I have just spent the past couple days trouble shooting my SPAL PWM electronic fan controller. It wasn't blowing fuses, but melting the fuse on the hot lead from the battery. I checked and re-checked connections, all were good. The controller itself got very very very hot, as the fan ran on high speed (the power wire got hot as well). I finally couldn't stand it anymore and called their tech department. They were very helpful and informed me that the relays used in their controller were 30A relays, and the taurus fan pulled about 40 amps on high speed and about a 140A spike upon startup. That was the problem, not to mention all the 12ga wire sent with the controller which in itself is insufficient for 40A.
Remedy:
--Bought a number 195 (70 amp 4 pole) relay from NAPA for about $25
--Got some 10 gauge wire $8
--used the power and ground leads from the SPAL controller as the actuating circuit for the relay
--Used a 80A mini fuse I had laying around as the fuse for the relay (as it was blowing lots of 30A, 40A and 50A fuses.) $3
Now she blows harder than ever before and cools the car nicely.
Moral of the story:
I am in over $130 (about the price of a dcc unit)and a lot of headaches with the spal controller getting it where it needs to be.
This is NOT a bad advertisement for the SPAL controller. It does what most cars would need it to do, and does it well. It was just a little undersized for the taurus fan in my case. It was very easy to wire up.
Take it for what it is worth.
Remedy:
--Bought a number 195 (70 amp 4 pole) relay from NAPA for about $25
--Got some 10 gauge wire $8
--used the power and ground leads from the SPAL controller as the actuating circuit for the relay
--Used a 80A mini fuse I had laying around as the fuse for the relay (as it was blowing lots of 30A, 40A and 50A fuses.) $3
Now she blows harder than ever before and cools the car nicely.
Moral of the story:
I am in over $130 (about the price of a dcc unit)and a lot of headaches with the spal controller getting it where it needs to be.
This is NOT a bad advertisement for the SPAL controller. It does what most cars would need it to do, and does it well. It was just a little undersized for the taurus fan in my case. It was very easy to wire up.
Take it for what it is worth.
