First of all, I confess to being an automotive idiot. If we move beyond the color of my car, I am at a distinct disadvantage. However, this afternoon when I stopped the car a fan of some sort continued to run. No idiot lights on the dash display were on and there was no other problem with the car except that the fan would not stop. The local grease monkey at the auto parts shop opined that I was having a problem with a relay switch and that a mechanic would probably have to fix it. The nearest dealer that will even look at the Cooper is 60 miles away and today is Sunday. The grease monkey further comforted me by telling me that the worst that would probably happen between now and when I get it to the dealer is that the battery will completely discharge because the fan won’t stop running. I intend to get the car to the dealer tomorrow, but does anyone else have any advice about whether or not leaving the car in my garage until the battery runs out is going to cause any other damage?
Does the fan continue to run indefinitely, or just for a few minutes? If it runs indefinitely, then you may indeed have a relay problem. if, on the other hand, it runs for a few minutes, that is normal: the fan is running because the car is no longer moving and thus no air is moving past the radiator, which is designed to be air cooled. The coolant temperature is no longer being cooled by the moving air so the fan kicks-in to help out. You may notice the fan kick-in if you’re suddenly stuck in traffic at a standstill, especially if you had just been cruising along on the freeway and now you sitting still.
there are cars that the fan runs for 15 minutes after you shut it off.
If it does not shut off have someone show you how to unplug it until you can get it fixed.
mojo’s mini: Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, my difficulty was about a month ago and I ended up just letting the fan run down the battery overnight, a friend came to jump start the battery next morning and I took the car to the nearest BMW dealer 60 miles away. They replaced the fan and all has been blissful since. It was rather vexing at the time, however.
hd72mm: Thanks for the response. I let the fan run the battery out in the garage overnight, a friend jump started the car the following morning and I took it to the BMW dealer. They replaced the fan, but they told me that if the fan was disconnected, the engine would overheat and I’d have more problems than I really wanted.
What he meant was for you to disconnect the fan while the car was turned off, and to reconnect it anytime you had the car running.
Alas, you must have missed the part in the original post where I disclaimed any common sense regarding automotive issues. But thanks for clearing that up for me!