the temperature sensing unit. If you’re not sure, you can get another look-see and estimate. I doubt if a thermostat is needed, but it’s not a big part of the overall cost. How often does your manual tell you to change the coolant? It may be due.
If the engine low on coolant for some reason, that is a problem to be diagnosed. Low coolant can keep the temp sensor from working on some cars.
1 Like
I have a 2012 Elantra and had to have the radiator fan replaced a couple of years ago at about 95,000 miles. They replaced the whole assembly. It also blew the fuse which was a $50 fuse that I had to wait a week for the dealer to get in. the car was fine after that. The fan should be on if the engine is getting hot. The whole job at an independent shop was several hundred dollars. The thermostat is fine or it would overheat going down the road.
Thanks Randy! That’s what I thought! It only starts getting hot if I’m sitting in traffic! Once I start moving it cools down. If it starts getting hot while moving, I turn the heat on high and it cools down as well!
That’s because the heater core is essentially a miniature radiator, it’ll act as a secondary heat sink. Honestly, a thermostat is so cheap, I would just have them change it out while they’re working on it. If your coolant is older than 3 years, it’s probably due for replacement too. You could also call around to other independent mechanics and get estimates from them as well to see if the price is similar.
The shop you took it to basically said… in non mechanic speak… “lets replace everything involved here so that we are sure to find the issue” Except honestly that wouldn’t be “everything” that is involved, just the primary suspects.
A FAR better approach would be to simply troubleshoot the issue. If she is getting hot…and your fan is not operational and your gauge is reporting the engine temperature beyond where it normally does… Then you at least know that your temp sensor and gauge are functional.
Next you need to verify if the fan motor is able to function…and then you move back toward the relay…Or however you wish to troubleshoot… it will be one or the other method for sure.
Do your fans or fan come on when you select A/C ? Turn the A/C on just as a test to see if the fan comes on constant. If you have multiple fans then this test will only test the A/C condenser fan and will leave the other fan alone. So if you have multiple fans this test will do nothing for you…if you have a single fan…then it will test to see if the actual fan motor is able to function when asked by the A/C… systems vary over different makers…some use one…some use two fans.
I would be troubleshooting from the cooling fan relay…you can do many things from there if you know what you are doing and know what poles do what in conjunction with the relay. Its not rocket science, but it does take some willingness to actually troubleshoot the problem.
Perhaps this is asking too much from some garage “mechanics”… I know… I get it.
But I would do some simple troubleshooting first before “Shotgunning” the entire system. I see more people waste more money with this approach at the urging of some shop or another.
1 Like
I’m guessing a few fans must have failed that summer since there seemed to be a shortage of the special fuse that it blew. Since I had to drive it until the fuse came in I figured out if it started getting hot to turn the heater on all the way. You have enough air flow when moving you don’t need the radiator fan. Good luck.
Fans aren’t typically fused in the normal sense of the term and via the fuse box and ultimately a fuse…
Fans typically use fuseable links…which is basically hard wired… the protection is within the fuseable link special wire…it is a slow blow type of mechanism. This is what I typically see in my world…so maybe the waiting game was about trying to find the correct type of link… they aren’t always easy to get a hold of but they’re available…
Just dont ask any garden variety parts store dood for the stuff, they will think you smoked your lunch.
You say it goes past the middle mark. Does it keep going to the red zone or just hang in that middle area? If it keeps going, get it fixed at a reliable independent shop. If it doesn’t go any further, it is probably working ok.