After I drive my car for a few minutes the temperature stays at the normal spot, but when I come to a light it rises pretty fast. First thing I did was a radiator flush and replaced the thermostat. I just realized the fan isnt turning on when it should. Do I need a whole new fan or a relay? Also when I turn on the a/c the radiator fan still doesnt turn on, but the a/c fan does.

 

Its your fan..
check fan switch/relay/fan motor.

** check all connection/wires first
Bypass fan switch, if it works, then change your fan switch.
Bypass relay, if it works, then it's your relay
hook fan straight to battery, if it don't work, then it's your fan motor.

 

When was the last time the water pump was replaced? That could be making the "fan not turning as much as it should be" situation much worse.

 

Do this.....

 

not to sound like a retard, but how would I go about bypassing the switch?

I checked the relay and it works fine. The guy I got the car from said the waterpump just got changed 3 months ago. But he also lied about some other stuff so theres no telling.

 

i wouldnt bypass the switch to the fan because it will always run. i would check your fan fuse to be honest. its usually something as simple as blowing a 40A fuse in the fuse box under the hood. there should be a fuse for the rad/fan relay. if it gets overloaded in heat then it usually blows. check that and then check your wiring.

 

You bypass the switch to troubleshoot, not as a permanent fix.

 

Yes. But, how do I bypass them to check? run wires to the battery? where would I hook the wires to?

 

To test the fan motor, just run two wires from the battery right to the fan. Unplug the fan and make sure you hook ground to ground and power to power. If it turns on, the fan is good. I think that's what you're asking for...

 

to bypass the switch pull it off the thermostat housing and connect a piece of wire to the 2 terminals inside the plug. if the fan turns on then the relay is good and the switch is bad. if the fan does not turn on then either the relay is bad, or there's an open in a wire.

 

Thanks for all the help. I figured out that its the cooling fan switch.
That's a lot easier than switching out a water pump, which is what I was going to do on Wednesday.