987.1 Fan coming on when shouldn't

pianomanpaul · May 21, 2019

Hi Guys,

New member and new Porsche owner. I drove my 987.1 to and from work yesterday giving it some reasonably hard acceleration. No problems when parked up at home, but a couples later when I started the car the fan immediately came on! Then this morning drove to work and about 45 mins into the journey engine management light has come up. My friend who is an engineer believes it might be the water bottle.

Anyone experienced this?

Many thanks

Paul

Redwest · May 21, 2019

I'm sure someone with a bit more experience will be along shortly.

My understanding is the header tank in the rear boot is a known weak point in the cooling system. That might be split and your car does not have enough coolant in the system, thus fan is on.

I was told when i got my 986.2, too have a good feel around the carpet, under carpet etc in the rear boot for any sign of damp, as that might be a split header tank.

C2dweller · May 22, 2019

It sounds like the car is in a fault mode. It is putting the fans on to protect itself.

Check the obvious coolant level and then get it checked over + diagnostic test.

if the fan is only working on one side, the your problem is that the other fan has seized / failed. This is quite common.

KR Lee

Motorhead · May 22, 2019

Paul,

Some sound advice there from Lee and leaks from the header tank and coolant pipe connections in the front wheel arches are quite common on older cars.

I'd definitely check that both fans are working - after a track day I found that a stone had lodged between a fan tip and the housing, preventing it from rotating.

Jeff

Gazza3501 · May 30, 2019

just to clarify, are you talking about the coolant fans at the front or the engine cooling fan that draws air in from the drivers side--this fan comes on straight away if there is heat build-up in the engine compartment which would happen when stationary after a drive.