I just ordered one of these guys: http://www.etooldirect.com/electronic-specialties-315-maxi-fuse-buddy-kit.html So... I should be able to get some good readings on the current draw of my 355 OEM fans and their peak start-up current draw using the Hold function. Not going to stop any of them from going bad but could be useful baseline information.
Dave: A sincere Thank You for taking the time to research and post this information. You have really disseminated a tremendous amount of useful information in the section (e.g., LED bulbs, etc.). We are all indebted to you. Best regards, Scott
This is a great great thread but you know that you can have those little electric fan motors rebuilt for just over 125 bucks and for a couple of bucks more your can have it wound for a higher RPM similar to the Challenge fans. Also there are little balancing clips on the fan blades and if one falls off the fan will vibrate and shorten the life of the fan motor. This is one of the main reasons these babies die.
I have some reservation with your recommendations. First new fans can be had for $125 or there about. The oem fans already draw considerable current, and adding additional windings could only increase that more (which is of concern, since fuse box damage does occasionally occur with 355's from the fan circuit). While balance issues could be a source of wear, it appears from the manufacturer SPAL that the oem fans were never designed for a very long life by design (due to the two open holes in the motor housing which allow cooling air, but also dirt, dust and water to enter). Please see my first post for more details. Cooling does not appear to be a concern with the 355 when all the components are working, so I am unsure of the benefit of making the fans run faster.
The 355 is the hotest running engine made by Ferrari and many problems arise because of this. Extra cooling is always welcome. The faster speed does not mean it will draw more. What causes these babies to draw enough to blow the fuses is the rain and sludge hitting them while driving. It throws the blades out of balance. The challenge cars have the faster turning fans.
The rain and sludge? How do they get through the fine fins of the radiators in any amount that could be considered significant? In any event, the only time they might get through is when the car is in motion. My experience, based on "radiator on" lamps I have installed in cars, is that the radiators don't run when the car is moving. Formula 1 cars, which tend to produce a bit of power and heat, don't even have radiator fans.
I never drive my car in the rain but 3 months ago I commited to a drive with the shop that services my car. It was one of those overcast days and sure enough it rained. We were in the country on paved roads but there was some mud here and there on the road. When we got back to the shop for lunch, I popped the engine hood and the drivers side valve cover was brown with mud. It was easy to wash off but for sure the dirt does get through. You are right, when moving at speed the fans will not come on which is all the more reason for the blades to go out of balance. If the mud and or dirt hits the fan while it is turning, it will stay in balance if you get my drift. If they are still, then the dirt will build up on certain areas more than others. Anyway in the next 2 months my fan(drivers side) vibrated quite a bit when it came on to the point where it was easily felt in the drivers seat. About 6 weeks of that and that fan motor burned out without blowing the fuse. I will soon be installing the Challenge fan(recambi) complete with blades and cage as in the spal fans above. I will also wire in a switch to maually overide the rad sensor (as in the challenge cars) so I can turn the fans on when I want. The Ferrari challenge book shows how to wire it this way.
Well, I'm certainly not going to argue with real world experience. I'm surprised though that the radiator fins didn't get plugged up with gunk and reduce cooling ability. Or maybe they did and that caused the fan to run even more while not balanced. I tend to think a lot of us (guilty) do not drive these cars in less than great weather so maybe we don't see this so often. I like the idea of the manual override for the fans. I've done that to some previous cars.
Received my Spal fan today part # 30102050, took about 30 minutes to install and it works great, no voltage drop whatsoever and very quite. Thanks to f355spider for all the information provided in this thread, it was very helpful.
Did you have problems with your fuses or fans prior, or did you do this for preventative maintenance?
I did have problem with the fuses a couple years ago, I solved that problem by installing 40 AMP fuses instead of 30 AMP. This time the driver side fan started to drop voltage every time it started, I think that if I had 30 AMP fuse it would have tripped it. Also my car is a 1997 and I believe I had the original fans in. The spal fan is identical to the Ferrari fan, all you have to do is remove the rubber seal and the screw guides from the Ferrari fan and reuse them with the new Fan, a very easy job. If you have the original fans I would recommend changing them anyway as a precaution.
I wonder if any of the cars that had the "proper" original 30 amp fuses had a melted fusebox syndrome or only those that were increased to 40 amps.
Might be worth asking Dave Helms or Brian Crall. I know the use of 40amp fuses while not common, has been done by a few. For one thing, just finding 40amp blade fuses is not a simple matter. Regardless, at least we now know that replacing the fans, with either new oem SPAL , or new aftermarket SPAL will correct the problem. Though in the case of oem SPAL the fix will be temporary at best.
30 Amp. Increasing it to 40A is bad practice.... it's tough to get the smoke back in these boxes once it gets out. Manual override on race cars was there just so a mechanic could jump right in the engine bay shortly after shut down. One cant cool the engine any further than what the T stat allows. To be able to run the fan with the engine shut down allows a mechanic to get in the engine bay faster. When at race speed there is no need for a fan but a sudden Caution Flag after a hard run... a short time later the oil and trans temps then transfers to the coolant and having the fan already running is a help. On a street car it is just using up power to turn the alternator harder. Faster fan speed comes from more windings which equals extra current draw. When everything is as it should be the lower draw fan works just fine and is a welcome relief for the circuit.
I definitely agree that over-fusing is bad practice but the alternative could be worse.....serious engine damage if the 30 fuse(s) blow and you don't catch the increasing oil and coolant temps. in time. Just got my in-line current tester in the mail. I should have current readings (steady-state and peak) for my 355 OEM rad. fans some time tomorrow. Will be interesting to see the numbers. I believe my fans are the originals (1996) with 35,000 miles of "use."
Its simply a matter of economics. Temp goes up because of a blow fuse and you pull off the road and either have a soda or replace a fuse.... or both. Now that the fuse boxes are sub $1K... what the heck, raising the fuse rating is an option I guess. In the Ferrari world when we see a part price decrease it is usually followed by the part being NLA. When that happens it might change ones opinion of the risk to cost ratio.
Sure, in a perfect world you immediately notice the temps. increasing slightly and pull over and shut off the engine. No engine damage. However "Mr. Murphy" may have other ideas......
Just checked the radiator fans current draw using an in-line ammeter. My 355 is a 1996 with 35,000 miles and, as far as I can tell, the original radiator fans. I have not been having any trouble with the fans or the fuses. It seems a previous owner or service tech. replaced the 30 amp fuses with 40 amp. I don't know if the 40's were blowing or they did it as a precaution (of sorts). Ambient temp. when I made the checks was 55 degrees F. The left-hand fan had a current draw of 12.3 amps The right-hand fan had a current draw of 13.6 amps I was not able to get the peak HOLD function to work but I did notice an instantaneous peak current of 54 amps on the display when the left-hand fan started. The fuse was still 40 amps and did not blow but fuses do not blow instantly (actually there are fast-blow, normal, slow-blow) and automotive fuses are probably "normals." As many folks here are already aware, a motor will often draw double or more its normal running current when it starts from a dead stop. As a comparison I checked the current draw on the CABIN FAN of my 1994 Saab 900. This is a squirrel cage type fan that blows air in the cabin. It has had constant use (always on when the car is running) for the last 16 years. 168,000 miles on the car. Set on full speed the current draw was 12.1 amps. HOWEVER the peak reading I saw at start-up was 24.6 amps. This circuit is protected by a 30 amp fuse (factory rating). Having said that, this fan's speed is controlled by an electronic circuit (via manual speed selection when the ACC is off) so I don't know if there's some type of "soft-start" voltage involved. All checks were repeated a number of times to make sure readings were consistent (just some minor variations in readings). Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Good info, thanks for sharing. Note that blade type fuses are not available in a "slow blow" type. I would suspect your fuses were swapped to 40amp due to previously blowing. Quick check would be to put 30's back in, and see how long they last. I had one blow about 2.5 years ago (left side) then did not recur until this past spring, where I decided to replace both fans (figuring it was not going to get better, and probably start happening more frequently). I would bet if you put 30's back in it would be okay...perhaps for quite some time before you have one blow again...but will eventually happen.
I am curious why there is such a big difference in numbers (amps) between what you got from the manufacturers specs. and what I measured. I think you quoted 27.5 amps from the manufacturer. That would seem awfully high in a circuit protected by a 30 amp fuse. It seems fuses would have been blowing "left and right" rather than now and then. How did you know when your 30 amps blew? Just by seeing high oil and water temps.? Maybe I'm paranoid but I would be worried about not catching it in time.
As another comparison I checked the current draw on the radiator fan of my 1994 Saab 900. Radiator fan is the original, 16 years old with 168,000 miles on the car. Steady state current draw: 12.8 amps Peak start-up current draw: 30.1 amps Having worked on both cars I can say I have more respect for Saab's approach to electrical systems such as connectors, wiring, placement, factory schematics etc. Interesting that Saab chose to protect the radiator fan circuit with a 40 amp fuse from the factory. The 355 with very similar steady-state current draw was protected with only a 30 amp fuse from the factory.
Both times my left side radiator fan fuse blew I noticed the coolant temp gauge rising past the normal straight up position, moving to the one or two o'clock position. My concern with running a 40amp fuse is the potential for fuse box damage. I have no idea why the difference in readings. Could very well be a difference in testing methods. If you wish to email me via the PM system here I can send you the SPAL factory specs pdf file for the oem fan. I was asked by them not to publicly post it, but would be happy to share it privately with you. I believe the issue is the peak current draw rises as the oem fans age. This is due to the openings in the motor housings, which allow dirt, dust and water to enter...that causes the bearings to wear faster, and the rise in start up current draw. We ARE seeing more fuses blowing on 355's as the cars age, there is no question to that, based on owners on this forum. The alternate fans would appear to prevent the increase in peak draw, since they will not experience the excelerated wear of the oem fans, since they are totally sealed.
Thanks for the info. I definitely saw an awfully high peak current on one of my 355 fans. I'm sure with age and the dirt entry you mention the peak current lasts a bit longer and longer until it's at the point of being "present" long enough for the fuse to blow. I meant to check fan relays contact current rating while I was in there just out of curiosity, but forgot. Knowing Ferrari, it's probably 20 amps PM sent.
Hi all, Jack from The-Fan-Man here. I don't want to break any forum rules about advertising, but I have these 2050 fan's in stock now. Please contact me offline if we can be of any help. Take care.