radiator fan

[PerfectBlueride]

Someone did this mod, wondering how this worked with keeping the bike running a little cooler, thus preventing 4 bars in traffic/ slow pace.

thx thinking about adding aux fans.

any reason one should not or a waste of time?

 

[FlyingLow]

I wouldn't say it's a waste of time. But speaking for myself only, I'm inclined to trust the engineers who designed the bike on this. That, and it rarely tops 100 here in coastal SoCal.

Here in SoCal, my '05 generally runs 2, and sometimes 3 bars, while underway. The only time it hits 4 bars is stopped at a red light, then the fan kicks in, and it drops back down to 3 as soon as I take off.

It's not gonna hurt the bike; they run hot but as long as all the cooling system items are in good shape, no problemo.

Now if I lived in Phoenix, for example, riding in the heat of the day, yeah, I'd be thinking auxilliary fans too.

Good luck.

 

[radman]

Last year, on a trip east in late summer/early fall, I had the opportunity to sample Chicago's smog reduction efforts for 2 hours while stuck in late afternoon rush hour traffic, and temps in the high 80's. It crawled, and poor Frank idled most of the time, lots of clutching, low speeds 90% of the time, about as bad as I've been in (toll construction stopped everything). Ran at 3 and 4 bars the entire time, fan cycled dozens of times, I was miserable, but Frank and his systems performed flawlessly, not once indicating any heat stress, never a hint of heat induced pre-ignition, no coolant loss, nothing. I had been considering adding a manual switch for the fan to combat this very situation, but after that nasty scene, decided the bike had no need for it-everything worked as designed.

 

[v65]

The '06's seem to operate at a higher number of bars. Mine was at 6 bars in traffic this weekend, arrived there quickly and held there for the duration, normally at three and four bars when out cruising. Have seen another post reporting the same. According to the manual this is not overheating, but begs the question of whether the '06's actually run hotter or have different readouts. With all the mods to keep the heat off the rider...

So that this is not a complete hi-jack, wiring in a separate manual switch was a common thing to do with v65's for a short period of time. Then someone noticed/reported on the SabMag group that NAPA has a very nicely detailed catalog of thermoswitches. All you need is thread pitch, they have a variety of switches with different on and off temps (damn, I just had the right terminology for that, started typing and out the door it went, stupid CRS :lol: ).

 

[Scab]

The '06's seem to operate at a higher number of bars. Mine was at 6 bars in traffic this weekend, arrived there quickly and held there for the duration, normally at three and four bars when out cruising. Have seen another post reporting the same. According to the manual this is not overheating, but begs the question of whether the '06's actually run hotter or have different readouts.

Mine is an '05. It only has the ablity to display 6 bars.

 

[jestal]

Electric fan cooled vehicles do exactly what is described. The engine warms up at idle, the fan turns on, the temp drops, the fan turns off. Leave it alone.

Putting a switch on the system to run the ran all the time will really accomplish very little as it will still stay on the thermostat and the fan running all the time at idle will (possibly) kill the battery. At least it will take up a lot of the watts the watt challenged FJR has by running all the time. I would leave it alone.

 

[FJRottie]

The '06's seem to operate at a higher number of bars. Mine was at 6 bars in traffic this weekend, arrived there quickly and held there for the duration, normally at three and four bars when out cruising. Have seen another post reporting the same. According to the manual this is not overheating, but begs the question of whether the '06's actually run hotter or have different readouts.

If I remember correctly, the 06 has 10 bars total.

The previous have 6 bars, the fan come on at 4.

The difference is just the readout / # of bars. The temp may be different by a few degrees but same idea.

 

[Groo]

As I recall, 04FJR4ME was involved in this... it's back in the Sleazyboard days... probably lost in the Hack now... think there was also some attempts to get the fans to kick on sooner, by tweaking the kunuter valves maybe ... :huh:

 

[PerfectBlueride]

Last year, on a trip east in late summer/early fall, I had the opportunity to sample Chicago's smog reduction efforts for 2 hours while stuck in late afternoon rush hour traffic, and temps in the high 80's. It crawled, and poor Frank idled most of the time, lots of clutching, low speeds 90% of the time, about as bad as I've been in (toll construction stopped everything). Ran at 3 and 4 bars the entire time, fan cycled dozens of times, I was miserable, but Frank and his systems performed flawlessly, not once indicating any heat stress, never a hint of heat induced pre-ignition, no coolant loss, nothing. I had been considering adding a manual switch for the fan to combat this very situation, but after that nasty scene, decided the bike had no need for it-everything worked as designed.

Thats it the bike preforms perfectblueride like, it must be me Although i have noticed even though the bike is 3/4 bars unless i'm at a snails craw it isn't as bad as last year thus far.

I did put some fire wall insulation under the tank kind of like the 06, since the thermo tec stuff under the tank did little to change the heat i was feeling.

although if I'm out riding and it is cool and I just have the mesh with me the heat is a welcome thing.

So bike does what it was designed to do, I guess i need to drop some excess insulation and maybe I'll be better designed to handle it as well :lol:

 

[Woodstock]

There's nothing particularly "wrong" with 4 bars. I wouldn't bother.

 

[mech 1 twa]

I've seen 5 bars on mine once. 05

Stuck in traffic for awhile, 4 bars showing. Parked it to get something cold.

Returned to leave, switched key on 5 bars. Fan ran and started moving dropped to 4 then 3.

95deg day and very humid.

 

[RonBB]

If one has many farkles which add electrical load running the fan continously might just drain the battery quicker. I have noticed a slight voltage drop when the fan kicks on. Not a big drop mind you, but a drop that might cross the line of charge verses discharge in some cases. Sorry I don't recall the amount of the drop or what I had turned on at the time. I do recall turning off some of the electrical load at the time. It was a stop & go traffic situation with ambient temperatures hovering around 100 degrees.

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

The '06's seem to operate at a higher number of bars. Mine was at 6 bars in traffic this weekend, arrived there quickly and held there for the duration, normally at three and four bars when out cruising. Have seen another post reporting the same. According to the manual this is not overheating, but begs the question of whether the '06's actually run hotter or have different readouts.

If I remember correctly, the 06 has 10 bars total.

The previous have 6 bars, the fan come on at 4.

The difference is just the readout / # of bars. The temp may be different by a few degrees but same idea.

+1 FJRottie. My '06 goes to 10 bars. Mine ran to 8 bars a couple times in slow speeds in first gear. Fan kicked in at 8 bars and it dropped. Talked with my Yammie mechanic who owns an '03 FJR and he said try to keep it cool but don't worry.

As for a switch and/or auxiliary fan. Figure out the drain like any other electronic gadget and see if it will kill the battery. If not and you want to run it go ahead. But like others posting here, I'm not going to given the facts I have thus far.