By John Kerr
Open the front fusebox, at the end nearest the from centre of the car are two large relays, R04 (oil cooler) and R14 (ac condenser). Remove the relays and you will see the following socket layout in the fusebox.
Make up a test wire with ¼” male spade ends, 30 A fuse and switch (or equivalent), and connect across 30c and 87c. You should now hear the oil cooler fan running at low speed, and air should be coming out from the driver’s side grille below the bumper. If the bumper is off you can check for bearing noise using the “screwdriver stethoscope” method, and check the motor supply terminal voltage; should be around 8V DC.
Connect 30 and 87 and the oil cooler fan will go to high speed (12V across motor terminals).
Repeat the procedure on R14 (identical layout) to exercise and check the air-conditioning condenser blower fan.
On my car I have brought a pair of wires from R04 to grounding switches in the cockpit so the cooler fan can be brought in at “low” or “high” to keep oil temperature down in heavy traffic. Whilst the thermostat/AC control unit will bring the fan on automatically, by then the oil is very hot. Having a separate switch allows some “anticipation” in the system.
