As I stated before in a previous thread my low-speed fan died. Well I had my car checked out at the dealer last week and they verified it was dead and they ordered another one. I took it into the dealer today to have the fan motor replaced and that was done without any problem, but they found another problem. My fan itself was cracked in half and they had to replace that also. The service manager showed me the fan and yup it was crack in half where the fan blades attach to the outer part of the fan - the fan is a molded piece with the blades attaching to the outer circular part of the fan which makes a nice round unit. The cracked fan was hitting the inside of the the fan shrowd and it apparently burnt out the fan motor. Needless to say I was shocked...I thought it burnt out do to running to much with the Pred since I had the low speed fan set at 185*. They didn't question anything and if they did I wouldn't know what to tell them either...I'm still shocked myself. The story continues...when I get home and pull into the driveway I hear a loud noise coming from the high-speed fan. I'm like WTF is that!!!!! I didn't have any problems with the high-speed fan prior to the visit today. I look around the fan assembly and couldn't see anything at first. After looking around for awhile I then saw a piece of plastic poking out of the fan assembly. I was able to grab it with needle nose pliers and pull it out. Low and behold its a plastic piece with rubber attached to it that must slip onto the radiator support or something. I remember reading threads way back when about people hearing a loud noise from their fan like something was stuck in it. Well this was it. After I pulled it out and got the high-speed fan to come on again the noise was gone... Thank God for that and my knowledge I've gained from reading threads on the forums!!!!!!!
It wasn't as BAD as that, but that's it!!! It just started when I picked-it up from the dealer today. They took the radiator and fan assembly out so I'm guessing when they put it back together that plastic piece with the rubber on it slipped off or something.
Does anyone know what this plastic piece with the rubber on it actually does? I'm guessing its mounts on the radiator somewhere and the rubber portion is supposed to help keep debris etc. out of the fan housing.
Thanks......I never saw that thread in particular, but heard about this issue. I guess the question is do I just leave it out and forget about it or get the dealer to reinstall a new one. It seems that people that removed them and didn't replace them haven't had any overheating issues so I'm not sure I want my car back at the dealer again.
steve - funny you post this story...... had the EXACT same thing happen to me as well, but lost both the high and low speed fans!!!! the fans themselves broke and subsequently the fan motors shit the bed right after!!!!! of course this happened during stop and go traffic on a hot summer day!!!!
Sheeeaat...both my fans still work and I have a few loose pieces also...;-P Actually, I also had that thing come loose right after I got my car...I looked for it based on a thread and yup, there it was sticking out. I just pulled it out and left it out.
I heard you lost your fan motors before, but I didn't know you had cracked fans themselves. I saw the cracked fan first hand and it seems like they're made out of some cheap ol' plastic that would get brittle in time from cold and heat. Frickin' manufacturers really use some cheap ass parts for some essential components these Days!!!!!!! Oh well...at least it was all covered by the dealer. I'm just not sure I want to take it back to get that side seal replaced. My luck they'll replace the side I had to pull out of my high-speed fan housing and I'll get it back to find that the other side seal came loose and jammed up into my new low-speed fan housing!!!!
