Whenever I turn on the my manual 97 SE, the radiator fan makes this awful grinding noise. It seems to be moving around a lot in place as well... maybe the bushings that hold the fans in place are going bad?

Is this a common problem? Will I need to replace the whole fan unit, or can I replace a specific part?

Also, would I be able to do this myself? If not, can I buy the part online and take it into a shop to save some money?

Thanks for your help!
Shawn

 

Hey man... there are alot of options you have. I do however, have a 4thgen fan/rad assembly if you are interested. Worked like a charm and is in good shape. If you just want the fan assembly i can take it off and do that to. pm me if you are interested

 

what exactly is moving around? the fan itself or the shroud assembly all together?

 

one of my fan blades used to rattle really bad. Turned out the one of the motors was messing up. I left it alone for a while because it was getting cold outside so i wasn't going to be using my ac anytime soon. When the weather heated up again that same fan/motor pretty much locked up and would barely move. With that in mind I called advance auto parts and they told me i couldn't get a replacement motor and I had to buy the whole assembly. They quoted me about $200. I said no and went to ebay. I found a guy selling brand new ones. I paid $80 (shipped) for the shroud, fans, and fan motors all assembled. It was a direct replacement and fit like a charm. Took about 5 mins to install. save the money and install it yourself. It's a direct plug and play. unplug the connectors off the the fan motors, take out like 2 screws that hold the fan assembly in, and take it out. then reverse that to install the new one. If thats what you want to do.

 

the whole assembly seems to be moving/shaking around. i don't know if this is making the noise, or the fans themselves are making the noise. may be a combination of the two. what is a "shroud"?

is it really that easy to install, 1999Max? you can just take out the WHOLE fan assembly that quickly and replace it in 5 minutes?

i found out about this problem when i went in for an oil change. the guy noticed that the fan was making a loud-*** noise, and he wanted to charge me $500 to replace the whole assembly, but i said not to do anything. it's getting colder now too, so i'm not in a huge rush to fix it.

bassbreaker, how much would you let your fan assembly go for?

thanks guys!
shawn

 

just the fan assembly i'll let go for $35 + shipping

 

The shroud is the big plastic piece holding everything together. Yes it really is that easy to replace. There isn't much holding the whole thing in there. I think when I took mine out, I unplug the 2 fan connectors, removed I believe 2 screws, popped out a clip that help some zip ties in (they pop back in) and then pretty much lift it out of its place. Not much to it at all really. Just pop your hood and take a look at it. Don't be scared to take it out, just remember what you did so you can put it back together, but taking the radiator fan out isn't that bad so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

Thank you very much 1999Max! We just installed it in less than 10 minutes, and saved me $500 (which was our quoted price from a rip off mechanic).