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Old 02-21-2016, 10:20 AM   #1
bballr4567

 
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CEL, scanned and figured out without dealer intervention!!! Cooling fan issue

Went to start up my car yesterday. The car gives me a warning chime and I think its for my wife not being buckled up. Then, I see the engine light up in the gage (only true GM fans get that one) cluster. It wasnt blinking so we drove it up to the local auto parts store to get it scanned.

P0480. Cooling Fan Relay 1 Control Circuit

To me, that is one of two things. First thing I do is turn on the AC to see if that forces the fan to start. No go.

Either the fuse has blown or the it's not plugged in. Check the fuses. All good. Check the plug that is nearer the driver side of the car and it has a TINY TINY TINY amount of play. Im talking like you wouldn't even second guess it if you were putting parts back together movement. It was clicked in. Yet, I wiggled it and the fans started to spin. Bingo, it was the plug.

I finally manage to get it unplugged and WATER is present. Now, the first day I truly got to drive the car it was raining and I noticed that the coolant was getting up to around 220 which I thought was a bit odd but passed it off because it never got warmer than that.

What did I do? I used a towel to get rid of the excess water and used compressed air, got some dielectric grease and put it all back together. After 5 engine cycles the light has gone off and the fans do start up.

My tip is to unseat that plug and make sure it is FULLY seated.

This is the male end of the plug. It is actually on the back side of the fan. I know its a terrible picture but you can barely make out the water in the plug.


The female end of the plug. This is actually the part that you can unplug. It has three wires going into it. Red, white and black. As you can see the little bit of staining that the water left in it.




All in all, this took me MAYBE 15 minutes to diagnose and figure out.

Last edited by bballr4567; 02-22-2016 at 01:11 PM.
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Old 02-22-2016, 01:55 PM   #2
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Good job of a problem and a solution OP! A few minutes of your time, saved you hours from going back and forth to the dealership.
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Old 02-22-2016, 07:13 PM   #3
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Yes good job, the dealer may have created more problems than they fixed.
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Old 02-22-2016, 07:41 PM   #4
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There is actually an internal GM service bulletin regarding this exact issue, and their diagnosis of the issue cause is that if there is too much tension on the headlight wire harness, then water can drip down the line into the connecter causing a short and preventing the fan to come on. Might be something you want to look further into to prevent future issues.
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Old 02-22-2016, 07:53 PM   #5
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When I go to the dealer in the morning I will let them know there is an internal bulletin regarding this. I have the same CEL code.
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Old 02-22-2016, 10:51 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tchowe View Post
There is actually an internal GM service bulletin regarding this exact issue, and their diagnosis of the issue cause is that if there is too much tension on the headlight wire harness, then water can drip down the line into the connecter causing a short and preventing the fan to come on. Might be something you want to look further into to prevent future issues.
Wow, that is great info. I wonder if it will be changed in the future.
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Old 02-24-2016, 04:38 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tchowe View Post
There is actually an internal GM service bulletin regarding this exact issue, and their diagnosis of the issue cause is that if there is too much tension on the headlight wire harness, then water can drip down the line into the connecter causing a short and preventing the fan to come on. Might be something you want to look further into to prevent future issues.
I mentioned this when I took my car in and they were able to confirm this bulletin. I had 2 codes. P0480 and P0691 both referring to the cooling fan problem. They had to replace the cooling fan module.
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Old 02-24-2016, 05:53 PM   #8
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I checked my plug again today. Completely dry after a day of lots of rain.
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Old 02-24-2016, 06:27 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bballr4567 View Post
Went to start up my car yesterday. The car gives me a warning chime and I think its for my wife not being buckled up. Then, I see the engine light up in the gage (only true GM fans get that one) cluster. It wasnt blinking so we drove it up to the local auto parts store to get it scanned.

P0480. Cooling Fan Relay 1 Control Circuit

To me, that is one of two things. First thing I do is turn on the AC to see if that forces the fan to start. No go.

Either the fuse has blown or the it's not plugged in. Check the fuses. All good. Check the plug that is nearer the driver side of the car and it has a TINY TINY TINY amount of play. Im talking like you wouldn't even second guess it if you were putting parts back together movement. It was clicked in. Yet, I wiggled it and the fans started to spin. Bingo, it was the plug.

I finally manage to get it unplugged and WATER is present. Now, the first day I truly got to drive the car it was raining and I noticed that the coolant was getting up to around 220 which I thought was a bit odd but passed it off because it never got warmer than that.

What did I do? I used a towel to get rid of the excess water and used compressed air, got some dielectric grease and put it all back together. After 5 engine cycles the light has gone off and the fans do start up.

My tip is to unseat that plug and make sure it is FULLY seated.

...

All in all, this took me MAYBE 15 minutes to diagnose and figure out.
Great diagnosis!
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Old 03-17-2019, 05:55 PM   #10
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I just got these codes today. Hopefully, I can get the car into the shop soon to get fixed.
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Old 03-17-2019, 08:26 PM   #11
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Gees, that's an awful feeling to see a warning or check engine light. When dollar signs $ flying out of my wallet. Thankfully your basic trouble shooting ability fixed the problem. Bravo!!!
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Old 03-26-2019, 03:24 PM   #12
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I am at the dealership now and they are saying that with the mods on my car this bulletin doesn't apply. :-)

I really hate clueless people. Regardless, I have them changing the oil and I will head home to try and diagnose myself.

Which fuses need to be checked? When I glanced at the fuses I thought I only saw a relay tied to the fan.

They did say they checked the control module and didn't see any signs of water or corrosion.

Any recommendations for when I get home?

I checked the fuse in the front fuse box. Looked fine. Just to be safe, I swapped it with a different fuse that was the same size. Still out. I guess the next step will be to check the relay to see if power is getting to the relay.
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Last edited by Drsagacity; 03-27-2019 at 12:43 AM.
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Old 03-27-2019, 01:46 PM   #13
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As far as fuses, I thought there were two in the box. Check the diagram on the fuse block for sure.

I'd still load the plug up with dielectric grease and see if that gets them going.
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Old 03-27-2019, 04:17 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bballr4567 View Post
As far as fuses, I thought there were two in the box. Check the diagram on the fuse block for sure.

I'd still load the plug up with dielectric grease and see if that gets them going.
I looked yesterday and I dont see the plug between the fan and the motor. From the picture, thats where I thought it was...Anyone have a picture from a bit further back?
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