The Safrane.Info Forum!

Hmm that might be it. Great! Now I would just like to know what causes the fan speed to drop.

It's possible that the motor is simply burned out. The reason I say this is because my rear wiper motor starts at a normal speed and 2 wipes later it's crawling.

When you consider I've come across nearly every safrane fault there is, I have to wonder why I persist with this car LOL.... but i can't help myself... i'm a sucker for the safrane!!

This sounds more like controlled action, so I guess it's something with regulation, not the motor itself.

I can understand why you persist, although after other french cars I've owned this car seems simple and properly built.

Yes... it's a good car I've just got unlucky with a few problems... many of which were self inflicted!

If it's a controlled action it maybe that the climate panel is slowing down the motor on purpose - either getting confused with manual / auto (which does happen - I've seen it many times) or it has a sensor somewhere telling it to do so for a reason. You need to look at your air flow pipes behind the airbag and dashboard because that may also affect its sensor readings somehow.

I seem to remember my K reg V6 did the same thing,when it got to the temp you ask for it slowed down the heater motor speed to a slower speed on its own.

That makes sense, but I think the temp was set to MAX. Well maybe it slows down after some time even with that setting, to preserve the motor.
Now, additional problems: Few days ago my battery warning light turned on just after starting the car (together with STOP). It turned off after I revved the engine. Next day it was worse, I had to drive it a bit. Yesterday I made a few km, it was still on, on the way back it was the same. Yesterday I have also noticed that the engine has reached working temperature, but idle is still high, from 950 to 1200 rpm. Usually it is around 500-600 rpm. After I came home I took the multimeter and measured the voltage on battery terminals with car turned on. It was ~12V. I revved the engine hard, but that made no difference. Suddenly the engine cooling fan kicked in, voltmeter started showing ~14.5V and idle settled at 500-600 rpm. Does anyone has electrical scheme of cooling fan and alternator connections? I have impression that it could be faulty earthing or something like that. If it is of any help, it is heavily raining for the past few days, maybe that caused the trouble?

You have your meter probes connected the wrong way (i think!). Red goes to + and black goes to -.. otherwise you have something weird going on! Also check that you're not measuring AC - you want DC and a stupid idea.. check the wires are plugged into your meter correctly!

14.5V is the correct voltage you should see when the alternator is generating power however it should not be affected by the cooling fans as they are directly grounded and turned on by the ECU via a set of 3 relays - also directly grounded. That said, these cars are very strange when it comes to electricity.. trust me I have had lots of gremlins with ours.

The only thing I can think of is that your alternator might be faulty or your battery but if the battery is relatively new then I would check the alternator. If your engine is running but you're only getting 12V then you either have a dodgy alternator connection (which could be blown back onto the metal by the fans air flow) or it's got an intermittent fault.

Everything was connected correctly. By ~ I meant "around", not AC. I guess I will have to check connection and brushes. I hope I will be able to do it without disassembling half of the engine.

Oh I see.... I thought you meant you had a negative voltage!

You should find the alternator at the front of the engine just behind the radiator / aircon. The wiring loom is there too so you should have reasonable access. If you need to remove it though then you'll need a special tool to slacken the belt...

I have a master degree in power engineering so it would be a shame if I didn't connect it properly :D
I will try to see what I can do over the weekend. Yesterday everything was ok first time I started the car, but second time I had the same problem again. It didn't start charging even after both fans kicked in, so I guess its the brushes which randomly gain or lose contact.