Fans do not work after engine overheated

D.J. BOYER

MEMBER
2001 VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
141,000 MILES

First of all my boyfriend is looking at it for me, he knows nothing about VW's. He however does know some stuff about cars not a bunch but some. With that being said, the car overheated last month I was in a hurry to pick up a child at school so I added water to the reservoir and continued driving. I made it home right about the time it was overheating again. I am pretty sure no damage was done to it by the driving, but the fans wont come back on now. I don't know a thing about these cars, I bought it just to sell to make a profit, but I am not off to a good start. Please help me especially before he (my boyfriend) tears it completely up.

5 Replies

JIS001

MECHANIC
3,411 POSTS

Hello and thank you for using 2CarPros. I have seen this condition before where the fans do not come on and cause an overheating condition. From my experience I would suspect a bad water pump. The water pump has a plastic propeller that goes bad and will give signs of a faulty thermostat where the coolant will not flow. The radiator has a sensor on the bottom of it to measure the temperature to command the fans to come on. If the coolant is not flowing then that sensor will not get hot enough to get the fan's going.

My recommendation would be to check the upper and lower radiator hoses. If the temperature is cold on the lower hose when it starts to over heat then the water pump is defective. When replacing the pump you should also replace the timing belt and tensioner once you are there. Let us know if that is what going on.

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Wednesday, May 8th, 2019 AT 10:52 PM

D.J. BOYER

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Well thank you for the bad news, lol. It sounds expensive, but we will get started on that tomorrow and see if that is the problem. Truly I hope it isn't, because that is probably going to cost more than I want to put in it or even have to put in it. Just for the record I was talked into this car and as I thought that I would regret it and I am. I thank you for the information and we will go from here. If that is not the problem I will get back with you if that is okay. This is the first real help I have gotten and I have tried different things to just get this information I got from you. Googled and YouTube even got a book from the library nothing helped in anyway. Again, I hope your mistaken, but my luck, that is exactly what it is. Thank you for your time.

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Wednesday, May 8th, 2019 AT 11:27 PM

JIS001

MECHANIC
3,411 POSTS

If your boyfriend knows how to replace a timing belt then it should not be a big expense. At minimum you can get a water pump pretty cheap. A timing belt kit most likely under $100.00 on Amazon.

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Thursday, May 9th, 2019 AT 12:07 AM

D.J. BOYER

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Thank you I am just wallowing in my self pity over this. Cars don't come so easy for me and against my better judgement I bought this two months ago. Have driven it twice. My boyfriend goes out there and looks at it or about half hour then that is it for the day. I know he does not know what to do, but I know this just as being a girl and listening to people that you can check the fans just to see if it is the fans going directly off battery. But he has not even done that. Now mind you I so not know if that can be done on this certain vehicle but if I could have I would have tried that at least. I can't say too much because he has got a short temper and wont work on it again for a long time. So I just bite my tongue and wait for him to tell me something next. Lol. At this rate I will be dead before its fixed. Sorry just aggravated at this whole thing. I thank you for your response. Will let you know the outcome. Thanks again

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Thursday, May 9th, 2019 AT 12:33 AM

KEN L

MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
48,363 POSTS

Hello,

Here is a guide that will help walk him through the steps with diagrams and instructions to do the job on your car below. I would replace the timing belt as well, if it makes a whining sounds when complete the timing belt is too tight.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/water-pump-replacement

Check out the diagrams (Below). Please let us know what you find. We are interested to see what it is.

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