Just the other day, I was following my usual weekend car routine — starting up my Satria to let the engine warm up. Like always, it fired up without any hesitation. I usually let it idle for about 30 minutes to get the engine temp up while I take my Celica for a quick spin (and vice versa on alternate days).
But this time, when I came back, I was greeted by smoke filling the engine bay. My heart sank. I quickly shut off the engine, popped the hood — and thankfully realized it wasn’t smoke, but steam coming from the coolant reservoir.
I immediately checked the temperature gauge, and luckily it hadn’t hit the red zone — it was about three-quarters up, which still gave me a bit of breathing room.
The Diagnosis
Once the engine cooled down, I inspected the radiator coolant level — all good. I then started the engine again, and everything seemed to run fine. But I noticed something wasn’t right: the radiator fan wasn’t spinning.
However, when I turned on the air conditioning, the air-cond fan kicked in and helped cool the radiator — allowing the car to run without overheating. That’s when I knew: something was wrong with the radiator fan circuit.
So I went through the usual checks:
- Fan motor? ✅ OK
- Coolant level? ✅ OK
- Temperature sensor? ✅ Likely OK
- Fuses? ❌ BINGO
Turns out, the fan fuse box was burnt/damaged — the root cause of the fan failure.
The Plan Forward
At the moment, I’m looking for a replacement fan fuse box. If I can’t find one, I’ll have no choice but to wire out the fan manually and add an inline fuse — not ideal, but it’ll keep things running safely for now.
Call for Help
If you happen to have a Satria fan fuse box (or even a clear picture/model reference), please reach out to me! I’m willing to pay a reasonable price to get this sorted properly.
Until then, this was a good reminder: never leave your car idling unattended for too long — even if it’s “routine.”
