I was on my way to have our 98 Mitsubishi Lancer registered when suddenly the car's idle went up by itself while I was in traffic. My first instinct is to check all my dashboard gauges. There I saw my temp gauge higher than the normal reading while running. Uh oh. I hope it isn't a leak from the radiator! I quickly turned the A/C off and prayed for the hot temp to go down and normalize.... Thank God it did! Now that I know it's not a radiator leak, my list of culprits narrowed down to two... It could be an electrical issue or the Aircon Cooling Fan motor has gone bad. Checked the fuse box to see if it's only a blown fuse... Confirmed! I replaced the blown fuse with a new one and tried the a/c to see if the temp will go up again. The gauge did not reach its normal temp reading because the air conditioning condenser fan got fried! Saw smoke coming from the fan motor and I immediately I turned the engine off. Now I'm sure that the radiator/condenser cooling fan is causing the car to overheat. Time to replace it. This will roughly cost me between 3.5k to 7k labor and parts depending if it's a surplus (cheap, second hand and without warranty), new replacement (bit pricey with short warranty usually Taiwan made) or OEM parts (very expensive with warranty and Japan made). To save money I opted for a DIY job and a surplus part. Yuuuuuuuuuuup! Cheap with one week warranty but Japan made. Haha! Bought the part I needed online (Mitsubishi Lancer PH facebook page) for 1.8k but with a little haggling the price dropped to 1.5k. Now it's time to remove the old fried up fan! Loosen the four bolts on the fan assembly. Two on top and two at the bottom. Unplug the socket for the fan motor located on top of the fan and the thermostat switch for the air conditioning fan located below the radiator fan. (This will turn the fan on if the radiator needs extra help to be cooled down). Remove the radiator hose to make way for the removal of the fan. The surplus fan I bought doesn't come with these sockets because they sell them separately. I just used my old one and installed it with the surplus fan. Splice and tap! Don't forget to cover the exposed wires separately with electrical tape! Need to refurbish the old dull plastic before reinstalling . I don't want my engine bay to look jologs. hehe! Primer and matte black will do the trick! Time to reinstall! Oh I got an upgrade too. My old fan has four blades while the surplus I bought has five. More blades equal more airflow and a cooler engine! Don't forget to top up your radiator with coolant before starting the engine. After reinstalling the parts. I let the engine idle with the A/C on for thirty minutes to see if the temp gauge will change. Well it did! The temp gauge is now lower than normal. The surplus fan with five blades really made a difference not only on the temp but on my wallet too! Total damage 1.5k for the fan and 50 pesos for the fuse.
And yes, I should gas up too. First of five coats of black. After letting the paint dry. It's time for another round of sanding using a 2000 grit sandpaper to smoothen out the new paint before polishing. Polish time! Roofies Took me a while to finish this project. Not a show quality... still learning and needs more improvement. Maybe one day i'll be hitting the car show scene...
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