B737-700
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 462; Flight Crew Type 29000
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
Just after liftoff; the Equipment Cooling Exhaust light came on. As we climbed out; we ran the checklist in the QRH and switched to the alternate fan. After about five minutes; the light was still on. We contacted Dispatch to see if they wanted us to divert or continue to ZZZ. While we were waiting for their answer; we looked up the MEL for both fans being inoperative. MEL has a note about not flying over 30 minutes because of the possibility of losing the First Officer Display Unit and the upper center Display Unit.We also checked the circuit breakers to make sure they were not open. After Dispatch initially wanted us to continue; we diverted to ZZZ1. We were ok with this; considering the amount we were overweight for landing at that point. We did land overweight; but we elected not to burn [excess fuel] because of the additional flight time required to do so. This aircraft had a history of this issue. Both the fan and the sensor had been replaced in recent days. I did not feel comfortable flying internationally in this condition.
B737-700 Captain reported loss of the avionics cooling fan after takeoff that resulted in a diversion.