Rob,
Your vanagon must have been warm inside.
That is how the thermostat and fan are set up to work.
Even when the fridge is turned off, if the thermostat
switch reaches a certain temperature, it will turn the fan on.
My "fridge fan" used to do the same when the van was hot inside.
At least, you know the thermostat switch and the fan
are working.
Last time while I had the fridge out for maintenance, I
rerouted the thermostat switch wire and put
in a toggle switch under the right cabinet shelf.
Now I turn the fridge fan off when I'm not camping.
Of course, the risk is that I might forget to turn it
back on when I use the fridge.
Probably should have used a small relay, but I
was too lazy.
It would probably take many weeks of the fan
running to drain the battery.

Harald
'90 westy

Rob wrote:
> Went out to get in camper the other day and heard the fan running in the
> fridge.   It was off.  Actually even when it is on and running I have
never
> heard the fan before.  Like, I didn't  even know it had a fan.  Anyway,
> later on it quits.  And even later on than that it kicks on again. Still
> off as far as I know.
> What gives?  BTW I removed the fuse so it won't run the battery down.