2011 Cooling Fan trouble

[tbanzer]

My 08 blew a fuse a couple years back on our annual Florida trip. I was able to put a higher amperage fuse in it to get through the trip. You could hear one of the fans was running about half speed. After a couple of days it started running full speed and would run on the standard fuse. Been fine now for two years. Not sure if it was the relay or the fan causing high amperage draw my guess would be the fan, but now with it working not easy to diagnose.

[Spanky]

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate the great suggestions. The bike has about 15k but has not been in for its first valve adjustment and major service, so to my knowledge, the wiring has not been moved at all. We will check to see if the fans spin freely and I will ask Steve when the fuse blows ie random or after reaching the temp where the fans turn on. Thanks again everyone for helping to narrow down what to check for and where to look, very much appreciated.

[Spanky]

Preliminary results so far:

We spun the fan on the left side as you are sitting on the bike and there was some resistance then a sound like a small stone falling in the fairing, then the fan started to spin freely. Right side fan spun freely from the start. Hopefully that is all there was that was wrong. Will see if the fan/fuse works properly over the next day or so. If there is still a problem, we will trace the wires next, but I think the obstruction was probably the whole problem.

Thanks for all the help!

[C14lvr]

Cool!

[Spanky]

Left fan is still toast. RonAyers price is $450.00 for a small plastic fan. Sometimes Kawi needs to perform inhuman acts on my totally undersized man part. Ebay $47.00 shipped for a left fan with 8,400 miles on the clock. Will update once I know more. Thanks again for all the help everyone!

[Spanky]

Installed the new used fan from ebay yesterday. Works perfect! Turns out that there were some tar and chip pepples stuck to his radiator and one of them jammed up the fan. Thanks again for all the help!

[maxtog]

Turns out that there were some tar and chip pepples stuck to his radiator and one of them jammed up the fan.

They do keep some really tight clearances, don't they?

[Spanky]

Maxtog, not sure if the pepple was lodged inbetween the radiator and the fan or if it stuck somewhere else. They were totally coated in tar and we had to take some time cleaning them from the radiatior, so it is possible it was stuck anywhere on the fan. Still in shock over the price they charge for a little plastic fan - unreal.

[maxtog]

Maxtog, not sure if the pepple was lodged inbetween the radiator and the fan or if it stuck somewhere else. They were totally coated in tar and we had to take some time cleaning them from the radiatior,

What a mess!  What the hell did he drive over/through?  Yuck

so it is possible it was stuck anywhere on the fan. Still in shock over the price they charge for a little plastic fan - unreal.

Well, that is certainly not unique to Kawasaki.  It seems to be the norm to have 400% markup or more on parts and components for vehicles.  You know the old saying- if you were to build a vehicle from what they charge for parts, it could be as expensive as a house!

Interesting story- I installed LED under-cabinet strip lighting for my Mom on my last trip to her condo a few weeks ago.  We purchased the parts from Home Depot.  The one package of strip lighting was an insane $70 for 12 feet.  Later that week I found nearly a nearly identical product on Amazon, no-name, for $7.   And they are making enough profit off that $7 (with free shipping) to stay in business.  Not quite the same situation, but it does show how insane markups can be at times.

[fmwhit]

I don't know if the problem is fixed yet, but I would hook an external supply to the fans with a fuse in line and start them up several times to see if they blow the fuse.  The starts need be hard starts, full supply voltage, another words don't bring up the supply if its a variable.  Apply full voltage so that the current draw will be at its maximum.

If this doesn't blow the fuse let the fans run for a while and see if the fuse blows, if that works I would suspect the problem being someplace else as in the electrical feed.

You may want to disconnect the fans and trigger the ckt thru the sensor that controls the Fan on, see if that blows the fuse, if it does check the wiring.

I would suspect that only the high current side of the relay is fused, not the coil side but check the wiring diagram.

This may not be as difficult to diagnose as you think.  I always use an ammeter on my external power sources, but remember that an ammeter may not indicate a start up surge.  That's one of the reasons that I suggested that you use a fuse.

Fred

[Spanky]

Thanks for the info fmwhit, but it was the left fan that was causing the fuse to blow. It is all A OK now! Luckily for only $47.00 and a few hours time Not bad considering what it would have cost at a dealer.

[Rhino]

I once had a still-covered-under-warranty Suzuki that had an electrical problem and the dealer flat refused to work on it.  He said Suzuki doesn't pay us as much as it costs to fix.  Needless to say, that dealer, where I bought the bike, never got another $1 of my money.

Anyway, I knew that the problem had to be in a specific circuit after looking at the wiring diagram.  So I traced it from the start and found that a factory-installed crimp under the tank had come loose and was intermittent.  Total time?  15 minutes most of which was removing the tank.

So use what you know and study the wiring diagram.  The fault is somewhere in the HOT side of the fan circuit since a fault on the LOW/GROUND side will NOT blow the fuse.  As has been mentioned, the problem might be the fan itself.  Check the fan.  Try unplugging the fan and see if the fuse still blows.  If it's in the wiring, the fuse should blow regardless of the fan.  If it only blows when the fan is connected, the issue is probably the fan itself.

If it's not the fan it's a pinched or otherwise compromised wire that is shorting to the frame or some other ground path and causing too much current to flow.  Starting at the fan, work your way back to the fuse block.  Yes, you'll probably have to remove fairings and the fuel tank but my guess is that you'll find the problem in a LOT less than 4 hours of shop time.  Chances are that the issue is not in a bundle of wires covered with a wrapper as there is unlikely to be anything in there to short against.  It will be in one of the places where that wire is exposed to damage.

Good luck, I'd much rather do this sort of work myself than let the yahoo's at the dealer mess up your bike.

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