escort overheating and abs light

dejey_2

my car started overheating yesterday, and i noticed the fan hasnt kicked in, all fuses are good,
my neighbour (who assured me he knew what he was doing) ran a wire directly from the battery to the fan several showers of sparks later and it came to life so im guessing its not the motor, obviously i cannot leave the fan running continuously and he said he knew of no other way of doing it, hence my plea to you!!!
i would rather learn how to fix these problems myself -yeah not the typical blonde female attitude i know :-)
its probably a switch????? but which one??? and where? and how easy is it to test and or replace and is there anything else it could be?
secondly after the fiasco with the wire i got in my car and several fuses were blown including my radio however i have replaced these but the abs light is illuminated which it wasnt previously, can anyone give me any clues to where or how i go about solving this, (all fuses seem to be good again!!!)
my car is an escort 97 p.reg zetec engine 1.6 16v if thats any help?!
thank you for any advice in advance
deb xx

SailorSam

Check to see have you got some sort of tempreature switch connected to the fan.

mick307

The overheating problem is caused by the fan switch not working. The fan should only run when the car is stationary or moving at less than about 15mph as above that the air flow is greater than the fan can produce.
The fan switch will be built into the back or the side of the radiator or possibly on the thermostat housing. It will have a 2 wire connection, built into a plug. To check it, dissconnect the plug and bridge the connections with a piece of wire. If the fan runs its definately the switch. replacement may be difficult if you dont have the right tools. If youre in the AA/RAC call them out, they can check it for you and may even have a replacedment on the van.

Hope this helps but give me a shout if you need more info.

Mick.

goldspanners

theres been a few folk on here recently with this exact fault on the escort and it usually is the temp switch in the radiator. but have a quick check of your fuses first.

dejey_2

thanks for all your advise changed the temp switch, and removed/replaced thermostat, and gave it a good flush through problem solved,
as for the abs light it sorted itself out???!!
thank you

exup

some cars can have weird warning lights come on if something happens to the electircs. I had a few fuses blow once due to a broken wire - rev counter started acting up, steering warning light and brake warning light started acting up - once the problem was solved with the wire and fuses replaced the other warning lights went out too