I had just purchased a fan assembly from a 1999 Vanden Plas and everything seemed it be working except there were spacers on the assembly separating the assembly from the bolt(shown in pictures) and this created too much space for the original bolts I had and they couldn’t reach the rad so I had purchased longer ones(as shown in picture) and installed those. Everything went smoothly on the first startup, fans turned on and no leak anywhere, on the second start the fans did not turn on even after 200F and that’s when i noticed a pretty big leak coming from the driver side bolt that holds the assembly in, so I put a washer there which had gotten the worse part of the leak fixed but there is still a small leak coming from behind the bolt(shown in video)
My questions are:
Will I need a new radiator or is this fixable?If new radiator would a 1999 Vanden Plas’s work?

Are the fans not turning on because of this leak or something separate?

Should I remove the spacer on the assembly and use the original bolts from my car?

 

These radiators aren't very fixable. Not being rude, but that whole 2 seconds of video tells us pretty much nothing. It sounds like you ran the screw into the bowl?
As for the fans, could be a number of things. You need to do a fan test on the relay to see if it's the fans or the relay? Could be the thermostat switch or bad wiring? I attached the electrical guide for your review.

 

The cooling fans won’t turn on until *after* 95*C (203*F) with A/C OFF. If the A/C is charged properly and working, the fans should both turn on when the engine is ambient coolant temperature. It won’t turn on immediately but within a short amount of time.

 

wouldn’t let me post a longer video because it was bigger than 20MB if you know a way around that please let me know.
I think I did drive the screw through not fully but enough to crack it seems like.

I hadn’t check much but the fuses so far because I hadn’t researched where the relays are yet but I will test them by tonight. I just don’t know why they would turn on for the first start then not work after that, my previous fans wouldnt turn on at all so I was suspecting the motors now I’m thinking bad wiring somewhere, seems like someone messed with it before I had owned the car cuz the wiring doesn’t look factory.

Thank you for the guide I’ve been looking for something like that. ALLDATA has it in pieces making it way harder lol.

 

Ah ok thank you, my AC compressor isn’t working right now so that would be something I need to fix to get a better understanding of what it could be not turning them on properly.

 

 

M, do you think that’s for a ROW vs NAS spec flashed ECM? My low speed fans don’t come on until after 95* C with the A/C off. If the A/C was on, obviously that’s a different story.

 

The info is from the "SERVICE TRAINING COURSE 881, V6 / V8 ENGINE MANAGEMENT, 9/2001" and there is no mention of NAS/ROW.

 

Some folks make a YT vid and post a link to it there ...or just take more pics....pics are easier. I'd cut to the quick, pull the radiator and have a radiator shop pressure test it. If there is a problem, see if they can braze it for you.

In the meantime fire off the fans individually with an exterior 12v source, since they will be out of the car. If they work, then pull and test the relay, then pull and test the thermostatic sensor switch. I had a high speed fan and switch (relay) go out a couple years ago, fun to chase.

Here's a good source for parts that are hard to find, ...used and new old stock...Dave's a good guy to deal with. https://shop.everydayxj.com/Default.asp ...he does have a cooling fan if you need one.

 

So far I threw some JB weld on it and seems to have fixed it for the time being

As for the fans i replaced both fan relays and now the top fan comes on as soon as i turn the car on. I waited 30+ mins to see if the bottom one would turn on but it never did. Could that be cause my A/C not working? But I also haven’t checked the thermostatic switch yet so I will check that out before anything else.

Thank you for that website aswell he definitely has some parts I’ve been looking for and at good pricing.

 

There should be just one relay module (3 relays inside) controlling both fans, positioned low at the front left corner of the engine compartment. When required, both fans run either at low or at high speed. If only one fan runs, there is something wrong - blown fuse for one of the fans, bad fan motor, bad fan relay module. The fan module looks like this:

There is no thermostatic switch for the fans. The switching on and off, low and high fan speed, are all controlled by the engine ECU via the fan relay module (see the block diagram in post #8 above. Detailed diagram of the fan relay module:

 

Yes M...that is correct. On the Duchess, the relay was located behind the
driver side headlights on a stalk. Not terribly easy to get to as it actually has a
metal plate separating it from the engine compartment.

 

Mine seems to be 3 different relays all bunched up in the crush tub below the driver headlight
These are the relays before I switched them out


This is after I had put 2 new relays in(wrapped in white) but the relay wrapped in yellow seems to be what you are talking about but it is broken at the moment and I couldn’t find a part number so I wrapped it up in electrical tape.

 

A lot of modifications. The plug for the original triple relay is this one:

You should be able to find on Ebay the triple relay with a good pigtail plug, sort out all the wiring and revert to original setup. The triple relay diagram below also shows the wire colours on the connector, looking at its back (the wires at the plug have slightly different colours on MY2000 and later models but you can follow their physical positions when replacing your broken connector).