Blow or suck or both?

[MattP]

I walked around in front of the MG yesterday after a run, and the fans were on. I noticed that the one on the passenger's side was blowing out of the grill while the one on the driver's side was sucking in. Is this normal? I could see it working to create an air current when the car was sitting, but doesn't seem right going down the road.

 

[aeronca65t]

Looks like one of them is wire backwards...they should both draw air into the grill.
(are these aftermarket fans?)

 

[Steve_S]

Agreed. They should blow in.

 

[R6MGS]

They should blow in....disconnect the one blowing outward at the main connection(big white plastic clip connector) spin one of the ends around and reconnect the two(it might take a little fiddling to get it to connect nice and tight) the fan should not blow properly.....the LE had this same problem when we got it...spent a day trying to figure it out why....got fed up and just reversed the wires...it's been working great ever since.

Zack

 

[MattP]

No these are the stock fans, and that was what I was figuring. Must be that at some point previous owner needed to replace one or both and didn't wire the passenger one right. I'll sort it this weekend. I just wanted to be sure I wan't over correcting something.

 

[Steve_S]

Are you sure the fan isn't on backwards? I believe most fans are designed to run only one direction.

 

[MattP]

Nope, I am not sure. It is the stock plastic fans that sit in front of the radiator, was it as possible to put them in backwards as the metal one behind the rad?

 

[Bruce74B]

Wait...think about this a minute? A reversed blade fan will still pull air the same way! The direction of the spin is what control the direction of the flow, not the blade orientation...but the offset my be changed by reversing the blade postion.

The problem will be fixed by switching the polarity of the wiring to the motor, causing the motor and blades to spin the other way, forcing air into the engine bay instead of drawing it out.

Bruce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif

 

[Steve_S]

Not all fan blades are built symmetrically. It's possible that the fan has to run a certain direction. Check for an arrow on the side of the fan housing. If there is no arrow, it probably doesn't matter which way it goes.