Technical X290 2.3 Cooling Fans Control Fault P0482

[V2V]

On our 2016 Ducato (A class motorhome) I have the check engine light coming on and am hoping for hints to save me time tracking the problem down (especially as it is no fun working through the A Class letterbox bonnet).

I may have disturbed something, but I cannot figure out what and that could be a red herring. When I use code reader and the free version of AlfaOBD I get “P0482 - Cooling fans control 3 Open Circuit”.

If I clear the code and run engine with Aircon off then the fault does not return until the engine water temp (in Alfa OBD) gets to 95 degrees, at which time BOTH fans seem to start spinning - dashboard temp gauge gets to normal mid position early and seems to stay close to that even once warmed up, but I have not driven far with the fault. If I start the engine cold and switch on Aircon the fault light appears immediately (I am not sure if only one fan, and if so which one, is triggered by the Aircon).

I have found an eLearn diagram which I assume is close to the wiring I have, but I think it is for the earlier X250 generation and while it shows 2 fans, one of which has a resistor and extra relay mounted on the fan case (to offer two speeds I suppose) in my case both fans have a resistor and relay on the fan casing (I suppose there are also fuses and relays in the fuse box behind air filter – but I am assuming those are OK as both fans do run at one speed at least).

What I had done before the fault appeared is change the earth strap from Gearbox to Chassis (there were occasions where the starter would not turn, and the strap did look pretty corroded) I took out the air filter box to do this and also changed the air intake ducts for the cabin heater. I don’t think I disturbed any connectors, but I was nosing around trying to learn my way about and cleaning the worst of some oil that had leaked down front of engine (maybe just someone careless when filling oil, or something else to sort in future ).

My questions really…

Does “Fan Control 3” tell me which specific circuit I should be testing? On the diagrams the Fans are labelled N011 & N012 so "control 3" gives me no idea which is affected and whether it does or does not depend on a resistor and/or relay.

Might I find a wiring diagram that more precisely applies to my 2016 van?

Could the earth (C045 on the diagram) be to blame even though both fans both seem able to spin up OK? Connection that I think applies looks OK but seems to have been mounted (by Carthago?) on a rather thin bit of metal that I fear will break as I try to undo the bolt (I have been soaking with dismantling fluid and may succeed with this if I am patient)

Both Multiecuscan and Alfa OBD look as if they could manually activate fan speeds 1, 2 & 3 as a test - if I purchase the software. Is this likely to help identify the particular circuit to blame in my case? (I am sort of guessing the problem might be related to one of the resistors / relays on the fan housings). If I am purchasing one of the code reading s/w packages I am slightly drawn to AlfaOBD as that one allowed me to get this far with the free version, so I know it works well with my vGate interface and for a similar price supposedly gets all future updates not just one year – but would MES give more options/flexibility for any future problems?

Many thanks for any ideas - or just tell me to stop being lazy - get in there and check everything but it is more comfortable sitting in front of this computer than inserting my head and one arm at a time into the letterbox!

 

[theoneandonly]

I purchased both softwares and use MES on a laptop and Alfaobd on android.
I prefer MES for a number of reasons one being the support available, the simulate offline mode and i tended to make more mistakes with Alfaobd and it has a limmited number of PIDs available at a time (16 as oposed to 24 mes).
As to support there is good knowledge on this site and the MES forum. All Alfaobd online support ive seen is based on Yank trucks, nothing for a ducato.

Guides by theoneandonly

www.fiatforum.com

a number of guides writen by me.
MES will activate the fans.
One question can you save the data with the free version. I would like to graph it to see if the thermostat is opening (torque will do the job) 95 is a tad high in comparisson to my 2017 twin egr model. 80C

 

[V2V]

I purchased both softwares and use MES on a laptop and Alfaobd on android.
I prefer MES for a number of reasons one being the support available, the simulate offline mode and i tended to make more mistakes with Alfaobd and it has a limmited number of PIDs available at a time (16 as oposed to 24 mes).
As to support there is good knowledge on this site and the MES forum. All Alfaobd online support ive seen is based on Yank trucks, nothing for a ducato.

Guides by theoneandonly

www.fiatforum.com

a number of guides writen by me.
MES will activate the fans.
One question can you save the data with the free version. I would like to graph it to see if the thermostat is opening (torque will do the job) 95 is a tad high in comparisson to my 2017 twin egr model. 80C

Thanks for that - I suspect you are right that relevant support for my vehicle in forums like this is a big plus for MES - I will have a look through your guides. I imagine support is more important than ever, given the modern habit of Automakers like Fiat restricting what info I can access compared to my youth, when one could generally get hold of both Haynes type and Workshop manuals (and of course the vehicles were much simpler). I am probably not going to get into tweaking of the Van but like the ability to diagnose faults and fix things when I have the needed equipment, skills and time. I have hardly used OBD stuff before, except the slick OBDEleven package (s/w and interface) on my Mum's Skoda Yeti, where it paid for itself the week I bought it in diagnosing a sensor fault that I was able to clean and replaced in no time. But I did work for years installing computers and comms equipment on boats, so if I have to get to grips with such technology I will hopefully manage.

It looks like if I want to activate the fans I will have to pay for at least one program and as far as I can tell both will do that for 3 different fan speeds (modes?) so they are equal on that feature.

I am not sure about saving data in MES as the free version does not seem to give access to real data for any modules on a Ducato. Using AlfaOBD I think I was able to output some data to a notepad file but mainly I just did a screen grab into OneNote for the faults I was looking at.

I am interested in what you say about the thermostat. Does this mean I can use one of the discussed Apps (or Torque) to see when the thermostat opens? I put a Flexible snake camera so it could see a fan and brought the cable into the drivers side window to my laptop, while at the same time warming up the engine and watching the "Water Temp" graph in AlfaOBD. I could then see the fan start spinning on the camera image when the temp reached 95. What did seem a bit odd is that the dash temp gauge came up to almost dead centre (normal driving) much before AlfaOBD graph reached 95, then dash gauge seemed hardly to move at all as the temp carried on up to 95 (according to ALfaOBD). I suppose that suggests the thermostat was opening at some lower temp and stabilising things - but it would also seem to suggest that the temp reading I am geting from the OBD software is different from the one being indicated by the dash gauge so maybe I have something wrong.

I did drive the van over an hour yesterday and dashboard temp indication was stable and van did not appear to overheat.

Do you know if MES can graph several items on seperate strip graphs like Alfa.. It looks to me like MES would show mu;tiple lines on the one graph instead?

 

[theoneandonly]

Thanks for that - I suspect you are right that relevant support for my vehicle in forums like this is a big plus for MES - I will have a look through your guides. I imagine support is more important than ever, given the modern habit of Automakers like Fiat restricting what info I can access compared to my youth, when one could generally get hold of both Haynes type and Workshop manuals (and of course the vehicles were much simpler). I am probably not going to get into tweaking of the Van but like the ability to diagnose faults and fix things when I have the needed equipment, skills and time. I have hardly used OBD stuff before, except the slick OBDEleven package (s/w and interface) on my Mum's Skoda Yeti, where it paid for itself the week I bought it in diagnosing a sensor fault that I was able to clean and replaced in no time. But I did work for years installing computers and comms equipment on boats, so if I have to get to grips with such technology I will hopefully manage.

It looks like if I want to activate the fans I will have to pay for at least one program and as far as I can tell both will do that for 3 different fan speeds (modes?) so they are equal on that feature.

I am not sure about saving data in MES as the free version does not seem to give access to real data for any modules on a Ducato. Using AlfaOBD I think I was able to output some data to a notepad file but mainly I just did a screen grab into OneNote for the faults I was looking at.

I am interested in what you say about the thermostat. Does this mean I can use one of the discussed Apps (or Torque) to see when the thermostat opens? I put a Flexible snake camera so it could see a fan and brought the cable into the drivers side window to my laptop, while at the same time warming up the engine and watching the "Water Temp" graph in AlfaOBD. I could then see the fan start spinning on the camera image when the temp reached 95. What did seem a bit odd is that the dash temp gauge came up to almost dead centre (normal driving) much before AlfaOBD graph reached 95, then dash gauge seemed hardly to move at all as the temp carried on up to 95 (according to ALfaOBD). I suppose that suggests the thermostat was opening at some lower temp and stabilising things - but it would also seem to suggest that the temp reading I am geting from the OBD software is different from the one being indicated by the dash gauge so maybe I have something wrong.

I did drive the van over an hour yesterday and dashboard temp indication was stable and van did not appear to overheat.

Do you know if MES can graph several items on seperate strip graphs like Alfa.. It looks to me like MES would show mu;tiple lines on the one graph instead?

Do you know if MES can graph several items on seperate strip graphs like Alfa.. It looks to me like MES would show mu;tiple lines on the one graph instead? YES i always import to a spreadsheet and mess with my graphs


but it would also seem to suggest that the temp reading I am geting from the OBD software is different from the one being indicated by the dash gauge so maybe I have something wrong.
Yes there are 2 temperature sensors one for ECU tother for display

 

[theoneandonly]

Alfaobd PIDs 2 | Multiecuscan and Alfaobd Pids for X290 Ducato

61 MAX SPEED TIME COUNTER total time in seconds the engine has been run at maximal speed 62 NUMBER OF REGENERATIONS INTERRUPTED BY KEY-OFF shows the number of consecutive...

www.fiatforum.com

this shows 140 PIDs for MES and 111 for Alfaobd.

 

[V2V]

On our 2016 Ducato (A class motorhome) I have the check engine light coming on and am hoping for hints to save me time tracking the problem down (especially as it is no fun working through the A Class letterbox bonnet).

I may have disturbed something, but I cannot figure out what and that could be a red herring. When I use code reader and the free version of AlfaOBD I get “P0482 - Cooling fans control 3 Open Circuit”.

If I clear the code and run engine with Aircon off then the fault does not return until the engine water temp (in Alfa OBD) gets to 95 degrees, at which time BOTH fans seem to start spinning - dashboard temp gauge gets to normal mid position early and seems to stay close to that even once warmed up, but I have not driven far with the fault. If I start the engine cold and switch on Aircon the fault light appears immediately (I am not sure if only one fan, and if so which one, is triggered by the Aircon).

I have found an eLearn diagram which I assume is close to the wiring I have, but I think it is for the earlier X250 generation and while it shows 2 fans, one of which has a resistor and extra relay mounted on the fan case (to offer two speeds I suppose) in my case both fans have a resistor and relay on the fan casing (I suppose there are also fuses and relays in the fuse box behind air filter – but I am assuming those are OK as both fans do run at one speed at least).

What I had done before the fault appeared is change the earth strap from Gearbox to Chassis (there were occasions where the starter would not turn, and the strap did look pretty corroded) I took out the air filter box to do this and also changed the air intake ducts for the cabin heater. I don’t think I disturbed any connectors, but I was nosing around trying to learn my way about and cleaning the worst of some oil that had leaked down front of engine (maybe just someone careless when filling oil, or something else to sort in future ).

My questions really…

Does “Fan Control 3” tell me which specific circuit I should be testing? On the diagrams the Fans are labelled N011 & N012 so "control 3" gives me no idea which is affected and whether it does or does not depend on a resistor and/or relay.

Might I find a wiring diagram that more precisely applies to my 2016 van?

Could the earth (C045 on the diagram) be to blame even though both fans both seem able to spin up OK? Connection that I think applies looks OK but seems to have been mounted (by Carthago?) on a rather thin bit of metal that I fear will break as I try to undo the bolt (I have been soaking with dismantling fluid and may succeed with this if I am patient)

Both Multiecuscan and Alfa OBD look as if they could manually activate fan speeds 1, 2 & 3 as a test - if I purchase the software. Is this likely to help identify the particular circuit to blame in my case? (I am sort of guessing the problem might be related to one of the resistors / relays on the fan housings). If I am purchasing one of the code reading s/w packages I am slightly drawn to AlfaOBD as that one allowed me to get this far with the free version, so I know it works well with my vGate interface and for a similar price supposedly gets all future updates not just one year – but would MES give more options/flexibility for any future problems?

Many thanks for any ideas - or just tell me to stop being lazy - get in there and check everything but it is more comfortable sitting in front of this computer than inserting my head and one arm at a time into the letterbox!

I fixed it - so a little report in case someone has a similar problem in future and it gives them any clues

I did buy the registered copy of Multiecuscan and with that I was able to manually trigger the fans from the "Actuators" tab. "Fan 1st speed" did not generate a fault but the other two speeds did, and I got...
"P0482 - 13 - Cooling Fans Control 3 - Open Circuit"
&
"P0481 - 11 - Cooling Fans Control 2 - Short Circuit"

In every case both fans spun but it was hard to judge speed, so I was thinking the problem might relate to the 2 resistors and 2 relays mounted on the radiator housing, as I believe they control the speed of the fans. I am slightly guessing about the wiring as the only nearly relevant diagram I found shows only 1 of the fans having a resistor/relay package, while my 2016 X290 has these on both fans.

Anyway, I removed the resistors and unplugged the relays. Cleaned relay terminals (although they looked fine) and cleaned the resistor bases using spray contact cleaner and a small brush, as they did look a bit grotty with signs of dirt and corrosion (see photo). Put all back together and the fault has gone, which makes me very happy!

I cannot see how I disturbed this in the work I was doing (after which the fault appeared), so that might have been a red herring except... while changing the earth strap and fixing air cleaner housing I did also clean a small hole in the grp moulding of the Carthago, which seems meant to avoid a small puddle building up behind the bonnet (as rain water can get behind the top of the bonnet and sit against the seal). Carthago, in their infinite wisdom, have put this drain hole in such a place that water will drip onto the black metal frame over the radiator. And then, where the water might collect, they? had added a line of sealant where the flat frame has a raised box section running across the back. Except on this 7 year old van water had got under and it was rusty under all the length of sealant. Maybe by clearing the hole I had allowed more water to drip down - pass under the failed sealant and work its way down into the resistor packs. Now I have removed the sealant and must clean up the rust - repaint and maybe reseal. Perhaps create a duct or pipe to divert the water down to the road below the radiator frame.

One small thing I found after buying Multiecuscan. Overall it did the job but with my vGate vLinker FS Bluetooth interface I have to press the button on the interface every time I try to connect to a module. So, if I disconnect from "Engine" and try to connect to a different module the software seems to lose the connection to Interface. Constantly having to access the interface to press the button is a bit tedious and I did not have that problem with the free version of AlfaOBD (although I do need to press the button at start of each session). Hopefully this is just some setup issue of mine and if I get time I can resolve it, or if I am really lucky the MES people might come up with a fix (I realise that there is a vGate MX+ which I think is recommended for the MES software but I already had the vGate FS when I got the Ducato based van)