Common Problem???

[Kitten]

:banghead:

Ahhh!
ok, my 1991 corvette had been overheating, when I took it to a corvette shop, they said it was a common problem in 90's, and 91's, and to put a switch on it from a 1985 model. I have replaced everything! They had also told me the time before that they were going to put something on it to overide the relays (some sort of kit)... someone else told me that would burn up my car. I found out the switch they were talking about was 8 dollars from the auto parts, they said 300. The only reason I am questioning this, is that I have taken the car to the SAME shop at least 2 other times for the same thing, and it keeps happining. Does anyone know if what they are telling me is really a common problem? or just a common problem they have to keep me coming back?
Thank you!

[MKOTZE]

Originally posted by Kitten
:banghead:

Ahhh!
ok, my 1991 corvette had been overheating, when I took it to a corvette shop, they said it was a common problem in 90's, and 91's, and to put a switch on it from a 1985 model. I have replaced everything! They had also told me the time before that they were going to put something on it to overide the relays (some sort of kit)... someone else told me that would burn up my car. I found out the switch they were talking about was 8 dollars from the auto parts, they said 300. The only reason I am questioning this, is that I have taken the car to the SAME shop at least 2 other times for the same thing, and it keeps happining. Does anyone know if what they are telling me is really a common problem? or just a common problem they have to keep me coming back?
Thank you! Hello Kitten, Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble with your vette. Okay,First off can you describe to me what you mean by overheating? Does the car just run hot occasionally or Does it actually get hot enough to overflow the coolant reservoir? There is no common problem for a 90 or 91 that I'm aware of. Unfortunately adding a manual switch is not the way to go due to the fact that the fans draw alot of current and are not designed to run continously. This is what they meant by your car would burn up even though it really wouldn't burn up it would probably just wreck the fans. If your car appears to be running hot at an idle or low speeds it could be a normal condition. I say this because your vette has two electric fans that are controlled by the computer. The computer is responsible for bringing the fans on at a designated tempurature of at least 230 degrees. This will only bring on one fan and will seem like it is running hot. The second fan will not come on until the temperature has reached 239 degrees. Your vehicle has a 195 degree thermostat in it from the factory. A normal characteristic would be at idle or low speeds the temperature would begin to increase. If the vehicle is truly overheating and the coolant fans are working appropriately then there is a problem with the cooling system. It could be a bad thermostat, a partially clogged radiator, or that air flow is restricted going across the radiator due to excessive dirt or leaves building up,etc. The good news is there are some changes you can make to the original design to increase the cooling system efficiency. You would need to change the thermostat from the 195 to a 160 thermostat and you would need to change the computer prom chip so that the fans would come on at a lower temperature. The price for a 160 thermostat is about $10.00 and the computer chip is about $200.00 neither of these changes is extremely difficult or time consuming, therefore the labor should not be too expensive. This is the way I would recommend fixing the problem if it is only running hot and not overheating. Let me know how things work out. Good Luck! :chevy: MKOTZE