355 fan fuse blowing

Sounds like a great idea Eric. I think you'd want to make sure the buzzers are high enough in impedance so they wouldn't normally work while the fuse is good. If your setup works, can you provide a little more info about impedance or specs on our buzzers?

 

I was driving my car 2 weeks ago when the weather was very hot in Chicago. All the major highways are under construction here. My F355 was over heating over stop and go traffic. As soon as I got home I checked the fuse and sure enough it was blown.

I'm going to Radio Shack right now with a picture of your setup to see if I can do the same thing.

A very clever idea thank you.

 

Eric - I'm pretty sure this must have been covered but I was told the left hand fan takes at least 28 amps to start and the fuse is usually only 30 amp - so it blows - as a result most independents recommend fitting a 40 amp fuse

The other thing is that if the water level is slightly low the temperature seems not to cause the fans to actuate

 

Eric, the fuse blowing is a common problem. In all likelihood, it will get worse. The fans seem to progressively draw more and more current upon starting as they age and wear. A friend of mine even went so far as to replace the fuses with self-resetting 30 amp circuit breakers. He also noticed that as his fans turned on, that is idle speed would drop a couple hundred rpm, as the engine struggled to maintain idle...but would stabilize after several seconds.

He replaced both his fan motors, and now he has a perfect idle, and and no more fuses blowing.
I had my left hand fan motor fuse blow once about 2 years ago, but has not recurred. I have no idle issues either. But if I ever blow a fuse again, I will replace both motors.

See this thread for more info on a less expensive source for the Spal fan motor assemblies and how to install them:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=194555&highlight=355+fans

 

All true, but as the fan motors age, they draw much more that 30amps, causing the frequent fuse replacements. I have another friend with a 355 with the 40 amp fuses. Appears they have been there for years (he bought the car with them already installed). No worse for wear, but I have noticed that 40amp ATO/ATC fuses are not easily found, except online.

Again, with a 10+ year old car, probably best to simply replace the fans, expecially now that we have a relatively inexpensive source for them, other than going to Ferrari.

 

Somewhere there is a thread about the actual cause of the engine stumbles when the fans come on. Some people have made plasic bits to go around the fan since the problem was caused by the air temperature difference from warm air going around the fan and into the intake in the first few seconds of the fan running.
Sorry to hijack the thread. I too have had the fuse blow. Although mine came back from an engine out service blown. I fixed it and it's been perfect since. I like the buzzer idea. Somebody make a bunch and sell them to everyone.

 

Mark, if you read the thread I posted, one of the folks who was involved in the fan shroud thing (aeroengineman) tried the shrouds, but did not seem to have much luck. In the thread I posted, he replaced his fans and that solved the idle drop from the fans coming on. The excessive current draw causes a lot of parasitic drag on the engine by the alternator working so hard. This seems to be the cause of the idle drop when the fans come on.

Here is his quote:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=137693408&postcount=48

The problem is the fans start drawing more and more current upon start up as they get old. I agree the alarm idea is neat, but really unnecessary. I think we should all consider the fans a "consumable" item, that should be replaced after 8 to 10 years. The link in the thread shows a source for new fans for only $125 each, a literal bargain. And these are oem type Spal fans with the exact same specs. The only difference is they have a different electrical plug, so you will need to splice your original one onto the new fan.

 

I thought aeroengineman said he did see an idle improvement with the shroud but saw further improvement after replacing the fan assemblies. I absolutely saw an idle improvement with the shrouds and am only changing the fan assemblies to reduce the load on the charging/electrical system.

 

I thank all of you for this thread. I'm just nearing completion of my major engine out service. When the mechanic got the engine running today, the LH fan quit - fuse blown. This seems to be an omen for me to replace the fan (the RH fan was replaced 5 years ago by previous owner). So now I'll be ordering my fan from Street Rods by Michael and replace by myself with all your valuable advice. Thx again! This is really a Ferrari brotherhood that warms my heart!