What do you call this, where do you find it?

[micky]

What do you call this, where do you find it?

I need to buy the kind of thermostat used to turn on a car's radiator fan (or at least an electric swtich that will close at 120^ F or higher) , and I also need it to use as a sensor a thin tube (2-4 mm) that will go into a radiator or heater hose, between the metal housing and the hose that surrounds it. Am I being clear?

I don't know what words to use to search for specifically this on ebay/amazon/google. Do you know what words capture the "tube" part, and in order to look at non-car parts, the turn-on/close-switch when hot part?

Nor do I know what kind of car used/uses this kind of thermostat. If I had a car make and model and year, I could find one that way. Do you know a car that used such a thermostat.

Originally, I bought one from JCWhitney based on the picture in the catalog, but I sold the car and forgot to remove the thermostat. ;-(

Thanks.

[Reed]

You mean one like this ??

[Vic Smith]

No. Just explain the purpose of the switch and where you want to use it. Then you'll probably get answers.

[micky]

In the winter, I don't want the heater fan to go on when the engine is cold because cold air will come out of the heater**. So I want to put the sensor in the heater hose and let it turn the fan on when the coolant is reasonably warm.

**OTOH, if I turn the fan off with the switch on the heater/AC control, I'll go days without turning the fan on again, until I finally notice how cold I am.

[micky]

Wow. This is just about perfect. Thanks.

The end of the tube is a lot bigger than the tube itself. Would you put it in the heater hose, the radiator hose, or mount it on the radiator?

**And JCW too. I went through the wholle paper catalog which is still pretty big (not the one they send you when you request one, but the one they include when you buy something) , but didn't look online.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Did not mention how old the car is. Does it have belt driven fan or DC motor driven one?

[micky]

BTW, the thermostat I forgot to remove from an earlier car had a rubber thing with a slope on each side and a groove in the middle to hold the tube, so the tube wouldn't be crushed by the hose clamp.

I was goingto do something like that if I put the tube in a radiator hose.

----------

Wow. This is just about perfect. Thanks.

The end of the tube is a lot bigger than the tube itself. Would you put it in the heater hose, the radiator hose, or mount it on the radiator?

**And JCW too. I went through the wholle paper catalog which is still pretty big (not the one they send you when you request one, but the one they include when you buy something) , but didn't look online.

[micky]

BTW, the thermostat I forgot to remove from an earlier car had a rubber thing with a slope on each side and a groove in the middle to hold the tube, so the tube wouldn't be crushed by the hose clamp.

I was goingto do something like that if I put the tube in a radiator hose.

----------

Wow. This is just about perfect. Thanks.

The end of the tube is a lot bigger than the tube itself. Would you put it in the heater hose, the radiator hose, or mount it on the radiator?

**And JCW too. I went through the wholle paper catalog which is still pretty big (not the one they send you when you request one, but the one they include when you buy something) , but didn't look online.

[micky]

2000 Toyota. DC motor for the radiator fan, but the fan I'm trying to stop is the heater fan. (also a DC motor.)

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Then there is 'stat controlling the rad fan. You need separate one? How about using one already there.

[trader4]

You would think being that it's 2012, all cars would have this by now, but they don't. My 1980 Mercedes has it so that you don't get cold air blowing. It also has a small seperate electric pump for the heater core to get hot water there as fast as possible.

[Reed]

Instructions at

to mount it on the backside of rad fins using provided mounting hardware

[micky]

Probably. I don't want to wait until the water is hot enough to turn on the radiator fan. It's warm enough to heat the passenger compartment quite a bit before then.

Plus the 12v might come from different places., and not just from the battery, for the two fans. I'll look into that.

[micky]

Last I checked some new cars don't even have buzzers to tell you when you've stopped the engine but not turned off the headlights, even though other cars had that 20+ years ago, and K-Mart sold such a buzzer for $1.50. That's important because without it, you come back to a dead battery. I'm not counting the ones that allow the lights to stay on for a while on purpose.

And t here is something my 2000 Toryota does't have that my '84 and later Chryslers did. For one thing, the driver's door won't open unless it's unlocked. But I think there was something electrical too.

[micky]

>

Wow. Thanks. I love it when there are online instructions.

[micky]

I mean: Proably I need a separate one.

I've looked at the wiring diagrams 3 or 4 times, but never before for this purpose.

So I looked again and the radiator fan is powered through the engine main relay and the fan no.1 relay, and then goes to ground. Its thermostat connects to the fan no. 3 relay and is in the midst of a jumble of wires

The heater fan gets power directly from the through the heater relay (one side of which IS connected to the battery) but tts ground wire doesn't go straight to ground. It goes to the "AC blower motor linear controller", and the diagram doesnt' show what's in that.

So I don't know how to use the same thermostat, and I'd be afraid to try. I suspect it can't be done.

[Reed]

You need to wire the new switch in series somewhere between the Battery and the "Controller". It will act like another "Heater relay"

Now, as you describe =

Batt----Fan------------------HtrRelay----Controller---Ground

After=

Batt----Fan----NewSwitch-----HtrRelay----Controller---Ground

New switch could also go between Batt and Fan if easier to wire; or between HtrRelay and Controller

This way both the NewSw and HtrRelay must be closed for fan to run

[micky]

Thanks. Will do.