Yesterday, I was waiting inline at a fast food drive-thru and noticed that my A/C was not cooling (it was 100 deg outside). I then put the car in park and revved up the engine and then cool air started to come out of my A/C vents. I did that for 2-3 mins, then noticed that my temperature gauge rose almost all the way to the top (it went right under the red). At that point I took off (out of the drive thru), to get some air flowing into the radiator. Sure enough it temperature doped fast. After looking under the hood. I noticed that one of the two fans to the radiator will not turn on. I’m guessing that’s what caused the over heating. I am not sure if I did any damage to the engine though, it did run really hot but not to the red mark but a hair line right under it.
I’m sure the engine is OK. The should come on when the AC is turned on. Could be bad fan or pwr to the fan. I do not know the year of the car, so it’s hard to be specific.
Hot day, waiting in the drive-thru with the A/C on, yes, both fans should be running. The one fan is not enough to keep the coolant cool under those conditions.
But, I doubt you did any damage to the engine. It sounds like you caught it in time.
As long as it did not boil over, no damage was done…Fix the inoperative fan or sooner or later, damage WILL be done…
Check your coolant level . . . make certain that the engine is COLD and turned OFF when you do this. Do you know enough about cars to check the fan that wasn’t running? Rocketman
Thanks guys for your info on my 2001Galant. Yes Rocketman, my coolant levels are topped off and just changed out this year. I did take my car in for a oil change today, they said that the A/C fan is the one that is out. That is why my A/C stopped cooling when I was idling in the drive-thru. And it overheated when I revving up the engine.