Hot and bothered Octavia

[dstev2000]

There I was, sitting in the traffic at Piccadilly Circus when I notice the temperature gauge creeping towards 100 Degrees

My immediate instinct (thanks to owning various crap cars over the years) is to crank the climatronic to Hi and whack the fan up to full. After a few minutes the gauge sinks back down to 90 but then starts to wander up to 95 whilst sitting in Regent Street.

When I got home I hooked up VAG-COM to have a little nosey for fault codes, I found the following:

- Faults in the door electrics (I know about this - LED puddle lamps )

- HVAC fault - intermittent recirc flap (works fine so feck knows)

Engine fault - Radiator fan jammed/no power.

And surprise surprise my bloody radiator fan is on the pi$$ and seized solid

Does the second fan kick in at 100 degrees C or similar as the car never exceeded 100.4 according to the scan.

And is there anyone else out there who has experienced the same fault?

Looks like i'll be seeing my local dealer on Friday.

[fordfan]

I think that the second fan comes on when the air conditioning is on - looks like you did the right thing and saved yourself a lot of hassle. I did see a fan the other day (I forget on which sort of car) where the ring surrounding the fan blades was jamming on the fan shroud.

I have experienced the opposite, where the fans are running continuously even with the keys out of the ignition and the engine stone cold. Water between the fusebox block layers was the cause on both occasions (2 different cars).

[dstev2000]

Due to the fan being on the skew I wonder whether the shaft bearings have collapsed. I also recall a while back a quiet squeaking from something running down just after stopping the engine, maybe the aforementioned cooling fan bearings?

The whole fan impeller assembly is stuck fast and wont turn.

I wondered whether the second fan could act as an emergency backup seeing as the condenser fan's airflow route is via the rad and the temp never exceeded 100 degrees despite an hour of solid London traffic.