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Cooling fan, overheat, blown fuse -- any ideas why?


trsundstrom

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On Friday evening, our Edge Sport (1643 miles on it) dropped into full-on heat mode despite the climate control set to auto and 72° F. The left dash panel went red with an overheat message for a while. Subsequently something vented from under the hood in front of the passenger side windshield. The car windows completely fogged and took a while to clear. The air conditioning would work only if switched to the full LO setting.

 

This morning the dealer diagnostics showed a heat "event" and a blown cooling fan fuse. A bit of coolant was lost. No obvious reason for this yet, but the test equipment is hooked up.

 

Any ideas? Obviously the car and technology is new, and stuff happens. No worries, just curious. The dealer will get the car back to me later today or tomorrow.

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I was in suburbia two-lane highway traffic, running between 25 and 40 mph, with some traffic lights, when the heat went full on. The left information panel, controlled by the steering wheel controls, went red with an overheat message. Certainly not exercising the accelerator. The venting occurred when stopped in a shopping center, idling, and the windows fogged. I shut the engine off for about 10 minutes before driving 20 miles home without further trouble or display warnings. The Sport only has 1643 miles on, and the only (quick) service has been the adding of sealant to the A-pillar per the water leak service notice letter Ford mailed out to owners a week or so ago. I have no idea about the status of a loose (or not) cap on the degas bottle.

 

I tried running an MFT Sync vehicle health report but despite four attempts Friday, Saturday and this morning to do so, no joy. My Samsung S6 smartphone rings, answers, and after a minute or so, hangs up. The center console screen says "unable to deliver report" and I have no idea what to expect or what I am doing wrong. The service manager told me the report would not have indicated the error message the diagnostic equipment found.

 

No warning messages this morning and engine temperature was normal on the 6 mile drive to the dealer. No call from the dealer today, so we'll probably learn more tomorrow.

 

I've been with the same dealership for sales and service since 1979, and they know I don't get upset or impatient over this kind of stuff. They want to know the "why" behind the event, rather than just replace a fuse and add coolant. I respect that, and am perfectly content to let the technicians do their thing.

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Not totally out of the ordinary for a fuse to actually be defective. The next time if at all, is the time to worry. If you were cruising, the fans should have been off and not pulling anything through the fuse. However the A/C was on and may have needed additional cooling on the condenser. Time will tell.

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Just picked the Sport from the dealer. The problem was an oversight on the assembly line. As it was explained to me, there are two cables for the cooling fans. One cable wasn't plugged in, just dangling in free space.

 

Apparently the excess heat, humidity, and the slow/stop traffic was enough to initialize the situation.

 

In retrospect, from the date of delivery I noticed a cooling fan kicking on if I left the car running for 2 or 3 minutes. I would do so when lifting out groceries or plants before garaging the car. I just thought it was due to the tightly built car and full engine compartment.

 

So, a system pressure test, a new fuse, a bit of coolant, put the connections together, and a check of other hoses (including the turbo boost discussed elsewhere), and we're good to go. Stuff happens. Good to know it wasn't an engineering design flaw.

 

I'm happy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a quick update to the fix reported above. It seems very clear to me the unplugged fan cable fix has done the trick. I notice the car engine is running a bit cooler on the open road, and clearly the cooling fan is not kicking into high when parked and idling for a few minutes. We have had a streak of tropical 90°-plus days with dew points in the 70s that should have taxed the cooling. Kudos to the technician at Medford Ford, and to the service manager for persisting on pursuing the "why".

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