Can anyone advise what may be causing the lower cooling fan of my 2003 X-type to not be working ? I have not owned the car for long, so I do not know when last it worked or what symptoms it showed when it stopped working.

 

David, odds are, you are looking at a bad fan control module (common issue with this car). Of note, there are 2 different style controllers for this model car. One is for the 01-early 04 cars, the other is for the later 04 and newer cars. The newer controller can replace the older controller, but you need to buy an adapter cable to make it work.

I bet you will find that the fan that is still running is going to provide minimal air flow due to spinning too slow. This would be a sign that it is your fan controller that is bad. If the working fan blows tons of air, then it may be possible that you have a bad fan and therefore you just need to replace the fan assembly. But, 99% of the time, it is a bad fan controller.

 

Thanks, Thermo.
The working fan blows strongly, so the control module is probably OK. I shall have to check whether the fan is faulty.

 

David, get yourself a multimeter and put the leads into the back of the plug for the non-working fan. You can then start the motor and turn on the AC to max (lowest temp you can dial in, set the fan to the highest speed possible). This will force the fans to run at maximum speed which in turn means that the fans should be getting around 13.0 VDC. If you are getting the voltage applied to the non-working fan, then that will confirm you have a bad fan. If you are getting under say 10 VDC, then odds are you have a bad fan control module and it is just failed in a way to only take out 1 of the 2 fans.

 

Hello David. I had the same issue with my 2002 X type. Turns out some idiot (so called mechanic) jacked the car up on the radiator support which made one of my fans not spin. So as a first step make sure both fans spin freely with your hand. That being said, the cfm will still operate one fan even if it's blown on the other side. Long story short I had to replace the cooling fan module and then both fans worked. If a fan is stuck it can cause the cfm to blow on one side.