Pontiac Repair: overheating, hayes manuals, blade area

Question
1992 bonneville, two fans, neither one will come on, car will start to overheat at idle, then cols down when driving, naturally, where on earth do I start to look for problem? I just bought the car for daughter and am not familiar with electric fans system.  thanks

Answer
Hi Everett:

Well fisrt off if this car has A/C and it still works turn it on and after a minuter of so the A/C system should turn on the fans as well. if not you have an electrical issue with the fans. It's been a while since I worked on one that old but the fan is more than likely controlled my the engine computer and naot by an seperate coolant fan switch. so it uses the same sensor that the engine computer uses to determine fule delivery rate. That said if that sensor is reading incorrectly meaning it is reading cooler than the engine temp it will not turn on the fans but I doubt that's it because if that was out of wack it would run bad. the second thing could be  that the engine computer is bad and it's not turning on the relays to run the fans. You would need a scan tool to see if that is the issue. You could have a bad relay or relays for the fans those are on the cowl under the wiper blade area against the fire wall. You could have a fuse or fuseable link that burnt out that is cauing this issue. or lastly you could have 2 bad fans VERY doubtful! If you had a service manual that would help out you can get one at the parts store but stay away from Hayes manuals they are not to detailed. That in a nut shell is all of the possabilities I can think of hope that helps out.. GOOD luck :)