Re: [doc] D on fire!

[Martin Gutkowski <martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bad luck, John, but well done.

The cooling fan system comprises three quite serious design flaws.

1) The fans can draw more than 20A each on startup and the relay is only 
rated at 40
2) The circuit breaker can cycle if it's getting tired or has dirty 
connections. This can make things a lot worse as it's on startup that 
things are hit hard
3) The fan-fail module, but we all know about that by now.

There are various fixes on the market - John Hervey's "Fan Fix" (Not 
what you've got, John, and I think Hervey would be a bit miffed at the 
suggestion that his catches fire!) which is basically a big relay, and 
Bob Zilla's Fan Zilla which is a clever solution but not implemented 
very well.

I wasn't happy with the fixes on the market so I came up with my own.

1) I bought two relay sockets and two relays with integrated blade fuses.
2) I pulled a signal from the mode switch rather than from the compressor
3) I made myself trailing plugs for both fan sockets (original fan fail 
and relay)

The net result is that I now have one fan running off each relay, fused 
at 15A, and when the AC is on, they run continuously (and over the past 
weekend, this has been for several hours at a time) and the current 
bypasses the circuit breaker.

With the aid of a couple of diodes, you can make the "Cooling Fan Fail" 
light come on when the fans are on, and personally I find it very 
comforting. You can even stick some insulating tape over the word "Fail" 
but I haven't gone as far as that :-)

Best Wishes

Martin

John Tien wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I had my first DeLorean Fire today... luckily it was a
> candle size fire that I managed to kill in 1 minute.
>
> One of the Fan Fix fuse went into fire, forcing me to
> stop on the motor way, opening the fuse compartment
> board, and blowing with my mouth like going mad!
>
> http://www.deloreans.co.uk/Temp/PICT0084.JPG
> http://www.deloreans.co.uk/Temp/PICT0085.JPG
>
> I suppose Hong Kong is too damn hot, so that the
> radiator fans are running more or less constantly...
> putting hight current throught those two poor little
> wires. A proper fan fix is needed asap!
>
> Check your fuse connections and make sure they are
> clean guys~ Don't let your D get too hot!
>
> Regards,
> John Tien
> DOC 8
> RHD 3046
>
> P.S. Ian, I don't think I can make it tomorrow
> morning... as the D need a rest + proper fix before
> going any where! :(




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