Best to just try to replace the relay, you cannot really reliably test a relay too well, not if they are intermittently failing anyway.
If it is not the relay at least you will have a spare relay on hand if she ever needs one.

Hello jwfirebird,

Thank you very much for the diagram. Looking at it, I see on the bottom left, I see something called 'P201', and a little below that is something called '32C1' and Fan Control. Would any of those parts possibly be the cause of the fan'* mysterious slowing down and speeding up? I'd read something somewhere about the temperature sensor unit being a thermo-potentiometer that allows more or less power to flow through it depending on the temperature of it. I put a new one in and the problem persisted. Up until encountering this slow spinning fan, I'd always thought that fans were either on full power, or off when the motor'* temperature was lowered sufficiently. But it seems as though the fan is controlled by something I'd not heard of before. It'* very baffling.

I will try and study the diagram you provided and learn about it more before I touch anything else.

Thank you again for your help. I appreciate it a lot.

Dave

there is no means to vary the fan speed. the pcm turns the relay on or off. the relay puts full voltage or no voltage from the fuse on to the fan. 32, c1 refers to the pin and connector on the pcm that controls the relay. i believe p201 is just a pass-through. s140 means spliced to other wires. if your speed varies you are getting intermittent connection on the "load side" of the relay, or ground. or the fan is bad

Hello jwfirebird,

If I had not seen it, I wouldn't have believed it myself!

This past Sunday, mom called and said she was stuck at the shopping mall again, and that the car overheated again. She'* at that point where she'* always talking about buying 'That new Honda, the one with the seats that can move by itself', and I asked her to give me one last chance because some great guys were helping me on the computer. So I took all my tools and electronic meter down and removed the fan (again) and tested it with the battery, and guess what? It didn't work. Well, it did, but not unless I moved it a bit with my finger first. Then it would take off. But when it stopped, again it would not move if power was applied. Aha! Gotcha!

So I drove all around looking for a car parts place close by as the freeway was stop and go traffic all the way down, but I finally ended up going to the auto parts place close to our house as I had driven almost all the way home looking for a place. They didn't have an original replacement fan, just the cheaper one you 'tie' in place with long plastic strips you shove through the radiator and evaporator and put an end on the other side to keep it tight. I then hooked up the wiring and tested it out. It looked great, so mom drove home while I follower her home. She gave me the thumbs up, which is funny because she'* in her 80'* and this is the first time I'd ever seen her give a thumbs up!

Once back home, I looked at how that fan was attached and didn't like it, so I cut the ties off and removed the fan and got the old one out to compare it with. The old one had 3-10mm bolts (with plastic screw threads) holding it in, while this new one had 3 phillip screws attached from the back. I wondered if there was some way I could mount the new motor in the old housing so the fan would sit perfectly like the old one did. I'd gotten the same size (15 inch) and just to see, I took the old fan motor out and placed the new motor in the hole. It was a little smaller, and the holes to bolt it up were closer inward. No way I'd be able to use the original holes in the shroud.

I thought about drilling and putting a smaller diameter nut and bolt, but the nut would be too big for the space I was thinking of in the back. It also would be offset as the center had a reinforcement spline to strengthen the plastic boss where the original bolt went. Then I got it. Rivets! I searched my old rivet box and found some 3/16 rivets that were really close in diameter to the 6x100 metric bolt shafts with 10mm bolt heads. I carefully drilled the shroud out, and popped the rivets in place, going in a circle carefully putting a little more pressure with each pass to keep the motor centered as could be as the fan spins very closely to the shroud. In the end, it was a perfect transplant. The new fan starts up and blows really hard, and my mom says the A/C is colder than it ever was.

Thank you all (especially you, jwfirebird) for your persistent help in getting my mom'* car running reliably.

Take care,

Dave here in Hawaii

Hello again,

I just wanted to add that I'm still stumped at how the fan sped up when I put resistance on it, then slowed down when the pressure was let up. Any ideas on that one? It'* just been nagging me, something that would be very interesting to find out why it did that.

Take care,

Dave

im glad you got it figured out. thats how electric motors fail, there are bushings or bearings in it and a spot were the brushes ride, the bushings or bearings wear out and then the brushes can go to were they arent touching or were they work but dont transfer enough power so if you start it it will work sometimes.

Thanks for letting us know what the issue was, glad you got it fixed for her, I am sure that takes a lot of worry away from her, being stranded anywhere sucks!

Hello WilliamE,

Thank you too for your advice about the relay. As mom'* car is a 1997, it would be a wise investment to buy a relay and just keep it in case one of them goes bad in the future, especially being stuck somewhere at her age. We were lucky she got stuck at a mall where there is food, drink, A/C for her to wait comfortably while I tried to fix her car. I appreciate all the help from all of you kind members. Maybe one day, I'll be able to return your kindness and somehow help you too! Thanks again.

Take care,

Dave

could possible high resistance cause this issue?.check ground for corrosion