motor only has 125,000 on it and was owned by a older spanish couple

im still trying to get the thermostat out(stupid vw have to take off the power steering pump and since its european all the tooks required are ludacris)
but its a 97 jetta and i cant start it now because i drained the system thinking thermostat would be cake work

 

first things first, the fan needs to be fixed. i wouldnt drive your car at all until you figured that out. its either the switch, the wiring, the relay or the fan itself.disconnect the fan, run 2 wires straight from the battery to the connecter and a ground to the connector. if the fan comes on, check the fan off your list. recconnect everything. Unplug your sensor on the thermostat. jump the 2 wires inside that connector. If the fan comes on, your switch is bad. If it does not come on, your switch might be good or bad, but its not the only thing wrong if it is the problem. Check the thermostat ground, check all your fuses. check all the wiring you can find.

If you want to do a leakdown test to see if its a blown headgasket, call me up 575-2416
-Francisco

 

well the fan comes on if the car has been idling for a couple of minutes just not when its being driven

 

weird

 

well i cant do anything about it right now,im stuck in norfolk,have no fluids in the car to drive,or even have it driveable for that matter,and dont have any alan wrenches to remove the power steering pump

 

found out what caused this all,thermosta was not opening,well thinking i had completely drained the cooling system i went to remove the thermostat housing and what a suprise about a gallon of antifreeze all over my neck and chest,pulled out thermostat and it is corroded stuck,put it in boiling water and it didnt not even budge open.i hope that was my only problem,all the antifreeze came out green as ever(straight out of the bottle color)

 

Am I reading this right? If the fan comes on then the switch is bad? I only put one wire in and the fan came on instantly.

 

I realize I'm probably stating the obvious but the exhaust willl smell sweet like antifreeze if the head's blown.

 

um. what did the wire connect to? because it you connected a piece of wire to 1 terminal and then left the other end of the wire connected to nothing, you'd have the same outcome as if the terminal wasnt even connected at all

 

I pulled the plug off of the thermostat housing and ran a wire from it to the positive side of the battery and the fan came right on...I didn't even get a chance to hook up the second wire. I did the test on the fan plug itself and had to run wires to the positive and negative but only needed one wire for the thermostat switch. Weird. Either way, I'm going to replace it.