Electric fan wiring help

[mastashake]

Hi, I have a relay setup for altima fans in my S13 it's a pretty basic setup 2 wires to output power for both fans, an ACC on power wire, a temperature probe and finally 1 wire going to my battery. My problem is that the fuse(40 amp) on the battery wire keeps blowing after a few weeks, does anyone have a solution?

[Sam_Well.13]

bigger fuse? maybe

[orion::S14]

More relays....you're trying to pull too much current over the one you have.

You need to run independent circuits/relays for EACH power feed on the fan.

You could probably run 2 relays and be fine, I run 4 - One for each power wire for each fan (there's high and low speed, times two fans...4 power wires in total).

(EDIT: Plus, that buys you redundancy - If one circuit pops a fuse or a relay goes bad...you've still got some power to the fans (maybe in low speed, only, but...).)

- Brian

[lazysk8er2]

that sounds interesting orion got any diagrams or pics?

[mastashake]

Alright I might try a bigger fuse first just cause I'm cheap lol, but if not I'll set up another relay to divide the fans thanks for the help.

[aled]

Yep.
A 30amp for each should be fine; they should be wired separately.

Brian, I'd like to see a picture/diagram for your setup as well. I just simplified my setup with a fan thermostat paired with the temperature probe in the radiator. Kicks on at a certain temperature and off at another...

[s15specR]

I used orion's setup with two 30amp fuses.

Diagram of the net of the basic layout.

http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/efaninstall2.gif

[Tokona-x]

More relays....you're trying to pull too much current over the one you have.

You need to run independent circuits/relays for EACH power feed on the fan.

You could probably run 2 relays and be fine, I run 4 - One for each power wire for each fan (there's high and low speed, times two fans...4 power wires in total).

(EDIT: Plus, that buys you redundancy - If one circuit pops a fuse or a relay goes bad...you've still got some power to the fans (maybe in low speed, only, but...).)

- Brian


I had the same problem a while back and splitting them worked fine for me no more blown fuses .

[Nimso]

my boss at work was talking to me about this, i need to do the same thing, but he said that you need to put a diode next to the fan, going from the fan to the relay. I looked quick and found a few writeups using the diode method.

this one is on a ford taurus.
http://www.mysporttrac.com/MySportTrac/projects/EFanInstall.pdf

and this is just a page talking about the diode method. (they can explain it better than i can)

Electric fan install, diode questions - Chevelle Tech (http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109626)

hope this helps-

[orion::S14]

Brian, I'd like to see a picture/diagram for your setup as well.


Allright, a diagram:

I stole the original image from "Big_Bronze_Rim" on Freshalloy, in the "Best of 240SX" section.

This is how it's normally done (for ONE of the Altima fans):

http://www.ka24development.com/file_images/temp/Altima-Fan-Wiring-Diagram.jpg

...

I do this:


http://www.ka24development.com/file_images/temp/Altima-Fan-Wiring-Diagram-2-relays.jpg

Splits the load on the wire/relay/fuse...and like I said above - If one relay dies, or a fuse blow...the fan is still on LOW.

I do that for EACH fan, so 4 relays total.

[ NOTE: Both Altima fans are not color coded the same...but the pins on the plugs are in the same loaction. Use the Green and Blue as a guide for BOTH, with repsect to location of the "+" wires coming off of pin 30 on your realy(s)...]

- Brian

[orion::S14]

Oh...

The wires feeding pin 85...they can be directly off the battery (like the first pic, IF you use an ignition switched fan controller)...OR, you can wire pin 85 to any wire that's hot with the ignition on, and just use a switch for the negative ground.

Just do it so the fans don't come on with the ignition OFF.

- Brian

[UNISA JECS]

Everytime I see an electric fan wiring thread I ask my self why not do it like the way I did its easy instead of using relays and what not, never had a single issue on my KA24DET.

http://zilvia.net/f/sale-items/256452-fs-s13-radiator-dual-electric-fans-plug-play.html

[volkrps13]

i wired mine to power 1 on. i like having my fans on at all time.

[mastashake]

*update* I installed another relay so both fans have their own, and I put 30amp fuses on each. I installed on the 10th and everything has been working perfect so far :)

Thanks a lot for the help everyone.