10 replies to this topic

[durbans]

Hi there,

 

I have a knackered fan switch cable on my 1990 RSP Cooper, part number YWL10010. As my wife and I will be heading down to Florence in the Mini in early June for our honeymoon, I thought it would be sensible to get it fixed before we leave to try and avoid any European overheating issues. My issue is this:

 

1. The cable is £70 on MiniSpares

2. I would prefer to have manual control over the electric fan

 

I would like to make up a cable with a couple of bullet connectors on one end and some spade connectors on the other end and connect it up to a switch in the car itself. I even have a nice space complete with blanking plate next to the drivers door for it. Remove blanking plate, wire up switch and voila!

 

My questions are very noobie but we are talking about electrics here so I don't want to start a fire or do something silly! I've got some experience with network/phone cabling so am not a complete dunce, just need to make sure I'm being safe.

 

Q1. What type of electrical cable should I buy? I've been looking at 8amp 0.30mm cable but not sure if this is the right stuff, if anybody could show me the way with a link to some suitable cable it'd be much appreciated

Q2. Are the switches you can buy for Minis any different to eachother and which would be right for something custom like this? I was looking at a headlamp switch for instance and it had 3 connections on the back whereas I will only be presenting 2 connections.

 

Any help here would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

David

[Captain Mainwaring]

Hi there,

 

I have a knackered fan switch cable on my 1990 RSP Cooper, part number YWL10010. As my wife and I will be heading down to Florence in the Mini in early June for our honeymoon, I thought it would be sensible to get it fixed before we leave to try and avoid any European overheating issues. My issue is this:

 

1. The cable is £70 on MiniSpares

2. I would prefer to have manual control over the electric fan

 

I would like to make up a cable with a couple of bullet connectors on one end and some spade connectors on the other end and connect it up to a switch in the car itself. I even have a nice space complete with blanking plate next to the drivers door for it. Remove blanking plate, wire up switch and voila!

 

My questions are very noobie but we are talking about electrics here so I don't want to start a fire or do something silly! I've got some experience with network/phone cabling so am not a complete dunce, just need to make sure I'm being safe.

 

Q1. What type of electrical cable should I buy? I've been looking at 8amp 0.30mm cable but not sure if this is the right stuff, if anybody could show me the way with a link to some suitable cable it'd be much appreciated

Q2. Are the switches you can buy for Minis any different to eachother and which would be right for something custom like this? I was looking at a headlamp switch for instance and it had 3 connections on the back whereas I will only be presenting 2 connections.

 

Any help here would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

David

why not repair what you have and add a parallel switch ? - not sure of the size of the fan motor but i'd go up a bit from 0.3 mm2 csa

[durbans]

Hiya,

 

I would repair what is there but it's not actually the cable which is broken, but the connector itself which screws into the engine and has snapped off at some point. Half of it is still screwed into the engine, the other half is hanging out in the engine bay. I'd love to add a parrallel switch for the best of both worlds but would still need to buy that part unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the cable spec though, very helpful and the existing cabling does seem a little larger than 0.3mm diameter. Maybe a 0.5 would do it, something like this: http://www.ebay.co.u...s-/290778400932

[Captain Mainwaring]

Isn't it from the bottom corner of the rad? Can't see why you would need to by bits of loom, if you can find the live feed and switch wire, then you can put it all back to standard without resorting to bits of loom.

I's use a 1 mm2 cable, give something to get a hold of.

[The Principal]

not much of a help But I found it £50 - http://www.allcarpar...ch-cooling-fan/

[Captain Mainwaring]

Oh I see, it's not bits of loom, just a switch.

 

Why not just fix it properly so the fan works automatically?

 

Agreed it's not cheap, but that's life.

[durbans]

Hiya, I would just fix it so it works automatically, but I'd like to have some more control over when it activates so I can start the fan up if the water temp is increasing more than I'd like, rather than watching the water temp go up and hoping the fan kicks in soon! This idea does open the door for human error but I'm ok with that.

 

Thanks for everybodys help, I've got the cable and wired up a basic switch just to test it out, now I need to wire it up properly!

[Cooperman]

I always change to manual switching when the thermostatically controlled switch fails (as they do).

I use a relay and two fuses, one for the feed from the relay to the fan and the other for the switch to relay feed.

It is easy to do and if you want advice on cable sizes and a circuit diagram PM 'KernowCooper' (Dave) as he is an auto-electrical expert and will be pleased to help. It's a good idea to have a small warning light to indicate that the fan is 'on'.

[Captain Mainwaring]

I always change to manual switching when the thermostatically controlled switch fails (as they do).

I use a relay and two fuses, one for the feed from the relay to the fan and the other for the switch to relay feed.

It is easy to do and if you want advice on cable sizes and a circuit diagram PM 'KernowCooper' (Dave) as he is an auto-electrical expert and will be pleased to help. It's a good idea to have a small warning light to indicate that the fan is 'on'.

 

 

You really don't need two, one for the switched feed is enough - the fan feed itself has already been fused, you don't need to do it again.

[Cooperman]

I was generalising about fitting a manual switch to an auxiliary fan and some Minis don't have an electric fan, but have one fitted as an extra (as my 'S' does). I wanted to make the point that any electrical fan must have a relay and a fuse for the main feed, plus a fused feed in the manual switching circuit. If any of these are existing on a specific car, then, of course, that's fine.

I hope I've not confused anyone, but we don't want someone to fit an additional fan and not fuse & relay it correctly.