Firstly Hello! Ageing Fiat Fan here....

A local repairer tried to fix my wife's Punto (Mk2?.. it's 02 reg.) which had a seized coolng fan. He couldn't source a new fan, so I drove the car home. He'd removed the old fan and lashed up the rad with cable ties just for my short drive home.

Fast forward several weeks and Eurocarparts have finally supplied the correct fan.

All set to fit it this a.m. only to find that the 'repairer' has left the rad pushed fully forward off its mountings and also somehow separated the aircon 'condenser/rad' from the main rad.

So... I'm left with 6 screws, two small plastic brackets and not much clue what this guy has been playing at. As far as I can see there is no need whatever to separate the rad and the condenser, or to move either off their mountings, just to change a fan.

I can't really make sense of how to re-attach the condenser to the rad. Can anyone please offer any advice?

I've been fixing cars all my life, including numerous 127s, Unos, Puntos and Grand Puntos but I've never come across this issue before.

Thanks in advance.

Col

ColB said:

Firstly Hello! Ageing Fiat Fan here....

A local repairer tried to fix my wife's Punto (Mk2?.. it's 02 reg.) which had a seized coolng fan. He couldn't source a new fan, so I drove the car home. He'd removed the old fan and lashed up the rad with cable ties just for my short drive home.

Fast forward several weeks and Eurocarparts have finally supplied the correct fan.

All set to fit it this a.m. only to find that the 'repairer' has left the rad pushed fully forward off its mountings and also somehow separated the aircon 'condenser/rad' from the main rad.

So... I'm left with 6 screws, two small plastic brackets and not much clue what this guy has been playing at. As far as I can see there is no need whatever to separate the rad and the condenser, or to move either off their mountings, just to change a fan.

I can't really make sense of how to re-attach the condenser to the rad. Can anyone please offer any advice?

I've been fixing cars all my life, including numerous 127s, Unos, Puntos and Grand Puntos but I've never come across this issue before.

Thanks in advance.

Col

Click to expand...

Sounds like the same system as my car has. The fan cannot be removed without removing the fan shroud which is a large rectangular plastic thing which guides the air thru the radiator and has legs to hold the bottom of the condensor. Then the top of the condensor is held with two small plastic holders which screw to the shroud.


Usually the fans are bought with the large plastic contraption. There are several types available.


My one looks like this:

https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-ii/475521-1-2-16v-air-con-radiator-condenser-assemble.html?p=4493902

Hi Judderbar and thanks for the info.


As it is I just came in from fixing the car. I spent a long time trying to figure out how the two small clips fitted, as I (wrongly) assumed that they clipped the condenser to the rad. Wrong.
Having had a good long look at the plastic frame for the fan.. the penny dropped. The 'spigots' on the bottom of the condenser need to go into the 'hooks' on the bottom of the fan frame, and the little brackets fix the condenser top rail to the fan frame.. not the rad..as I'd assumed.

Once I figured that out, it was just a case of spending hours 'jiggling'' things about until everything was in place, then tightening up. Pretty much sorted by the time it was going dark.
The only thing I'm not sure of now is whether polarity matters when connecting up the resistor in the corner of the fan frame. I don't imagine it will bother a resistor, but there's also a small 'something else' attached to the resistor. I cant see what it is as it's old and filthy. Maybe just another resistor.

Also, the old fan died because the brushes disintegrated..so it may well have taken out a fuse or two. I'll have to read up on that too.

Also have a supicion that the rad was leaking when I recovered the car from the repair chap... Only way to really find out is to run it up to temp and see. If it needs a new rad.. I am NOT doing it. I'm too old for this caper. Same car had a cylinder head leak a couple of years ago. I drew the line at doing a 'head job'. Done many in the past but can no longer be bothered.. so I bought some of that expensive American leak sealer ( K-Seal ) and it worked first time. Leak fixed and it stayed fixed. Wonder if its as good on rads...?


I'll probably complete a fun day by spending an hour or so with my head buried in the circuit diagrams at the back of the user manual...

I know how to live...