Originally Posted By: Panzerman
Company truck I got now. A 2004 Ford F150 does this. Annoying. The garage said it's normal. If it's normal, I can't imagine anyone ever buying this truck. Goes away after it warms up and doesn't do it on warm starts.
Probably a mechanical fan. At least, my friends '05 was mechanical and yeah those will run when they are cold simply due to the viscous clutch being cold. This has always been a thing with these clutches going back decades.. When it warms a bit from friction it will unlock.
The running when cold is a good thing because it tells you its still working properly. Unlike the one on my friends truck that was always quiet and let the engine overheat while it was idling.
As for the escalade, yeah, if you have the A/C on the fans will come on as soon as the engine starts. If you shut the a/c off, they should then shut off. If they don,t then I would say that is abnormal behavior; perhaps a stuck relay or something.
Something I just thought of; if it has PWM variable fans, the controller for the fans could be bad and instead of varying the fans the FET or other component internally is shorted so the fans always run 100%. Something to check.