94 Caravan 3.0L Engine

Does anyone know where the tempature gauge needle is suppose to be at? When
I drive it's at the second line and when I am sitting at a light or idleing
it will go up to almost half. Just wondering what is normal for this car.

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Sitting at idle the gauge will steadily increase until its about 2/3's of
the way to red-line. Then the radiator fan should turn on. It will stay on
until the gauge decreases to about 1/3 of the way to red-line. Then the
cycle starts again. Of course when you're driving you get the benefit of
air cooling the radiator all the time and the temp should stay below 1/2 in
normal conditions. Abnormal conditions are hot days running the A/C, long
climbs up a hill and towing heavy loads. Another abnormal condition is
something is broken.

 

Thank You. The reason I asked is because it was almost at half and the fan
wouldn't kick on. We turned the Air on and the fan kicked right on. It
wouldn't kick on otherwise. It's 32 degreese here. This clears up alot for
me.

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Good. One thing to remember is that there are two fans. One to cool the
radiator (fan controlled by coolant temp) and one to cool the freon in the
condensor (fan turns on when A/C is activated).

 

i dont think its for cooling freon......its got 134a in it anyway


its more for the extra heat the engine creates when the A/C is on.

 

The second fan's main objective is to remove heat from the 134 after
it leaves the compressor, as well as add additional cooling capability
for the engine due to the added load of the compressor.

OP will need to dig deeper into this to find reason main fan is not
engaging. Most likely either fan relay or fan has gone south.

 

Au contraire. The purpose of the fan is to remove as much heat as possible
from the r134a (or r12 or whatever's in there). The A/C compressor
pressurizes the refrigerant, which heats it up dramatically. Passing it
through the condensor IS the opportunity to remove that heat. Unlike
coolant, refrigerant in auto A/C systems can't be cool enough so the fan is
on all the time.

 

Actually, it IS to cool the condensor - freon, R22, R124, whatever you
want to call it, needs to be cooled to condense. On some vehicles the
rad and condenser are side by side. On others the condenser is ahead
of the rad. Either way, the "condenser" fan comes on any time the AC
compressor is running, or the AC is turned on - regardless of engine
temperature.
The "cooling " fan comes on when engine coolant temperature reaches a
set point.

 

More likely, at 32 degrees F the engine coolant is not getting warm
enough to turn the fan on.

 

I only see 1 fan. My 88 Plymoth Voyarger had 2 radiators. One for cooling
and one for Regular. Each one had it's own fan. This one has one big one
with one Radiator. If there is another one where is it?

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well if all you guys say thats what its for i'll go with it. AC was never
my forte anyway!

 

Not sure of 94 Caravans, but SOME vehicles have 2 speed fans.