Jim Elbrecht

My son's 98 A4, 2.8 again. . . .

Had an overheat & noticed the electric fan wasn't working. Traced
it back to the 40A fuse under the steering wheel. . . replaced fuse &
it worked for a few minutes, but soon after the high speed fan kicked
in, the fan growled a bit and blew another fuse.

The Bentley diagram doesn't say anything about changing it [at least
that I can see. If I'm missing it just point me at it.] -- but it
looks like a single screw holds the plastic housing in place, and it
twists out of 3 or 4 notches. . .?? I removed the screw & tried
that, but nothing is giving yet.

Am I on the right track, or does the radiator need to be pulled for
this? [a radiator removal that begins with 'Remove the bumper' has
held me back from jumping into that job.]

Thanks,
Jim
[also posting this on the audiworld.com b5 forum]

Tony

My son also has a 98 A4 2.8 and when we DIY the timing belt we didn't remove the
front end (bumper, radiator ...)

So while we got the job done it wasn't without our share of cuts and scrapes.

In the process we tried to remove the fan to gain more room. It appeared to be
able to do just as you described but we were not able to do it that way. I
'think' that there is another screw on the bottom in an inaccessible location.

My guess is that you will need to remove the front end, drain radiator and all
the other fun stuff.

BTW, be sure to bleed the coolant system when done. I think there are three
bleed locations. Without that it will have excursions into higher temps than it
should.

Tony
98.5 A4 1.8TQM APR
Son's 98.5 A4 2.8 Tip

Jim Elbrecht wrote:
> My son's 98 A4, 2.8 again. . . .
>
> Had an overheat & noticed the electric fan wasn't working. Traced
> it back to the 40A fuse under the steering wheel. . . replaced fuse &
> it worked for a few minutes, but soon after the high speed fan kicked
> in, the fan growled a bit and blew another fuse.
>
> The Bentley diagram doesn't say anything about changing it [at least
> that I can see. If I'm missing it just point me at it.] -- but it
> looks like a single screw holds the plastic housing in place, and it
> twists out of 3 or 4 notches. . .?? I removed the screw & tried
> that, but nothing is giving yet.
>
> Am I on the right track, or does the radiator need to be pulled for
> this? [a radiator removal that begins with 'Remove the bumper' has
> held me back from jumping into that job.]
>
> Thanks,
> Jim
> [also posting this on the audiworld.com b5 forum]

Jim Elbrecht

Tony <tonyjnospam@nospamvisi.com> wrote:

>My son also has a 98 A4 2.8 and when we DIY the timing belt we didn't remove the
>front end (bumper, radiator ...)
>
>So while we got the job done it wasn't without our share of cuts and scrapes.

I'll file that one away for future reference. [Though I should
probably see how bad that bumper is to get off before I kill my
knuckles.]

>
>In the process we tried to remove the fan to gain more room. It appeared to be
>able to do just as you described but we were not able to do it that way. I
>'think' that there is another screw on the bottom in an inaccessible location.

I'll roll around under her again tomorrow & see if I can get my mirror
up there.

>
>My guess is that you will need to remove the front end, drain radiator and all
>the other fun stuff.
>
>BTW, be sure to bleed the coolant system when done. I think there are three
>bleed locations. Without that it will have excursions into higher temps than it
>should.

It's scheduled for a trip to the dealer's for a radiator flush and a
tranny 'refresh' Tuesday. I was hoping to be able to replace the
fan monday--- but if I'd have to do major surgery, I'll probably let
the dealer do it. [It will cut seriously into my son's 'stereo
budget', though.<g>]

Thanks again, Tony,
Jim

Jim Elbrecht

I'll top-post my own message since the distribution of both is likely
the same-

Nothing like a fresh start. This morning I went out, got curious
about a protrusion on the bottom of the fan, couldn't even get my
mirror close to it, so I pushed & wiggled-- and 'voila!'- fan
removal complete. . . . well, almost.

Now my dilemma is- do I snip the wires & splice at the fan-- or try to
re-route a new harness through the maze? [Or does the new fan come
with a harness making this question moot?]

I did get an email from someone in the same boat- so I took some
pictures and gave a very brief synopsis at;
http://home.nycap.rr.com/elbrecht/audi/audifan.htm

I don't know how long I'll leave the page up, so feel free to take
pictures and text and repost or file away.

Jim


On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 16:43:13 -0400, Jim Elbrecht <elbrecht@email.com>
wrote:

>My son's 98 A4, 2.8 again. . . .
>
>Had an overheat & noticed the electric fan wasn't working. Traced
>it back to the 40A fuse under the steering wheel. . . replaced fuse &
>it worked for a few minutes, but soon after the high speed fan kicked
>in, the fan growled a bit and blew another fuse.
>
>The Bentley diagram doesn't say anything about changing it [at least
>that I can see. If I'm missing it just point me at it.] -- but it
>looks like a single screw holds the plastic housing in place, and it
>twists out of 3 or 4 notches. . .?? I removed the screw & tried
>that, but nothing is giving yet.
>
>Am I on the right track, or does the radiator need to be pulled for
>this? [a radiator removal that begins with 'Remove the bumper' has
>held me back from jumping into that job.]
>
>Thanks,
>Jim
>[also posting this on the audiworld.com b5 forum]

Tony

Seems that you are more persistent than we were. I will save this for future
reference.

Thanks for the update and pictures.

Tony

Jim Elbrecht wrote:
> I'll top-post my own message since the distribution of both is likely
> the same-
>
> Nothing like a fresh start. This morning I went out, got curious
> about a protrusion on the bottom of the fan, couldn't even get my
> mirror close to it, so I pushed & wiggled-- and 'voila!'- fan
> removal complete. . . . well, almost.
>
> Now my dilemma is- do I snip the wires & splice at the fan-- or try to
> re-route a new harness through the maze? [Or does the new fan come
> with a harness making this question moot?]
>
> I did get an email from someone in the same boat- so I took some
> pictures and gave a very brief synopsis at;
> http://home.nycap.rr.com/elbrecht/audi/audifan.htm
>
> I don't know how long I'll leave the page up, so feel free to take
> pictures and text and repost or file away.
>
> Jim
>
>
> On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 16:43:13 -0400, Jim Elbrecht <elbrecht@email.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>>My son's 98 A4, 2.8 again. . . .
>>
>>Had an overheat & noticed the electric fan wasn't working. Traced
>>it back to the 40A fuse under the steering wheel. . . replaced fuse &
>>it worked for a few minutes, but soon after the high speed fan kicked
>>in, the fan growled a bit and blew another fuse.
>>
>>The Bentley diagram doesn't say anything about changing it [at least
>>that I can see. If I'm missing it just point me at it.] -- but it
>>looks like a single screw holds the plastic housing in place, and it
>>twists out of 3 or 4 notches. . .?? I removed the screw & tried
>>that, but nothing is giving yet.
>>
>>Am I on the right track, or does the radiator need to be pulled for
>>this? [a radiator removal that begins with 'Remove the bumper' has
>>held me back from jumping into that job.]
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Jim
>>[also posting this on the audiworld.com b5 forum]
>
>