Radiator fan loud knocking

Forum for Engine, Exhaust, Drivetrain, ECU
chrisw99
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Post by chrisw99 »

48000
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calnorth
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Post by calnorth »

chrisw99 wrote: Mon Aug 19, 2019 12:03 pm48000
I was wondering where the unexpected and common wear out failure threshold is. I did similar with a BMW fuel control valve (£150-ish) having paid breakdown insurance for 3 years....approx £300 pa. The BMW was about 6 years old and I cannot remember if the valve was listed on the BMW maintenance schedule. Likely was. Certainly O2 (exhaust) sensors were at about 70k miles.

However, the very high cost of Nissan spares and labour +vat is very significant.
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chrisw99
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Post by chrisw99 »

Well I've been driving for 30 years, most of my cars reach 90-100K before I flog them, and I've never had a radiator fan go bad before. I would have kicked up a fuss if they'd said it was wear and tear. This forum would be awash with reports of it if it was common. There's only 1 similar report I could find.

Having said that, not sure how mileage could be used to determine how many times the fan has spun in its lifetime. Trying to diagnose it on the driveway, I've noticed the fan only spins if the AC is on. Otherwise it only comes on when the coolant temperature gets above a certain temperature. So for someone who drives without AC on, the fan probably hardly ever comes on. For someone with AC on all the time, it will have been spinning constantly for the life of the car.
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calnorth
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Post by calnorth »

I've not seen fans fail either...but most cars I've had or driven via work over 50 years have been belt driven.....perhaps some slip with belts. Possibly its ingress of water which would easily damage ball bearings? The bearings in that environment I suspect would be sealed,,,packed with grease. They are not far removed from those on skateboard wheels from what I see.

The maintenance periods are mile/km/time based, so there exists a replace figure for those fans somewhere. And I wonder if they are fans that suck or blow?
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chrisw99
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Post by chrisw99 »

I would guess it's sucking air away from the radiator into the engine bay. The air in the engine bay around there is extremely hot so probably not good if that gets blown onto the radiator!
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chrisw99
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Post by chrisw99 »

All replaced and good, done under extended warranty.
Really couldn't decide about taking out yet another years warranty for £390 back in March. Glad I did now...

7c5ecfc8-b839-4e30-b84f-20f3d3c900e1.jpg

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calnorth
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Post by calnorth »

Holy Moley....!! Damned VAT on pumped up prices.

Thats a £10 max ball bearing at the root of it all. Nissan designers need to do repeated courses on Maintainability. Silly me for saying that.
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billwin
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Post by billwin »

Just had this same problem. The rear bearing of the fan motor shaft was worn and sloppy. Sometimes the fan would spin quietly, other times would spin with a wobble which causes the whole assembly to shake and a knocking noise. Estimate from local garage £280. Car is daughter's and 2016 with 103 kmiles. I think leaving air con on all the time doesn't help as it forces the fan to spin continuously.
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