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If you are speaking of repairing/replacing the module then yes, that is too much money. A complete fan assembly, with module, is only about $400.
A lot of folks eliminate the module and hard wire everything together. I would think a Corvette shop, or good automotive shop should be able to do that for a couple hours labor, at most. Figure $250-$300.
I DIY'd this in the middle of the street while on vacation recently. You can cut the large 10ga wire on each side of the connector and butt splice a piece of wire so as to bypass the melted connector. The other terminals in the plug should be OK. 20 minutes and 5 bucks and back on the road. It is a temp repair but is working fine so I left as is when I got home.
There is nothing wrong with that as a permanent fix but it should be soldered after being crimped in butt connectors and then heat shrinked. You likely will not get a dealer to do this however.
There is nothing wrong with that as a permanent fix but it should be soldered after being crimped in butt connectors and then heat shrinked. You likely will not get a dealer to do this however.
It seems to me like the fan control module regulates the fan speed...as in, the hotter the water the faster the fan. Hard wiring it will give you 100% fan every time it kicks on.
Maybe. I think...
samething happend to me twice, was changing the oil one day, got under the car and saw the melted clip. hardwired it and have had zero problems! also the fan still goes through the different stages not just 100%. quick easy fix, but like mentioned above the best way is to sauter and heat shrink, although access is a little limited if you dont lift the car a bit.
I am having this done as I speak. They have to give me a new fan and shroud along with the module, because the connector from the fan to the module is not available separately. Fortunately, I have an extended warranty, and it will cover all the costs. I should know by Wednesday how much the dealer will charge, if it is ready. When my warranty expires, I will probably cut and splice the wires. Until then, it's on Chevy's dime!
It seems to me like the fan control module regulates the fan speed...as in, the hotter the water the faster the fan. Hard wiring it will give you 100% fan every time it kicks on.
Maybe. I think...
They are only bypassing the plastic connector with a hardwired connection, not bypassing the speed module.
I hope so anyways...
Correct. It is the plug from the fan module to the fan. No hard wiring, just bypassing a melted plug that has lost it's continuity.
I believe it is the 3 wire harness you bi-pass. Remove/cut harness plug, splice and solder the wires with heat shrink tubes. Curious why this happened? Was the car tuned with the fan duty cycle maxing out at 100% or on too aggressive? GM maxes at 90%.
Last edited by Mike's LS3; 07-16-2018 at 10:59 PM.
you can get the connectors with pig tail already on the to crimp the old lines.
you can buy just the connectors and clip/repin the lines,
But if you melted the connector, then chances are that the tune has the fan coming on at much lower temps and what melted the OEM type connectors isntead.
So the top connector is the first one to melt up, you end up putting a better connector or just soldering the wires together to resolve that melting point at that point, and now just move the melting point to the PWM connector the next time around isntead.
So may advice, get the connector kit to replace the OEM connector, then get with your tuner to have him change the fan setting so it not coming on at such lower temps, and has the fan running aggressively as well.
And although you can have the fan come on a touch lower, and slightly more aggressive, you can't go buck wild with trying to hold the motor at 180* via fan alone, or you going to burn up not only the connectors, but the PWM, and even wear the fan motor out as well. If your trying to hold the motor at 1808 even full tilt under power, then you need a new better cooling radiator and dual fan set up with controller to start with instead
Truth is, with the price quoted, will bank that the fan motor is about shoot to start with, and if you reach into the fan with the car off, and the fan will not free spin by hand spinning it, the fan motor is shot, meaning that you need to replace the entire fan assembly with PWM as well, plus the top connector will need to be replaced as well since it does not come with the fan assembly.
Note, the radiator fan can be rebuild, but take some skill to pull it apart and replace it bearings. The dealer will not do this, so the they just replace the entire assembly with a new one isntead.
I got the car back today, I did not realize how much the cooling fan had dropped off from a new one. I drove home with the AC blaring, 100 degrees outside, never got above 206-208 on the highway. New fan, fan module, and all associated connectors. The bill for the service was 1514.76. I paid a hundred dollar deductible. I had them do an oil change and service the differential. Eventually I will do all the fluids.
It's just too bad this cooling system is so poorly designed. Oh well, you either love them or you don't!
I got the car back today, I did not realize how much the cooling fan had dropped off from a new one. I drove home with the AC blaring, 100 degrees outside, never got above 206-208 on the highway. New fan, fan module, and all associated connectors. The bill for the service was 1514.76. I paid a hundred dollar deductible. I had them do an oil change and service the differential. Eventually I will do all the fluids.
It's just too bad this cooling system is so poorly designed. Oh well, you either love them or you don't!
Do you know in fact you have the stock tune? If not this could happen again. If so, I would be very interested in knowing why it happened in the first place. Not common on a stock tuned car or car tuned properly to have melted fan connectors. I see you live in Texas, just hard to believe GM designed the fan circuitry to fail with constant demand. Glad you have it repaired under warranty.
Last edited by Mike's LS3; 07-18-2018 at 12:07 AM.
Do you know in fact you have the stock tune? If not this could happen again. If so, I would be very interested in knowing why it happened in the first place. Not common on a stock tuned car or car tuned properly to have melted fan connectors. I see you live in Texas, just hard to believe GM designed the fan circuitry to fail with constant demand. Glad you have it repaired under warranty.
It's absolutely stock. All the previous service history shows no evidence of any modding. I am very familiar with HPtuners, and do not want to read it, just in case GM could somehow detect, and deny on my GMEPP. My reading on this forum seems to indicate it is a fairly common issue with untuned C6's, as well.
Being all stock, and guessing no tune, plus not knowing the year nor mileage of the car, would suspect it was just the radiator fan motor bearings starting to give up the ghost from us instead. When this happens, the radiator fan draws too much amperage even when not spun full blast, and the reason that it will melt up the connector as well.
Since you have warranty, no harm/no foul using it, but in the future after it runs out and/or for guys that may not have warranty to fall back on to get the repair done on a low copay cost, the radiator fan can be pulled apart to be clean and replace it bearings. The bearings are a few bucks, while replacing the entire assembly with a new compete unit is hundreds of dollars in just parts isntead.
I bring this up, since for guys that are over spinning the fan in the first place with a tune, not a bad idea to hand spin the fan at least bi-yearly, and if the fan bearings do start to feel like they are binding (fan harder to free spin by hand), not a bad idea to pull the fan motor to replace it bearings. Hell, catch it soon enough, and you don't have to replace the bearings, but just clean and re-grease them instead.
Hence once you have the motor out, the back side has peen tabs that hold the back plate on. So they are easy to wrench squeeze back together to remove the back plate and get the armature out to replace the bearings on it, then peen the keeps back out to retain the back plate back on when you put the motor back together.
The front side fan and collar is just retained to the front of the armature shaft via a bolt,
Also, the next time I swap bearing a radiator fan motor, will do a more detailed write up with photo of the process, including a source for the bearing and there bearing numbers.
Also, the next time I swap bearing a radiator fan motor, will do a more detailed write up with photo of the process, including a source for the bearing and there bearing numbers.
Some of it this connector failure pattern might be just age/heat/fatigue related. Mine melted at around the ~100k miles, 10 year mark. 100% stock, no tune, no issues with the fan motor itself.
07-16-2018, 11:50 AM
Cerritos Chevy Quoted $1,430.00 - Connector melted onto the fan causing overheating
I believe it is the 3 wire harness you bi-pass. Remove/cut harness plug, splice and solder the wires with heat shrink tubes. Curious why this happened? Was the car tuned with the fan duty cycle maxing out at 100% or on too aggressive? GM maxes at 90%.
