PsYcHe Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 Guys, Looks like my electric radiator fan has bit the dust (just before I drive off to France)... Any ideas on points to look for loose connections? The manual suggests there's an extra fuse for the LHD models, but there seems to be no equivalent for RHD. Any ideas before I start faffing around with bits of flex to see if it's the fan and end up either frying myself or breaking summat else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickGUK Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 What car / engine do you have ? coz if its a 3.7 or 4.2 (unsure on 2.8) then it has no electric radiator fan as its a viscous fan. The electric fan you see is for the Air conditioning only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsYcHe Posted June 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 Ah... it's a 4.2. She's recently started heating up in traffic , might not be too bad as it's only up to 110 after about half an hour in pretty crap queues. When would the second fan likely kick in then? The viscous fan is running, though I might need to perform the carrot test on it to make sure it's working properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickGUK Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 the "second" fan is only running when the aircon is on, it is not designed to keep the car rad cool, thats the job of the viscous fan, although when the aircon is on and the electric fan is running, additional cooling would be present. To check the aircon fan, simply start the car and turn on the aircon, the fan should run straight away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsYcHe Posted June 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 Second fan isn't running with the aircon on.. having poked it with the carrot, it looks fekked. The viscous fan stops under 'mild carrot pressure' at idle.. Never having used the carrot test on it, I'm not sure how hard the carrot needs pushed in before it should stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ska Posted June 27, 2007 Report Share Posted June 27, 2007 When the engine bay is hot say after a 4-5 mile run in traffic that viscous fan is unstoppable with any type of carrot including GM ones . The elecy fan doesn't come on straight away on the V6's Nick; its when things get a little hot and the A/c is running hard. Also its governed by the high pressure switch on the A/C circuit; is your A/C working OK? does it start blowing warm air when the engine temp rises. Does the engine temp start to rise only when the AC is on? because if it is chances are its the high pressure switch connector behind the front bumper that has water ingress proly due to the recent weather; simply remove bumper and disconnect the switch then clean/dry out the 4 pin connector. Alternatively give the fan 12volts to see if its given up the ghost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsYcHe Posted June 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2007 A/C is cold even when the temperature goes up, so that bit's OK.. Not tried it with the AC off, but if I put the heaters up it cools back down. It's at a local garage just now for testing as I'm just too busy at the minute to dig the bugger out myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsYcHe Posted June 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2007 Well.. they reckon there's nothing wrong with it.. the viscous fan is 'a bit lazy' and would merely badly wound a carrot, leaving it to dwell on the wisdom of being in the fridge of an A8 owner. Going to do a straight 12v application to the fan later in the week to see if it's definitely working and they just couldn't be bothered waiting until the car overheated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheet22 Posted June 27, 2007 Report Share Posted June 27, 2007 Checkout my saga of a post on overheating - finally got it sorted by going through the viscous fan, water pump etc to find it was probably the thermostat However, you mentioned yours rises on idle - Ska told me at the outset he suspected the Viscous fan if it heats up at idle, and I have to agree. Now mines had a new one, there aint no stopping that thing with a foot long, 5 inc diameter carrot at hot idle! before it was replaced, I could stop it with little effort. My problem was heating up at speed, which looks like the thermo/pump was at fault. Its a painful exercise finding the cause. Oh, and ask the garage to check the sensor and gauge readings using vag-com, just make sure they are in line with each other etc. you never know.... Hope u have more luck than I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheet22 Posted June 27, 2007 Report Share Posted June 27, 2007 Oh, and if you get stuck, call Andy at A4Audi in Glasgow, tell him Paul sent ya - hes a great guy and knows these cars well. (he didn't charge me to take a quick look and run some basic tests) http://www.a4audi.co.uk/component/option,com_contact/Itemid,3/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsYcHe Posted June 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2007 I'll maybe give it a quick check with VAG at the weekend, but I'll probably swap it after I get back from hols as I'll have the time. Good to know that there's another decent place for 8's nearby too.. Just a shame there's nowt on the east side of Glasgow, Clydebank's as much of a pain as Paisley to get to for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
996Dean Posted June 28, 2007 Report Share Posted June 28, 2007 Any idea on replacement cost? My fan is on its way out (sounds like a worn bearing) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheet22 Posted June 28, 2007 Report Share Posted June 28, 2007 If you're talking bout the Viscous, mechinically driven fan, mine cost £154 plus an hour labour Actually, because I had a lot of other work done, he took pity and charged me £120 (ie his cost from the dealer) So, I guess its £120 from the dealer - I tried all breakers and some places from ebay, only one could supply it for me mail order, but that was £100 - 1 week wait too as it had to come from germany - then you need a small tool to hold it in place whilst removing - hence I got the garage to do it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsYcHe Posted June 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2007 According to the wife, I have a small tool The audipages instructions are pretty good, looks like you just need a large shifter and another spanner to hold the fan in place (and new knuckles as it's a bit tight in there). Not sure how much the electric fan is, but I'm pretty sure I saw it on some of the VW/Audi spares places for a little over 100 quid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickGUK Posted June 28, 2007 Report Share Posted June 28, 2007 Electric fan replacement, ebay £50 ish this ones even cheaper Electric fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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