How-To Repair : Hydraulic Fan Pump Actuator / Solenoid

Travis2000LS

Travis2000LS

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How-To Replace Hydraulic Fan Actuator

Average Fix time: 2-3 Hours
Difficulty: Intermediate ( Tight spots, and Lots of Fluid everywhere )

So this is for all you Lincoln LS Owners who have the Gen 1 2000-2002 with a Hydraulic Fan.

Symptoms :

You know your Actuator has gone bad if your Fan is spinning All the time or most of the time Pretty slow. In my case My car when it was Cold the fan would spin slow and then Kick into High mode a few times then eventually stop back to Slow mode again when it made running temperature causing the engine to Overheat.
More symptoms include Fan just spinning slowly and never kicking up more.

*NOTE*
Water in your Hydraulic Fan Fluid can cause the Actuator to go out!
Make sure your fluid is a Dark Red Color and not a Pinkish Puke color.
(Water caused mine to go out)

If you have water in your system.
Unbolt the Hydraulic Fan Fluid Reservoir ( To the Passenger side of the engine )
Remove Both Hoses.
Spin the Fan Manually by hand and watch the old Fluid drain out. Add fluid as necessarily to the Opposite hose, continue this until you see New fluid.


Step 1 *Reservoir*

Unbolt the Hydraulic Fan Reservoir and Remove both Hoses attached. Set the Reservoir aside.

Step 2 *Under the car you go!*

Jack the Lincoln LS up and set it up on jackstands, If you have a creeper this shall help out alot also.
Crawl under the car and to the passenger side of the engine near the wheel look up, You will see the Alternator and above that a Hose connected to your hydraulic fan pump. Remove the hose clamp and by hand Pry the Hose off the Pump.
Get out from under the car and fish out the hose by hand and set it aside.

Step 3 * Removing the Old Actuator *

Right above the port where the Hose you just removed went you will see your old actuator. Remove the wiring harness connection and with a T-40 Bit and a small ratchet un bolt the old actuator.

Step 4 * New Actuator Install *

Proceed by installing your new actuator in by first re-connecting your wiring harness connection and set your new Actuator in the old ones place.
Then with your T-40 Socket Start tighting it in. Remember Tight is Tight and Too Tight is broken. You dont have to be super man here and tighten it so no man will ever be able to get it off. This will result in breaking the new actuator and stripping out the Head.

Step 5 * Hose back On! *

With your New Actuator snugly in place, Grab the hose your set aside earlier and proceed to snake it back down into its proper place where you can the Crawl back underneath your Lincoln ls and Push the Hose back on the Hydraulic Pump Fitting.
*NOTE* This could take some time due to it is a VERY tight space and it is hard to get the Hose clamp off much less back on the fitting. Take patience and try not to get frustrated

With the Hose clamp in place you are now able to Lower the car back on the ground as normal.

Step 6 * Reservoir back in place! Almost ready! *

Grab your Fan Reservoir, put the two hoses back on the Reservoir, Replace the Two bolts to hold it to the car and Fill with new ATF Fluid!

Step 7 * Fill up and Go *

Fill the fluid to the Max Fill level, replace the cap and turn your car ON! With the cars fan Pump running Add more Fluid until it is at the Max Fill level again. You should notice a difference in your Fans speed dramatically. Your Fan should now respond to your RPMS while in Drive or Reverse .
I noticed that I could actually hear the Fan from away from the car.

Take your car for a test drive and let it run for about 30 to 40 Minutes. If your fan stays constant and everything looks and sounds Better and OK you are good to go!


Thought I would put a Tutorial on how to replace this because there wasnt a Thread dedicated to it!
 
Nope it fixed it! Thought I'd help people out with a nice write up tutorial on how to fix their problem ! So they won't have to guess around like I did. Thanks for the complement also.
 
Travis2000LS said:
How-To Replace Hydraulic Fan Actuator

Average Fix time: 2-3 Hours
Difficulty: Intermediate ( Tight spots, and Lots of Fluid everywhere )

So this is for all you Lincoln LS Owners who have the Gen 1 2000-2002 with a Hydraulic Fan.

Symptoms :

You know your Actuator has gone bad if your Fan is spinning All the time or most of the time Pretty slow. In my case My car when it was Cold the fan would spin slow and then Kick into High mode a few times then eventually stop back to Slow mode again when it made running temperature causing the engine to Overheat.
More symptoms include Fan just spinning slowly and never kicking up more.

*NOTE*
Water in your Hydraulic Fan Fluid can cause the Actuator to go out!
Make sure your fluid is a Dark Red Color and not a Pinkish Puke color.
(Water caused mine to go out)

If you have water in your system.
Unbolt the Hydraulic Fan Fluid Reservoir ( To the Passenger side of the engine )
Remove Both Hoses.
Spin the Fan Manually by hand and watch the old Fluid drain out. Add fluid as necessarily to the Opposite hose, continue this until you see New fluid.


Step 1 *Reservoir*

Unbolt the Hydraulic Fan Reservoir and Remove both Hoses attached. Set the Reservoir aside.

Step 2 *Under the car you go!*

Jack the Lincoln LS up and set it up on jackstands, If you have a creeper this shall help out alot also.
Crawl under the car and to the passenger side of the engine near the wheel look up, You will see the Alternator and above that a Hose connected to your hydraulic fan pump. Remove the hose clamp and by hand Pry the Hose off the Pump.
Get out from under the car and fish out the hose by hand and set it aside.

Step 3 * Removing the Old Actuator *

Right above the port where the Hose you just removed went you will see your old actuator. Remove the wiring harness connection and with a T-40 Bit and a small ratchet un bolt the old actuator.

Step 4 * New Actuator Install *

Proceed by installing your new actuator in by first re-connecting your wiring harness connection and set your new Actuator in the old ones place.
Then with your T-40 Socket Start tighting it in. Remember Tight is Tight and Too Tight is broken. You dont have to be super man here and tighten it so no man will ever be able to get it off. This will result in breaking the new actuator and stripping out the Head.

Step 5 * Hose back On! *

With your New Actuator snugly in place, Grab the hose your set aside earlier and proceed to snake it back down into its proper place where you can the Crawl back underneath your Lincoln ls and Push the Hose back on the Hydraulic Pump Fitting.
*NOTE* This could take some time due to it is a VERY tight space and it is hard to get the Hose clamp off much less back on the fitting. Take patience and try not to get frustrated

With the Hose clamp in place you are now able to Lower the car back on the ground as normal.

Step 6 * Reservoir back in place! Almost ready! *

Grab your Fan Reservoir, put the two hoses back on the Reservoir, Replace the Two bolts to hold it to the car and Fill with new ATF Fluid!

Step 7 * Fill up and Go *

Fill the fluid to the Max Fill level, replace the cap and turn your car ON! With the cars fan Pump running Add more Fluid until it is at the Max Fill level again. You should notice a difference in your Fans speed dramatically. Your Fan should now respond to your RPMS while in Drive or Reverse .
I noticed that I could actually hear the Fan from away from the car.

Take your car for a test drive and let it run for about 30 to 40 Minutes. If your fan stays constant and everything looks and sounds Better and OK you are good to go!


Thought I would put a Tutorial on how to replace this because there wasnt a Thread dedicated to it!
Click to expand...
Travis, Where did you obtain acutator from the dealer? If handy can you provide Part number.

Tim
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Part Number : xw4z-3783-ca

I do believe you have to buy from the dealer, Couldnt find any other place that had it!

Sorry but no pics :( One day Ill crawl under the LS again and take some snap shots of where the actuator is located and whatnot. :(

I tried to explain the best I could on how to tackle this job right after I did mine


*UPDATE*

Drove car the 3rd of July, As some of you might know, Panama City Beach is pretty busy around holidays and what not. Was stuck for about 3 hours or so in Stop and go traffic all night. Used a half of tank of gas. And no Overheating! Problem Solved!!!

Now its time to buy the New secondary timing chain and then a new Windsheild and she is caught up with all her Problems and maintenance!

So glad Ive almost finally got her caught back up with the times, due to the Previous Owner/Owners let her go :(

She is in good hands now :)
 
Travis, I got a question. You mentioned that now you can actually hear the fan from far away. I have never had a Lincoln LS before nor do I know anyone to compare the sound. My car does not over heat at all. And maybe the loud sound I heard, like if a jet plane is going to take of the run way, is normal due to this being my first car with a hydraulic Fan. I turn on my at any time, day, night, hot day, cold day, a/c on or off, and its like the fan is going pretty fast. I step on the gas in park, and I hear fan rev up, then go down as rpms go lower. Normal I would assume. I have been reading and asking questions thinking that there is something wrong. All because I use to work at Mazda and we have electric fans, and when the Fan Control Module went bad on certain cars, the fan would rev up like crazy, sounded like the rpms were at 2500 permanently. Any suggestions, any questions you may have for me to help you guys help me? I would really appreciated it. Just got the car a month ago.
 
Pretty sure you only need the one Actuator.

Travis2000LS, stated that he replaced the Actuator on his LS, didn't mention anything about needing two of them to complete the job.

drag214, barged in out of nowhere and stated that he needed two of them, most likely a second one for another LS, he either had two LS's with the same problem or he was picking up a second Actuator for a friend.

Any sub system like the Hydraulic Fan Pump, would really only require one Actuator.
Used to Activate the system. I may be wrong but I doubt a second Actuator is needed within that same system to Activate the Fan assy.

~ food for thought.
 
Thaks for the info. Ford in Tampa wants 185.40 for the part. I wish I wasn't pressed for time, then I would just eBay it.
 
Hey Travis
Thanks for the write up, this was exactly what the problem was and now my 2002 LS (115K) stays cool. The only thing that happened to me was that the actuator actually came apart and half of it stayed in the pump and I had to use a file to gently tap it till it twisted out.
 
Not a bad job. Took about 15 minutes all together. Didn't remove the hose or tank. Just threw the T40 on a 12" extension and poped it right off.
Noticed last night the fan fluid was low. Saw the alt was soaked. Pulled the sensor/valve off and can see a crack down its threads. Not sure how that happened, may have been knocked during the motor swap.
 
I know this post is old but in case someone is researching this topic, BigRigLS is correct. I had 2 LSs with the same problem. I got the parts I needed and it took me all of 15 mins to replace the faulty solenoid. This was a problem I had been trying to figure out for a long time. Took it to a dealer and the mechanics couldn't figure it out. I was pretty excited about getting it fixed as you can tell from my abrupt posting.
 
drag214 said:
I know this post is old but in case someone is researching this topic, BigRigLS is correct. I had 2 LSs with the same problem. I got the parts I needed and it took me all of 15 mins to replace the faulty solenoid. This was a problem I had been trying to figure out for a long time. Took it to a dealer and the mechanics couldn't figure it out. I was pretty excited about getting it fixed as you can tell from my abrupt posting.
Click to expand...


Yes it does not take long at all. The only thing I did was drain the resevior, the T40 socket I had fit right in there wit a 1/4 extension and rachet. Let it drain out replaced and cleaned up the alternator with electrical cleaner. I now have ac and no over heating.
 
Yup I just drained and used a 12 inch extension with the bit to change it out. Works like a charm!
 
Thanks to these forums i was able to get my overheating issues fixed. Heres a video i did of the actuator replacement.



Hope this helps someone!
 
Dajon Porter said:
Does anyone know where the cylinder head temperature sensor located?
Click to expand...
Yes, I suspect that a lot of people do.
It's almost certainly (95+%) not your problem. Why don't you describe your problem or search out your symptoms. The way the temperature gauge works makes people think it is a sensor problem instead of a real overheat.
Assuming that you have the V8, the CHT is under the intake manifold on the driver's side. It's not reusable. If you remove it, you have to put a new one back in.

EDIT:
You should have stayed with your original thread if you want real help with this.

Replaced actuator in 02 Lincoln LS 3.9 V8 still running hot. Please!!! Somebody Help!!!

You never answered the important questions about what parts you have changed out and what you used.
In each case, was it...
1. New Motorcraft parts.
2. New Dorman/other parts.
3. Used parts.

At the very least, you have a hydraulic fan problem, so why are you looking at the CHT (unless your problems have changed)? The temperature gauge is showing an overheat, and the fan is not speeding up. This rules out the CHT. You aren't getting an OBDII code for the fan actuator, so you know it's not the PCM or the wiring. It could be the actuator, if you used a used one. It could be the pump, the motor, the fluid, or the filter in the reservoir, but all this had been said before.
You are losing coolant and overheating when driving at 40 MPH or higher, so you have a coolant system problem as well as the cooling fan issue.

Please answer about the parts above and correct any of my statements that are wrong.
 
Last edited:
joegr said:
Yes, I suspect that a lot of people do.
It's almost certainly (95+%) not your problem. Why don't you describe your problem or search out your symptoms. The way the temperature gauge works makes people think it is a sensor problem instead of a real overheat.
Assuming that you have the V8, the CHT is under the intake manifold on the driver's side. It's not reusable. If you remove it, you have to put a new one back in.

EDIT:
You should have stayed with your original thread if you want real help with this.

Replaced actuator in 02 Lincoln LS 3.9 V8 still running hot. Please!!! Somebody Help!!!

You never answered the important questions about what parts you have changed out and what you used.
In each case, was it...
1. New Motorcraft parts.
2. New Dorman/other parts.
3. Used parts.

At the very least, you have a hydraulic fan problem, so why are you looking at the CHT (unless your problems have changed)? The temperature gauge is showing an overheat, and the fan is not speeding up. This rules out the CHT. You aren't getting an OBDII code for the fan actuator, so you know it's not the PCM or the wiring. It could be the actuator, if you used a used one. It could be the pump, the motor, the fluid, or the filter in the reservoir, but all this had been said before.
You are losing coolant and overheating when driving at 40 MPH or higher, so you have a coolant system problem as well as the cooling fan issue.

Please answer about the parts above and correct any of my statements that are wrong.
Click to expand...


I changed out the Actuator with a used actuator from a junk yard off a 02 lincoln LS 3.9 v8 just like mine. The hydraulic fan pump has never been changed on my car since ive had it but the fluid is clear as i recently flushed out the old fluid and have replaced it with new fluid. The reservoir filters are clean. The OEM fan motor and fan assembly was recently replaced with another OEM fan assembly that was in good condition back in October 2016 last year. I have not been able to find a leak anywhere. When the vehicle sits in idle at high pressure there is no leak found. its not until i drive my coolant disappears. Im thinking the coolant is probably boiling out at high temp im not sure but i know my fan is not ramping up like it used to do.
 
...used actuator, that sat rusting in a junk yard (and could have been bad before it even got to the junk yard)...
 
I hate to resurrect an old thread. I have an 01 ls v8. Overheating. Fan only spins at a slow speed. Shop also diagnosed it and told me cooling fan and cooling fan pump needs replaced. Obviously I wouldn't be having them do the work, I'd just rather pay a diagnostic fee before throwing money at parts. But could it just be the actuator in the pump that's bad? I'd much rather replace that than fight the fan or pump out. Plus it's cheaper. Thanks in advance for your help.

Edit: 168k miles. Most stuff appears to be original
 
Yes, it could be.
What did they do to diagnose it? If the system is contaminated, then they could be correct.
 
joegr said:
Yes, it could be.
What did they do to diagnose it? If the system is contaminated, then they could be correct.
Click to expand...
Well it appears all they did was turn the AC on and realized it still sounds slowly. I say that because I left it off because I know that will make it overheat faster but it was on when I picked it up. I'm not leaking coolant. They also did a block test which was fine. If needed I can call and ask specifically how they tested the pump and fan
 
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