Epic fail. HELP!

[M_souren]

So, somehow, my fan exploded, sending the fins shooting into my radiator and putting holes in it.(If this whole scenario seems wrong or impossible, please chime in because this is only a guess!) Can anyone tell me how this might happen? FYI my skidplate isn't currently on the car but then again there wasnt anything in the road either.



Coolant drained out from this bottom corner



the sweetheart causing me all these problems

[rice_Rocket88]

Man anything that would chop off all the fan blades must have meant a direct jam or the fan went off center and hit something. I know when I look at the fan in my B5 it looks quite scary since there's no shroud etc. I'd look closer at the belts or pieces to see what could be blocking the way, even if a rock got into there it wouldn't shear off ALL the blades if it did, unless it caused a catastrophic failure of one blade to jam up and take them all out.

[317ssayzarc]

Man anything that would chop off all the fan blades must have meant a direct jam or the fan went off center and hit something. I know when I look at the fan in my B5 it looks quite scary since there's no shroud etc. I'd look closer at the belts or pieces to see what could be blocking the way, even if a rock got into there it wouldn't shear off ALL the blades if it did, unless it caused a catastrophic failure of one blade to jam up and take them all out.

Nice idea, seriously, thanks for taking the time to try and help

BUT

Your fan clutch seized, get a new radiator, and an electric fan kit from SPP and call it a day

[M_souren]

you really think it seized? is this a common problem and if so why did all my blades get hacked off? would it be a bad idea to replace the fan clutch with another stock one??

[mike-2ptzero]

This is not the first stock fan to do this. Talk to AudiS4racer, I remember him posting about his fan coming apart and going thru his fan and hood IIRC.

[317ssayzarc]

you really think it seized? is this a common problem and if so why did all my blades get hacked off? would it be a bad idea to replace the fan clutch with another stock one??

The fan is spinning very fast, then the fan clutch seizes... Do you really think that dinky fan can hold together? Well, unfortunetly, no

You could just get another clutch and fan, but I suggest the SPP kit, so you never ever have to worry about it again. I run it on my car btw

[317ssayzarc]

This is not the first stock fan to do this. Talk to AudiS4racer, I remember him posting about his fan coming apart and going thru his fan and hood IIRC.

That's right, it did happen to him huh?

Happened to my neighbor as well and a car at work too...

[mike-2ptzero]

That's right, it did happen to him huh?

Happened to my neighbor as well and a car at work too...

Yeah, thats why he had to buy a new CF hood.

[317ssayzarc]

I guess they made em good enough to get out of warranty LOL

[Militant-Grunt]

Same exact thing happened to me on my old A4. The cause for it was the fan wiring clips that hold the wiring onto the radiator frame, one was loose, got caught in the fan, the fan pulled the wiring and made the plastic shatter all over the place. It pierced my radiator and shredded a lot of the wiring.

The clips are metal..

[M_souren]

The fan is spinning very fast, then the fan clutch seizes... Do you really think that dinky fan can hold together? Well, unfortunetly, no

You could just get another clutch and fan, but I suggest the SPP kit, so you never ever have to worry about it again. I run it on my car btw

Im going to get the stock one but only because im pretty broke from buying the car and the SPP kit is $150. The thing is, the fan still spins which makes me think a seize is not what happened.

Or did you mean that once they go bad they sometimes momentarily seize and shit bricks?

[zrowcool]

i got a used fan and clutch off my car... upgraded to the spp kit. pm me if your interested. only thing i dont have are the bolts that hold it all.

[317ssayzarc]

You have to remember its a vicious clutch that responds to heat... So heat may have had a significant play in why it seized, if it did in fact seize... Militant aka Matts mishap is the only one of its kind that I personally have heard of...

[ZacharyWS]

I have seen this happen 3 separate times at our shop

1. Downshifted into wrong gear, Reved motor out to 8500 and fan poped
2. Bad motor mounts, engine rocked on launch sending it into shroud
3. see 2 and fix the motor mounts again, this time with RS4

The fan is mounted on the motor and the shroud on the front end, when the motor rocks on high power launches the snub mount compresses if the motor mounts are old and stressed. we fixed the problem by using a poly snub mount and new drivetrain mounts all around.


and yes the bearings in the fan seize, but in all the cases i have seen they get awfully noisy way before they seize and are replaced prior to the fan breaking

[Militant-Grunt]

I have seen this happen 3 separate times at our shop

1. Downshifted into wrong gear, Reved motor out to 8500 and fan poped
2. Bad motor mounts, engine rocked on launch sending it into shroud
3. see 2 and fix the motor mounts again, this time with RS4

The fan is mounted on the motor and the shroud on the front end, when the motor rocks on high power launches the snub mount compresses if the motor mounts are old and stressed. we fixed the problem by using a poly snub mount and new drivetrain mounts all around.


and yes the bearings in the fan seize, but in all the cases i have seen they get awfully noisy way before they seize and are replaced prior to the fan breaking

Actually it happened to me when I went over a crest while changing gear (was at wot/ redline when shifting, didn't over rev or miss gear though.) but I assumed it was the clip seeing that it was right on the fan clutch and my wire got shredded.

[mike-2ptzero]

I have seen this happen 3 separate times at our shop

1. Downshifted into wrong gear, Reved motor out to 8500 and fan poped
2. Bad motor mounts, engine rocked on launch sending it into shroud
3. see 2 and fix the motor mounts again, this time with RS4

The fan is mounted on the motor and the shroud on the front end, when the motor rocks on high power launches the snub mount compresses if the motor mounts are old and stressed. we fixed the problem by using a poly snub mount and new drivetrain mounts all around.


and yes the bearings in the fan seize, but in all the cases i have seen they get awfully noisy way before they seize and are replaced prior to the fan breaking

Odd, my stock fan didn't have any issues when I used to rev my engine to 8500 rpm. It was working perfectly fine when I removed it for a EFK.

[M_souren]

i feel like i could do an electric fan setup myself for cheaper, after all it really is just the fan and a relay your paying for with the kit. I'm confident I can wire up my own setup properly as my dads been doing electronics, stereos, IT work, etc for years.

[mike-2ptzero]

i feel like i could do an electric fan setup myself for cheaper, after all it really is just the fan and a relay your paying for with the kit. I'm confident I can wire up my own setup properly as my dads been doing electronics, stereos, IT work, etc for years.

You can. Just get the right size fan and a shorter OEM belt. That is exactly what I did on my car.

[Flash]

It's not as crazy as it sounds. This happened to me in my old A4 about a month after I bought it, had it inspected twice and it turns out that the previous owner put on a 1.8t fan blade on my 2.8 engine. The fan blades spin in different directions so it was pushing air out!! I'm cruising on the highway one day and here a loud clunk and 3 seconds later get a low coolant buzzer. Bye bye radiator. The fan obviously understress had bent into the fan shroud and exploded sending schrapnel into the rad. Too bad the clutch fan blades aren't a little more flexible.

[317ssayzarc]

As you can kinda see below the alternator in this pic, the SPP kit comes with a pulley, so you can run the stock belt... I wanted that so I could order a stock belt whenever I wanted, because the numbers can wear off the belt over time then you have to try and remember...

[mike-2ptzero]

Jake, Purems stocks or knows exactly what shorter belt is needed. That is who got me the belt for my car. For me it was about 1 less part to put drag on the belt and one less part that could fail.