Q: My car is overheating. The engine fan does not work unless the air conditioner is running.

asked by on October 22, 2016

My car is overheating. The engine fan works only when the air conditioner is on. The antifreeze is full.

My car has 67000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

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Many vehicles have two separate fans. 1 fan is used for the engines radiator. The other thing is used only when the air conditioning is running. The fact that a fan kicks on when the air conditioning is running as a normal operation of your vehicle. If the engine is overheating and your cooling fan is not turning on it is likely due to the fact that the cooling fan is not working. Symptoms of a cooling fan failure would be that the engine runs at a normal temperature during highway speed but during slow driving or idling the engine temperature will rise. I would recommend having your engine cooling fan tested to determine if it is working properly. If the fan is faulty I would recommend having it replaced in order to avoid permanent damage to the engine that could be caused by overheating.

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