Should radiator fan turn on charging?

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BillAinCT

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 2, 2021
Messages
203
Location
West Hartford, CT
I've been charging over 5 hours starting at 14%. I was near the front of my 2022 Leaf and could feel the heat emanating from the charge port. I opened the hood and the inverter was very warm. I could hear the pump (pumps?) running and I measured the upper left inlet (outlet?) to the inverter at 135F. The rest of the inverter was 120-132F depending where I took readings. I read for Gen 1 Leafs that this is about the fan turn on temperature. Is this the case for 2022? If it were a bit warmer would I see the fan turn on?

Since the car is new is there a way to test that the fan is operational? I've never heard it come on.

Since cooler is better, why not turn the fan on at a lower temperature since it can power from the L2 to do so?
 
I don't know, but I want the fan to run when my 2018 is charging, L2 and up, but I don't recall ever hearing it. How *should* it work? On 100+ degree days (and we only missed that by 2° two days ago) I think it should be cooled. I wouldn't mind it running any time it's 80F+.
 
the fan should come on while charging when it is hot enough....I mean 90+ degrees ish outside temp.

Normally just the water pump runs...but I have heard the fan very rarely come on for a short burst of cooling.
 
My experience is that the radiator fan(s) will come on while charging once the coolant temperature gets high enough. It normally takes a somewhat long charging cycle at high ambient temperatures before the coolant temperature gets high enough to activate the fan(s). The fan(s) will turn off after the coolant temperature drops below the threshold. As Learjet indicated, the circulating pump will run all the time during charging to cool the onboard charger and DC-DC converter.
 
skylitdriven said:
When you run the air conditioning does the fan come on?

Yes it does. Good idea. That confirms the fan is operational but not the temperature sensor. Above normal temps (90+) are coming this weekend so I'll check it again.
 
BillAinCT said:
I've been charging over 5 hours starting at 14%. I was near the front of my 2022 Leaf and could feel the heat emanating from the charge port. I opened the hood and the inverter was very warm. I could hear the pump (pumps?) running and I measured the upper left inlet (outlet?) to the inverter at 135F. The rest of the inverter was 120-132F depending where I took readings. I read for Gen 1 Leafs that this is about the fan turn on temperature. Is this the case for 2022? If it were a bit warmer would I see the fan turn on?

Since the car is new is there a way to test that the fan is operational? I've never heard it come on.

The exact temperature is 140F for both the Gen1 and Gen2 I found out a while back doing my gear oil temperature experiments, but it's perfectly normal everything you just described. Basically, the water pump runs the entire time on low and when the equipment gets hot enough, it will switch the pump to high (which is easier to hear) and the radiator fans will come on in low mode to circulate air to get the temperature of the coolant back down, then they shut off until the coolant reaches the target temperature again. If you have been driving for a while to heat up the coolant and then immediately start charging, since everything is already warm, hot outside ambient temperatures will certainly make the radiator fans come on and off during the long charging cycle. The L2 plug will get very warm as well, also normal giving that a lot of power will be going through it for hours and it's hot outside, might even be sitting directly in the sunlight.
Basically, everything is working as it should, just make sure the coolant tank is full. Top it off with distilled water from the store otherwise.

BillAinCT said:
Since cooler is better, why not turn the fan on at a lower temperature since it can power from the L2 to do so?
Because the equipment is designed with very high temperatures for spec and if you are running the radiator fans all the time, that's less power that goes into the battery. So they choose a temperature that, while 140F seems skin burning to us, is probably well under the wear and safety threshold of the equipment since it is dumping the heat to the water and probably not technically that hot inside.
 
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