Episode 35 - Radiator Fan Controller Replacement 2010 Ford Fusion

Welcome! In this video I continue to troubleshoot the cooling system in my 2010 Ford Fusion after replacing the thermostat. In the end I find that the controller box for the cooling fan is not working and do a replacement with a part from the junkyard. This video should be applicable for any 2.5L or 3.0L 2009-2011 Ford Fusions.
*Update*
I did a bit of digging and found out what this part is called. It's called an Engine Motor Fan Cooling Relay. Motorcraft part number is BG1Z8B658A.
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[@RwingDsquad]

This helped me a ton. Thank you!

[@MazdaB3K]

Glad the video helped. My junkyard one is still going strong.

[@beammeupscottsp7952]

thanks! 1. Yes it is a dual zone. Temp change from hot and cold BUT there is clicking like a cassette player sound behind the dash when i turn the vehicle on. The passenger won’t change from hot to cold when dual zone is activated, I have to turn off dual then both driver/passenger will change from hot to cold. 2. Believe I have 7 speeds in mine. Yes it does increase fan speed in cabin. 3. Blower motor is starting to click but runs continuously. 4. Not sure about blower resister but it is a dual zone. 5. All buttons engage. Like I said the cooling fan on the engine only kicks on with AC fan speed at 6 or 7 which is max on vehicle. Been 80-90 the last month in Florida but not noticing the fan turn on for radiator. But vehicle is not overheating, wondering is that sounds normal. Will take it to another shop for a 2nd opinion as well.

[@Paco53]

good job on this one.. very good explanation.

[@MazdaB3K]

Thanks! This one about drove me crazy because this came right after doing the engine swap on it and I thought something else was afoot. The junkyard controller is still working fine to this day.

[@nelsonsantiago1237]

Thanks for the help and thanks again .

[@MazdaB3K]

I'm happy to help. This one drove me a bit batty until I swapped the controller through the process of elimination. I had just completed the powertrain swap and this was the last thing that kept the car from being drivable... I'm glad it's helping out others out there.

[@joseduran7592]

Thanks allot man. New subscriber.

[@MazdaB3K]

Thanks for the sub. I've got plenty of content for the 2010 Fusion, so make sure you check out the playlist for it.

[@sheylajavi]

Thanks men I went crazy looking for a damm relay..fix my problem here Thanks again...

[@MazdaB3K]

I'm happy that I can help! I had to do a bit of research to figure that out as well. Ultimately pulling the engine bay fuse box diagram showed there was no relay involved.

[@crislima316]

Gracias amigo

[@MazdaB3K]

No hay de que.

[@FindTheSeven]

I noticed something interesting when I plugged a scan tool with live data capture into my Fusion. The engine temperature never seems to get above 208 degrees even after letting it idle for 10 minutes or so. Rather it seems to fluctuate between 203 and 208 but the fan never turns on so I'm wondering if the ECT itself might be bad. I did top off the engine coolant recently and I opened the bleed valve to make sure no air stayed in the system so I'm really wondering about the ECT now.

[@MazdaB3K]

It's worth looking into. I would think that you couldn't idle it that long without the fans kicking on to cool fluid off that's in the radiator. The actual temp range you are describing sounds ok. Keep in mind that the ECT on this engine is essentially buried next to the head so it's a major job to try and get to it. One thing you can try is turning on the AC and seeing if that makes the fan run. Might be a bandaid until you can get better answers.

[@massiyas]

At least you could’ve showed us where this controller is,

[@MazdaB3K]

I do. It's located on the fan shroud, above the fan in between the shroud and the valve cover on the engine. In the video I talk about how I had verified power to the the box and explain what the plugs do. You can see from the video segment there where this part is located.

[@hossam90hassan]

Thanks a lot for the valuable information.. Please i need your help, I've applied your procedure checking the OFF signal from the signal cable while the ignition swith is on and kept engine OFF, the voltage reading shows me ZERO instead of 2.5 volts as you got in the video. And while engine is running and getting warm, the signal reading is fluctuating. My case is: the cooling fan is running when the engine get warm but after some time it stop and the engine get overheating. Even when it is running, it's speed is too low. Awaiting your feed back please 🙏

[@MazdaB3K]

From what you are saying it sounds like the ECU is telling the fans to run during warm up but then telling it to turn off at temp. You could have a bad ECU(Engine Computer Unit), but that's pretty rare. I would take a look at your ECT(Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor). If that is reporting bad data to the ECU it might be doing something like this. The problem is on this car the ECT is called the Cylinder Head Temperature Sensor and it's buried deep in the block. You have to remove the upper air intake and the lower air intake in order to get to it... pretty big job.

[@MazdaB3K]

I would also physically inspect any wiring going from the Radiator Fan Controller to the ECU and from the ECU to the Cylinder Head Temperature Sensor that you can see without tearing into stuff. Bad wiring can cause also sorts of crazy issues.

[@hossam90hassan]

@@MazdaB3K thanks alot for the support 🙏

[@cringelord216]

I’m having the opposite issue. My fan won’t turn OFF causing it to completely drain my battery unless I pull my fuse. Any idea where to look?

[@MazdaB3K]

With the system the 1.5G Fusion uses, there are no relays involved, just fuses, the fan controller and the ECU. Assuming the controller and ECU are good and you are saying the fuses are good, I would take a look at your Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor(ECT). The ECU is depending on temperature data from the ECT to know when to tell the fan controller to turn on/off. If the ECU is getting bad data, it may tell the fan controller to stay on. The fan controller also has to know when to turn on so the air conditioner works correctly. To prove this out I would get an OBD2 reader with live data feature if you can, turn your car on and check the live data for temperature and see what temperatures the ECU is reporting. If they goody, swap out your ECT and see what happens. Good Luck!

[@Alycanj]

On mine the fan works but inside the car you'll hear it speed up then slow down then speed up then show down, like the car is breathing, very weird, what do you think?

[@MazdaB3K]

The Engine computer commands the fan depending on the data the engine computer is getting from the Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor(ECT). Assuming you don't have electrical issues causing this, the ECT is where I would look. The wrinkle to this is that the fans can be commanded to turn on to assist the AC as well, hence the two plugs coming off the controller. I'm not very familiar with how the AC side of it works, but it's something to think about. I would get an OBD2 scanner with live data abilities, connect it to your car and let the car run, both with the AC on and the AC off and see what you can see.

[@goldenst8lakota]

What if it takes a while for the fan to turn off, after you’ve turned the car off?

[@MazdaB3K]

Hmm... assuming everything is working correctly the ECU is commanding the fan to stay on because it thinks the engine is too hot. That, or the fan controller is not catching an off signal for some reason. If you can I would hook up an OBD2 reader that can do live data to see what temps you are seeing with your car and see what's going on once you turn the car off. If the key is in the run position the reader will get power so that you can get live data with the car off.

[@oscarcee6831]

Did you get a p0480 code when this went bad ?

[@MazdaB3K]

Nope, no code. Only thing was I noticed the fan never turned on even after I saw the thermostat open.

[@beammeupscottsp7952]

I have a 2010 fusion hybrid. I’m having an AC issue, only blowing about 60 degrees. One shop hooked it up to the machine, the pressure looked like it dropped and said the compressor is bad. But I’m also having an issue where the cooling fan only stays continuously running when I have AC on max or 2nd to highest and it doesn’t feel very fast. I live in Florida and it’s been about 80-90 this past month and I don’t think the fan ever kicks on unless I have the AC on 2nd to highest/max. Is that considered normal to you?

[@MazdaB3K]

It sounds like you have a few different potential issues. 1. A shop is telling you that you have a bad compressor. That would affect how "cold" the air coming out is if it has blown bearings or seals. However a known issue with the Fusion is the blend door actuator, the little motor that control the temperature door for the AC. Can you turn the temperature knob and actually get hot/cold air? 2. If your blower motor resistor is going bad, that could affect the ability to set fan speeds. Can you change the speed of the fan and the speed actually change? You should have four fan speed positions if I remember correctly. 3. Also, you could have a a blower motor going bad itself. As talked about in one of the linked videos below, I had a blower motor in my fusion that would randomly turn off/turn on once under full load. Turned out the motor had gotten a little hot in the past and was a bit melty. 4. One other thing. Do you have dual zone climate control? If so, the blower resistor for that system is very well known for getting too hot and making things melty, leading to weird issues with the HVAC system. The location for the resistor is in the video below. 5. Lastly, an issue I had was that the HVAC control panel went bad on my fusion so that certain buttons were not working until I swapped it out. I'll link that repair video below. Good news for you is that you can do testing to isolate some of the potential issues that you have. I'm going to link you videos that I've made for various vehicles below that cover how to test the blower resistor, blower motor and where to access and remove and replace both the blower resistor and blower motor for the Fusion. Blower motor and blower resistor location in a Fusion: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYGVnGaCZcybY6c How to test a blower resistor: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpncfZWIntZ8obs How to replace the HVAC control panel in a fusion (Had this as an issue as well) kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZ-miYB4nc-nn5I If you have further questions, let me know. Good luck!

[@beammeupscottsp7952]

@@MazdaB3K thanks! 1. Yes it is a dual zone. Temp change from hot and cold BUT there is clicking like a cassette player sound behind the dash when i turn the vehicle on. The passenger won’t change from hot to cold when dual zone is activated, I have to turn off dual then both driver/passenger will change from hot to cold. 2. Believe I have 7 speeds in mine. Yes it does increase fan speed in cabin. 3. Blower motor is starting to click but runs continuously. 4. Not sure about blower resister but it is a dual zone. Like I said the cooling fan on the engine only kicks on with AC fan speed at 6 or 7 which is max on vehicle. Been 80-90 the last month in Florida but not noticing the fan turn on for radiator. But vehicle is not overheating, wondering is that sounds normal. Will take it to another shop for a 2nd opinion as well.

[@MazdaB3K]

I would 100% take a quick look in the passenger footwell to check your blower resistor there. I'm betting good money it's fried. One of the videos I linked covers what and where to look. I would start there. The clicking could be some relays self testing if it's always on start. Blower motor starting to make noise generally means the bearings in the fan are starting to go. You don't have to replace it now, but I would start budgeting for that replacement. If you have an OBD2 reader with live data you can check the vehicle temp while you let it idle and that can show you if you are getting a near overheat condition or not. The system is under pressure so it can handle up to around 240F without issue but that's pretty toasty at that point. From some testing I did the system tries to float around 210-215F if I remember right. Could also very well be that fan module is bad. If I remember right I tracked down the part number and posted it in another comment for this video.... Ford calls it an Engine Cooling Fan Motor Relay. Part number is BG1Z8B658A.

[@beammeupscottsp7952]

@@MazdaB3K no access to OBD2, just a weekend DIY. I have forscan but that's it. I try to fix things on this one since an older vehicle. Will look at the blower resistor. If the blower resistor is fried would it not blow cold at all though? It still does blow around 60 out of the vents.

[@MazdaB3K]

Forscan is almost a dealer level scan tool. If you know how to use that you are way ahead of the game. Use the live data feature in forscan to track the engine temp. You need to select the variable you want to track from the list and then turn the graph on with the car running. I'm thinking your resistor is at least partially fried because you can't set hot/cold freely in dual zone mode. If you look the part up it's a much more complex resistor than in vehicles that don't have dual zone. I'm thinking that it got hot as those dual zone one are wont to do and now it's only partially working. You may also find that the connector it plugs into is damaged and you'll need to buy a pigtail to replace it.

[@cizvi]

fan suppose to kick in only at 220, is that normal?

[@MazdaB3K]

Hmm... I honestly don't remember. I do remember the thermostat opening around 220 watching live data on my obd2 reader. If you have an obd2 reader that does live data, I would hook it up and monitor.

[@cizvi]

@@MazdaB3K I mean while doing that did not overheat when you drive?

[@MazdaB3K]

I did a bit of reading to make sure I had my information straight. The factory OE thermostat temperature is 180F. So it should open there. Eventually, at around 220F if the thermostat isn't enough the fans should kick on to help keep the overall operating temperature around 200F.

[@cizvi]

@@MazdaB3K thanks, I needed that information, have 2016 opening fan at 220 so that's normal!

[@MazdaB3K]

I would be cautious making that assessment. By 2016 the engine lineup had changed. If I remember right in 2016 you had the 2.0L ecoboost, 1.5L ecoboost and the 2.5L Duratech. Those are different engines with different temp characteristics from my 3.0L Duratech in the video. They are probably close to the 3.0L Duratech but I would check on the specifics for the engine you have.

[@FindTheSeven]

My radiator fan turns on but I don't think its turning on to the highest speed when I turn on the ac. Can a bad controller cause this?

[@MazdaB3K]

This one I don't know the answer to. I would have to study how exactly the controller works versus how the ECU varies the signal it sends to controller to tell the fans to run. My non-scientific guess? yes, it could. If the controller is what modulates the signal to the fans to slow down or speed up, then that could be the issue. If it's the engine computer that does the modulating, then maybe not. Sorry I don't have a better, more specific answer for you.

[@FindTheSeven]

@@MazdaB3K I appreciate you for taking the time to reply. Thank you for your insight. I know how tricky figuring out these things can be. My ac just started doing the thing where it blows cold at night or when I'm driving but warm at a stop or parked. This has me thinking that the issue has to do with the radiator fan and not the AC system itself. I just had the AC compressor rebuilt and system completely evacuated and recharged back in May and it has been working great until just recently.

[@MazdaB3K]

I'd say you are on the right track. The ac is not able to dump enough heat out via the condenser in those situations. The fan controller does have two plugs on it. One is for power and for listening for the on/off signal from the ECU. The other connector does go to the AC. I wasn't able to find a new fan controller, but that is most likely because I never found the official name for the part.

[@MazdaB3K]

Well, I did a bit of digging and I actually found the part. Ford calls it a Engine Cooling Fan Motor Relay. Part number is BG1Z8B658A.

[@FindTheSeven]

@@MazdaB3K I'm going to go ahead and replace the relay and see if that fixes the issue. The fan does turn on when I turn on the AC but I don't think it's switching to the highest speed. No parts stores have it readily available so I'll be ordering one from rockauto. I will keep you posted and let you know the results. Thanks again for your insight.

[@rubenvarela4077]

No rely then

[@MazdaB3K]

No. This particular setup does not involve a relay in the engine bay fuse box.