Victor Vaughn

So I have an aftermarket VDO aux fan. Was working ok this morning. Went through a car wash, ran some errands. Later in the day I noticed the car started to get hot at idle, like it did before I replaced the aux fan. Then I noticed smoke coming from the engine bay. Aux fan blade assembly had literally melted off the spindle, Smoke poring out. Hot as hell. Took a good long while--30min for the smoke to stop.

What on earth is going on?

jfrahm

What was determined? I looked and saw my aux fan was working OK but it'd be good to avoid melting a replacement someday.

Victor Vaughn

I still don't know why this happened. But I replaced the aux fan with a Meyle one and it has been working perfectly ever since. I've taken it to carwashes, it's been extremely hot weather etc. and for the last few days it's been great.

The only think I can think of is that I maybe received the wrong fan last time. These fans are VIN# specific, and it's possible my fan was drawing too much current for the model car, or maybe it was just a design defect. The fan that failed was a VDO unit, and it always felt flimsy from the start. This Meyle unit appears to be very well built by comparison. After searching the web, other people have said positive things about Meyle fans--apparently they are OEM quality.

I hope this helps.