[Engine] Cooling fan running a lot when engine off

[sharon mcleod]

Hi , I bought a 1.5 diesel Berlingo Enterprise van 2012 plate 2 weeks ago. I am a dog walker so my journeys are all very short/ stop/start & I live in London, so every journey is slow,tedious & stop/start   The fan on the engine has started to run for quite a  long time after I stop. It's happened 3 times now in the 2 week period. Is this a problem? It is still under a 3 month warranty so will be contacting the company tomorrow, but as I found this useful forum, I thought I would ask for any information which may be helpful to me sorting it out myself really . Thank you in advance.

[Mike]

Mine does it ever now and again, I've always assumed it's meant to.

[Luis Rosa]

You have a diesel motor with particulate filter (dpf) and you use it mainly for short journeys...the fan being on can be a signal that the car was going for a dpf regeneration cycle when you stopped, thus the fan stays on until the exhaust temperature comes back down...you should do, at least once a week, a 20 minute run on the motorway at 3000rpm (keep it in 4th if the traffic speed is low), so that it does complete regeneration cycles, and keeps the dpf clean...

I am assuming, of course, you have not noticed motor temperature problems, or water/vapour leakages, that is not a cooling system problem...

[Tree]

Luis,

let me correct you ever so slightly. The fan is not to cool the engine/exhaust temperatures, it is to cool the under bonnet temperatures caused by the heat generated from the DPF. I get this ever so often despite having done a 40 mph journey on the motorway. The DPF has started its Regen as you say but the cycle is incomplete and therefore the unit is still very hot.

A run up the motorway will cure this as Luis has already said - a forced regen will require 3000rpm for 15 minutes but the car should regen every 300 miles or so and will happily do it at 2200rpm so long as it is doing it frequently.

[Luis Rosa]

I think mine sometimes does it just as a result of driving slowly, so it doesn't get much air through the grille.

While I agree that it can be a sign of an incomplete regeneration, I don't think that it always means this.

In non dpf diesel and petrol Pugs and citros I have had in the past (with healthy cooling systems, of course) , none of them stood more than some minuntes (1 or 2?) with the cooling fan on after the motor was turned off... And most of these observations were made in Portugal, where the average ambient temperature is a bit higher... With my Partner I also do a lot of short trips, and also get this behavior, if for some reason I cannot do my weekend shopping trip (where I give her the beans, so it regenerates)...

[sharon mcleod]

Luis,

let me correct you ever so slightly. The fan is not to cool the engine/exhaust  temperatures, it is to cool the under bonnet temperatures caused by the heat generated from the DPF. I get this ever so often despite having done a 40 mph journey on the motorway. The DPF has started its Regen as you say but the cycle is incomplete and therefore the unit is still very hot.

A run up the motorway will cure this as Luis has already said - a forced regen will require 3000rpm for 15 minutes but the car should regen every 300 miles or so and will happily do it at 2200rpm so long as it is doing it frequently.

Hi Tree,
thank you for replying. This is all helpful, if a bit beyond me. I took the van for a run today up the M4. When I got back, guess what? The cooling fan was on when I switched off the engine, & remained on for a few minutes. I walked my dog, came back to it a half hour later, and it started doing it again as soon as I switched on the engine. Now at a loss. Phoned the dealership who weren't helpful. I think I may take it to my local garage who are great. The van runs beautifully otherwise. NO indicators or warnings, and the temp gauge is sitting just below  mid line.

[sharon mcleod]

You have a diesel motor with particulate filter (dpf) and you use it mainly for short journeys...the fan being on can be a signal that the car was going for a dpf regeneration cycle when you stopped, thus the fan stays on until the exhaust temperature comes back down...you should do, at least once a week, a 20 minute run on the motorway at 3000rpm (keep it in 4th if the traffic speed is low), so that it does complete regeneration cycles, and keeps the dpf clean...

I am assuming, of course, you have not noticed motor temperature problems, or water/vapour leakages, that is not a cooling system problem...

Hi Luis
Thank you for your reply. Very helpful to a newbie to this type of van. Maybe I bought the wrong kind of van for the type of work I do. My previous van was a little Kangoo which coped beautifully with nearly 7 years of stop/start driving. I've posted the below on Tree's reply to me, & also wanted to see if you have any further ideas/suggestions.,

 I took the van for a run today up the M4. When I got back, guess what? The cooling fan was on when I switched off the engine, & remained on for a few minutes. I walked my dog, came back to it a half hour later, and it started doing it again as soon as I switched on the engine. Now at a loss. Phoned the dealership who weren't helpful. I think I may take it to my local garage who are great. The van runs beautifully otherwise. NO indicators or warnings, and the temp gauge is sitting just below  mid line.

[Luis Rosa]

I guess as long as you don't notice temperature and/or obvious overheating problems (how is the cooling liquid level? also normal?), then you should not make this matter that big of a deal, and go on using it as usual...
if the dpf regeneration cycles ever become a more serious problem, the car should flash you with a dpf warnig light, so that you do this more thorough motorway regenerations we talked about previously. If you don't have any warnings and overall temperature, motor behavior and cooling levels are all normal, then all is well...

[Solent]

It could just be a sensor or relay fault. Your garage should be able to give advise.

[Johny555]

I've heard a few horror stories about these dpfs,when they clog they make engine hotter,and in the end engine over heats,totally blowing engine, trubo ect,its not if it blows its when,I hear you can take the insides out of the filter in the exhaust ,better runing,and no worries about engine over heating,the next car/van I buy will be petrol,these diesels are getting to complicated and to expensive to repair