oskidunker

Something must be wrong with one of my radiator fans. anyone have any ideas?

Audiablo

A few users including me reported this. It is a defective fan and/or a piece of rubber molding is poking into the fan enclosure. Sounds just like a fire truck. It's the little electric fan on the engine-side of the rad, not the bigger one on the front. Dealer can take care of it.

oskidunker

Can't get appointment until next week. Car seeems to not be overheating. Ok to drive until then? Also,unless I am imagining it, I have noticed a loss of power. Maybe not related or Turbo leak?

binder

A similar noise has started on my car but in my case it is definitely the air conditioning fan at the front of the radiator. I think a bearing has gone in the fan. When it first occurred I heard the fan slowing down and there was a rough graunching sound. This has now cleared but the fan does now sound like a siren - not very noticeable inside the car but very obvious when in multi storey car parks etc.

Chip

I had this problem corrected just yesterday on my 2.7T. Rubber molding around the small electric fan on the inside of the radiator had come loose and locked up the fan. The siren noise was coming from the condenser fan which is on the outside of the radiator. This fan is called into action as a failsafe step when the car detects trouble with the other unit. In this mode the condenser fan runs even moments after a cold start and is unusally noticeable. It is normally quite loud but cycles enough not to be objectionable. My car returned to proper operation after the blockage was fixed. None of this means that either fan is completely free of other problems(yours or mine) but my dealer recognized and showed me the base problem in the first two minutes I was there. Good luck.

Audiablo

To my understanding, the "condenser" fan on the outside of the rad is the primary, multi-speed fan and is not used as a failsafe. At first I thought the smaller inside fan was a failsafe, but then noticed it would come on if the engine was hot (when temp crept above half-way on the gauge). It comes on when the engine gets too hot - and that can be caused by spirited driving or truly a failure of the primary electric fan in which case yes, it is a failsafe. After sprinting up Mt Diablo or Mt Hamilton, that fan was doing its duty, despite a perfectly functioning condenser fan. After a few minutes, the smaller (and noisier) fan turned off.

Chip

I think both inputs are compatable. My dealer definitely identified the action of the fan mounted in front of the condenser as an intended response to the problem of the jammed smaller fan. It operated continuously in high speed mode (very noisy and siren like) until the problem with the engine side fan was fixed. The front fan then operated at lower, much quieter speed even after the engine side fan came on. On my car, turning the climate contol off also stops the front mounted fan at all temperatures at least up to up to slightly above center gauge reading. I have never observed its function above that. The service tech says this is correct operation. High speed operation of the front fan no doubt occurs under other conditions but I have not encountered them under current cool conditions.