1998 Ford Focus overheating Help

[nissan4life]

My car overheated on my way home, checklight came on so i was able to pull aside and see what was going on. Happened that the heaterhose that goes into the car close to the firewall came loose. I let the car cool,fixed it and filled back up with coolant.
After getting the check light scanned, it was related to the overheating problem and the code was cleared. The car starts normally and the code is now gone but i realise the fan is not switching on unless i turn on the ac.
Because of this when the temperature builds the hose by the firewall sprays out the coolant.
There is only one fan on these cars so i am not sure if it works in stages, the fan works as it comes on with the ac but only at full speed.
Can anyone assist with this. Could it be the fan?themostat or maybe the fan relay?
Again the fan comes on only when the ac is on
Im looking for a electrician that deals with European cars to give me some advise.
Can anyone of the older heads on this forum give any advise or point me inthe right direction?

[zaria]

FIrst fix the hose that leaks,even if car is overheating i don't think the coolant should leak from there.
How are u sure the vehicle is up to temp for the fan to turn on?
sometimes from cold to get fan on with engine running without load(parked)t takes abt 15mins for fans to turn on,engine by touch will feel hot but internally not at temp.
There should be 2 temp units,1 for the guage on dash and one for the brain,this is the one which will turn the fan on.When i had issue with my peugeot i first identified the brain temp sensor by unplugging and see which affects the dash temp guage,once locate the brain temp guage,unplug and the brain will think engine is hot,if fans do not turn on then most likely problem is at fan relay or fan,if turns on and engine is definately overheating then replace that sensor.

[nissan4life]

Thanks for the input zaria, That made alot of sense.I am in the process of replacing the hose.
I brought the car by a electrician and tested fan,relays and a heater coil that is located on the radiator that controls when the fans come in and all passed so im looking at the other scenarios.
Purchased new hose just need the time to go below the car and change.
When the car overheated i also got a cylinder head temperature sensor error code, but the code was cleared and didnt come back up so i guess if its not the hose im hoping its the sensor.As this sensor monitors the engine temperature and relates it the the ecu.. Just starting from the simplest of things and working my way up

Found some infor that will assist me with whats going on, from the research i did i can go into the instrument cluster and monitor the temp and when it reaches 108-110 the fan is suppose to kick in on the first stage. So im making headway.
Will keep the forum updated

I realise the ford forum isnt as active as the other forums where ppl pass their knowledge around so im posting this for future reference.
Found this on the http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2641 forum
As most of you know, you can enter a test mode on the instrument cluster but only a few of the functions have been figured out, untill now. Here is a list of all the functions:
Insert Key (do not turn it)
2) Press and hold the Trip-Meter Reset Button
3) While holding the reset button, start your car and continue holding the button.
4) Within 10 seconds, the display should change to "test" (written in a silly LCD font) and the needles will go nuts. No biggie. Release the Button.
5) Pressing the button will now cycle through some 15 different modes.


Functions
1 Gauge Sweep All gauges carry-out sweep
2 LCD Test Makes all the LCDs light up
3 Bulb Test Lights all functioning cluster bulbs
4 Rom Level Displays the instrument cluster ROM revision level
5 NVM Level Displays the instrument clister NVM revision level
6 DTC Diagnostic trouble codes
7 Road speed MPH
8 Road Speed Kmph
9 RPMs
10 Fuel Volume
11 Engine coolant temperature
12 battery voltage
13 ABS Fail Displays ABS RAW input (H=over-charging or battery L=Ground)
14 Electronic brake distrubution failure ^
15 Illumination H=on L=off
16 Crank sense H=ignition L=ground or over-charging

[nissan4life]

Just an update to the forum.
Turned out the hose going into the heater wasnt good. the fans never came on because the temp never reached 110(thats the cut in temp for the ford fans) as the hose kept spraying out the water when the pressure built.
I changed hose and put on new clamps and everything is fine now.

Zaria thanks for your input. Hope that more ppl would get involved on the forum and spread the knowledge instead of keeping it to them selves