Hello, fans are not working, help!

Probably the water pump, radiator fan or a leak. The title said the fan was not running, is that true? Bottom line, don't drive it like this or your whole engine is at risk.

 

These are both bad things. If you continue to drive this car and overheat it once a day, you will damage the engine almost certainly. A gallon of water is a pretty good percentage of all the coolant volume, so it's a significant amount of coolant lost.

Get it to a shop and get it fixed.

 

You may not hear the fans, they are pretty quiet in low fan mode. You have to visually inspect them with a good light. If you turn the ac on while in Ready mode, it will force both of the fans on.

Otherwise the fans will only come on when the coolant temperature rises to a certain point. If the fans are not running at that point or while in AC mode, the power, control or the fan motor(s) are faulty. Power could be a fuse but fuses blow when there is a fault downstream.

Knowing where to measure, one could check voltages and try to force on the fan with an advanced scanner. 50-90% of a mechanic's job is diagnosing the problem using scanners, meters and troubleshooting techniques gained through training and experience. So positively identifying the problem is not easy over the internet without someone who can use a meter, scanner and other tools. A dealer or experienced mechanic would charge a reasonable fee to id the specific problem, which very well could be the most obvious, eg the fan assembly. But a bad sensor, relay or connection could also cause a fault. Or maybe something else like the water pump or a leak. But I would not change fan motors before testing guarantees the diagnosis.

The attached pdf shows the fuses, relays and temperature sensors that are directly involved with the fan control. By the way, the AC may not run if the engine temperature is too high. Sometimes driving causes enough air flow through the radiator to lower the temps until you slow or stop.

 

how many miles on her?

 

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First, P261B is a water pump code, not a fuel pump. That would absolutely cause overheating.

Second, did you try the AC On test in Ready Mode with the fans? If you have not, do that test.

It's likely the water pump is the issue and its a special electric operated unit. I am not sure that your mobile mechanic properly checked the fans as they are not that accessible from the the engine compartment and checking the circuit from the relays is not a guarantee since there are three fan relays and only one could easily be hot wired. It's hard to believe both fans would have failed at the same time. The three fan relays interlock with two fan speed controls as shown on the schematic above. But the AC Mode check is definitive on the fans without having to know the circuit.

 

I might have cleared the water pump code and checked if it came right back on while monitoring the temperature with a scanner. See the attached youtube link on how to physically remove the pump.

As long as the fans don't run in AC Mode, its a pretty good indication that one or both of the fans or the controls are bad. Since he hot wired them at least the first fan is very likely to be bad.

As it turns out, the second fan gets it power through one relay and its ground through another relay. So hot wiring that fan may not tell the story. But a good tech with the diagram should understand. As JB in NE had said, go for the fans first.

After repairs, the fans should work in AC Mode assuming the engine is not overheated. I would then drive it while live monitoring the water temperature and codes with his scanner.