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No Blow

One of the items that Jon's Garage pointed out in their extensive check was that the engine fan was not engaging. That's a serious problem if I get stuck in traffic.

Now that the sun is out and temps are in the mid-teens, it's easier to get stuck into this issue. James, the chap who did my inspection, suspected that the fan was seized. I've been spraying GT85 of the motor for the last week or so in the hopes it would free up. While it's certainly stiff I hadn't been convinced it was kaput. New ones are a couple hundred quid, and used ones far less off eBay. I'm far more concerned with overheating on the school run.


Firstly, I noticed that a fuse had gone in position 15, thankfully I had a replacement to hand. The next test was to see if the relay was in fact switching the fan on. Connecting a test bulb to the wiring harness and running the engine didn't yield any results. Which meant I was going to have to pull the fan out and power it directly to the battery.

Before I did that, I ran wires from the battery to the fan plug, but I suspect they couldn't carry the current needed to power the fan. I just wanted to see if the fan would run before buying another.

Removing the fan is reasonably straight forward, the only fiddly bolt being the top left under the cooling pipes. Other than that it slides out underneath the car easily. Hooking it up directly to the battery confirmed that the unit works.

Which left only one thing - the fan Relay. Part number 944.615.105.01 is the original relay from 1985! A quick call to Porsche and it's a German order item, so I hit the internet and finally found one in stock at German Sports Car Spares - who are a friendly bunch. The chap checked right there and then that it was in stock and guaranteed he'd get it off to me today. Let's hope so, £12.50 for postage is on the steep side.
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