I heard a sound from the hood. After further investigation, I discovered that the sound only starts as soon as the fans kick in (silmultaneously). It sounds like like a rattling or two parts are slapping into each other and comes from the fans area. What could it be? Is it serious?
These fans (bearings/bushings) do wear out. Probably only one is worn out now and making the noise you hear - no telling when the other one will go.
I've been running off of one fan on my Concorde for 6 months now (simply unplugged the connector to that one fan motor) waiting for an opportune time to swap out the bad fan motor with the new one I have sitting on the shelf - temp. stays fine, a.c. works fine. If you do that, make sure you do unplug connector to the bad one - it can lock up and blow the fuse which runs both fans, in which case you would have an overheating problem with possible engine damage.
If you're a DIY'er, you can get just the motors for around $80-100 from a dealer (no aftermarket source for those that I've been able to find). If you hire your repairs out, probably your best bet would be to have the whole module replaced (so you don't pay labor twice later on when the other motor goes out). Don't let them charge you for discharging the a.c. - the FSM makes it very clear that you can replace the fan modules without breaking the refrigerant lines.
Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")
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