The wires that come out of the red temperature sensor on the side of the receiver dryer are routed to two terminal clips, which have been unplugged be a dealer mechanic. The wires continue to run down toward the botom of the radiator and it looks like they may be supplying power to the motors, but I can't tell without further investigation.

Take a look at the picture: There are two white plugs to the right of the high temperature a/c sensor. One is plugged in, the other isn't (actually both of these were unplugged when I found them). The wires come out of the sensor and make a 180 degree turn toward the front of the car, diving down toward the front of the radiator and running across the radiator.

I can't figure out why my a/c even works with the temperature switch out of the loop, although it's only blowing about 50 F in stop-and-go traffic at 85 F outside. At that time, the aux fans are on high. When the car gets moving, the temp drops back down to 40 F. All the time, the coolant never got above 92 C.

I noticed this by accident when I was replacing my aux fan relay, but if one of the wires coming out of the temperature sensor touches a ground, the aux fans will run on low, but smoke and melting wire smell will come from the top mount nut on the preresistor spring.

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1993 400E, 256,000 miles (totaled)
1994 E420, 200,000+ miles
1995 E420, 201,000 miles