The radiator fans, either one or both on my 2002 OBW are intermittently noisy , making a whining grinding sound when they're on...doesn't occur all the time. Since my OBW has only 57k miles on it, I find it hard to believe that the fan hubs or bearings could be wearing out so soon. What could the issue be?

Possibly dirty? Somethings stuck in the bearing?

scraping against anything?

scraping against anything?

Didn't appear to be. I"ll check more closely.

Possibly dirty? Somethings stuck in the bearing?

Is there some sort of solvent that would work well for cleaning the bearings...possibly something I could squirt in there. WD-40?

Is there some sort of solvent that would work well for cleaning the bearings...possibly something I could squirt in there. WD-40?

 

 

Don't recommend using WD-40 for attempted bearing lubing. I am pretty sure that the bearing are sealed in the motor housing and not really serviceable. Regardless, WD-40 is good for a lot of what ailes things, but it is not heavy enough lubricant for bearings.

 

Since there are two fans, pull the power wiring off one of the fans to see if that kills the noise. It is unusual that a fan bearing would go bad, but maybe that will detect which fan is making the noise. Replace the bad fan if that is the cause of the noise. I would not think that both would be bad at the same time.

 

Another thought is maybe your fan belt tightness adjustment pulley is going bad. I had that happen. The bearing in that pulley went bad. Replaced the adjuster fixed the problem.

Easy way to check the fans themselves - use a battery charger to drive the fans with the engine off. Then all you will hear is the fan, only the fan

 

If you can, find a JY car and cut off one of the fan plugs and put on terminals so you can attach the charger clips. Plug in one at a time and let run for a minute or 2 and see what "squeaks".

 

You could do it with 2 insulated alligator clips, too, instead of the wire clip. I have no idea if anything "bad" happens if the fan runs backwards. If it does, just reverse the connections

Bearings can fail at any time. Low mileage has no effect on the guy that dropped them or got dirt in them at the factory. Bearings are sensitive and aren't always treated the way they should be.

 

GD