I have a Pasadena ceiling fan that started sparking from the light sockets. The fixture sockets and wiring ring out OK and my guess is that the capacitor has an internal problem. It is a 4-wire cap with the blue (light wire) supplying the light fixture. The original is a 3.5uf, 4 uf, 4.5 uf and the closest replacement is a 4uf, 4.5,uf, 5 uf. My guess is that it should work fine, but was curious if anyone has seen this type of a problem before.

Thanks...

Where exactly was the sparking from?

That capacitor should work fine if it is in fact the problem.

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Originally Posted by abidwell

I have a Pasadena ceiling fan that started sparking from the light sockets. The fixture sockets and wiring ring out OK and my guess is that the capacitor has an internal problem. It is a 4-wire cap with the blue (light wire) supplying the light fixture. The original is a 3.5uf, 4 uf, 4.5 uf and the closest replacement is a 4uf, 4.5,uf, 5 uf. My guess is that it should work fine, but was curious if anyone has seen this type of a problem before.

Thanks...

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It was sparking and smoking around the base of one of the CFL bulbs. It wasn't a direct short and did not trip the breaker. I replaced the CFL and it did the same thing again which is what makes me think it may be a cap problem or a problem with CFLs with the fan running. I replaced the incandescent bulbs with CFLs a few weeks ago and they have been working OK, although now that I think about it I don't know if I ever tested them with the fan running (I need to check that). Note: the fan light is not on a dimmer

If the sparking was from the light sockets, then it's not connected with the fan or the capacitor, it's from the light kit and it's sockets. Inspect the sockets and wires for burned and charred marks and replace what is damaged.

BTW I use CFLs on all my fans.

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Originally Posted by ceilingfanrepair

BTW I use CFLs on all my fans.

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I found the REAL problem. I pulled the light fixture off the fan control unit and metered the socket section several times and discovered an intermittant short in one of the sockets. It would only short when the fan was running - must have introduced enough vibration that the hot wire shorted to the case. I did pull the old sockets apart and found the insulation was pretty brittle. The light section had swivels on each socket to adjust the light and they didn't hold in the preferred position very well so I decided to replace the light section rather than repair each socket. Thanks for your posts; I did learn that another ceiling fan that won't start at low or med speed probably needs a capacitor... :o)

Very good!