Manual Fans Options

[Caleci]

Just bought this really clean 1999 6th gen (AT200) Celica; named her Caleci, after the mother of dragons, with only 112K miles on her. I'm assuming the fans stopped working at some point, because the previous owner has them cut, and wired. + wire to the + bat. terminal, and a loose ground wire that he touches to the -- terminal?

Im considering cleaning up his wirey mess and installing a manual switch to the cabin to control when the fans come on, or should I return the fans and wires to how they were originally set up and try to diagnose it? Its forum right, let me know what anyone and everyone thinks!

[Bitter]

OEM operation will be the best, cause you might forget to turn them on and cook the engine and running them all the time is just wasteful. In the mean time you could just buy a cheap eBay fan controller kit to get some kind of automatic operation but it won't be as good as OEM and won't run them with the AC on like they should be, so DO NOT USE THE AC UNTIL THE FANS ARE REPAIRED BECAUSE YOU WILL OVERHEAT THE COMPRESSOR AND RUIN THE AC SYSTEM FOREVER.

[Caleci]

Yeah I wont be running the AC without fans any time soon. Maybe a little in the morning if necessary for defrost purposes but once the engine is at operating temp it will be off. I think my best bet is going to be to return the fans back to a stock wiring set up regardless if the fans work or not. and then from there I think I can diagnose it and get down to the root issue and replace whatever need be. But before I return them to OEM set up, Im considering putting in a temporary manual switch. I know when fans need to come on, the car is going to be my commuter. I usually drive 1 hour to work and there is usually traffic, so i just need to make sure the fans are on before I hit traffic so I dont overheat in the middle of everybody. But again, I think of this as more of a temporary fix.

[Box]

If I recall correctly there's a sensor in the bottom of the radiator responsible for turning the fans on and off. Could be that, or perhaps a relay. I would return the wiring to stock and start diagnosing.