The electric rad fan on my 2000 Dakota started to stay on continuously, even after shutting off the truck. My mechanic identified the problem not as a bad temp sensor as I suspected, but a failure of the rad fam relay, located in the main wiring/relay/fuse block under the hood. The relay itself shows sign of overheating, and the housing below it is a bit charred and cracked. They suspected the rad fan was defective, drawing too much power and burning out the relay. On ordering the replacement part (relay), the dealership supplied a relay about twice the size, with a bolt hole tab on the top, with directions to bolt it to a wall, cut the wires for the original position from the bottom of the wiring block, and connect to this higher rated relay.

Anyone else experienced this? Looks like a potential fire hazard to me, and, if there are lots of others who have experienced this (as evidenced by the replacement part) perhaps this should be a Manufacturer Recall...... Let me know guys and gals.... thanks

Seems to be a TSB on it, Bulletin 1800102 seems to cover it, but can't find details anywhere.....

 

same problem with mine . previous owner unplugged the fan , but i would like to fix it. what did it cost? part number?

 

I had the same problem. It looked like all the relays under that cover were the same so I took the one for the Fog-Lights and put it in the slot for the fan. Keep meaning to replace it! I wouldn't replace it with anything other than the original size as these things get quite a hard life and are bound to fail sometime. If the replacement packs up soon, then I'll get it looked at but if it last a few years then I'd just call it a consumable item.