Just got a heads up from my dealer(3rd party) about a radiator fan going out (C2D38727) after an intermittent overheating problem. Looking to replace at home and source my own part instead of paying for labor. Does anyone have experience with replacing one or could link me to any good articles on it? Or would just ponying up for Topix for an hour be my best bet?
62k miles. Just had a coolant line corroded and a a thermostat go out a week and a half before. A bit miffed that the entire system seems to be taking a dump, but what ya do besides laugh it off and get a bit more manual labor experience.

 

I've replaced the motor on another car before. Also the entire fan assembly on other cars. Not really a difficult job on any of them. Never done it on this one yet. First I would inspect the plug for the fan. Look to see if a pin is bent or a bad spot in the wiring you can see. You can wait for it to come on and move the wiring around to see if you can stop it. Then you need to find out what activates it. One of mine has two fans, one controlled by the computer the other comes on from a temp switch or the air conditioning. I say all of this because you just had the system worked on.

The car with two fans was worked on by a shop and I drove it for a couple weeks. One hot summer day in Atlanta Ga I got caught in a traffic jam and watched the temp slowly rise until it went red. I pulled off and called a wrecker. Eight hours later some kid with tattoos on every square inch finally shows up. Walking up and down the street I noticed a truck sitting at the Waffle House. Stupid kid decided to leave me out in 102 degree heat while he had his supper. I was so mad. They had been telling me their driver was stuck in traffic and would be there in 10 minutes for hours. (I cancelled the contract after that). I called several companies and when he showed up I told him no thanks. A couple minutes later another guy finally showed up. (RANT). Anyway, now that that's out of my system. I got it home and after looking it over I discovered the connector for the temp switch hanging against the firewall. The shop left it disconnected. I hooked it up and filled it back up to replace what boiled out of it and was back on the road. But that was a cast iron engine with cast iron heads. You could never get away with that with aluminum like these are.

 

My fan went out right after my coolant crossover pipe broke. I suspect the hot coolant spray/steam took out the fan. The fan from the dealer is $1000.00 + labor. I had the shop replace the fan.

 

Alright so I fixed the fan, which was the problem (problem being overheating at standstill or at low speeds, and cooling fine at highway speeds). As Polyesterpig said, my crossover line DID break beforehand, so it seems it's not an uncommon problem. The fan was pretty easy. Just take out the air intake T fitting, the two airboxes, and the two air scoops coming from the radiator. That gives you enough room to remove the grommet lines from the fan. Then you have to take off the radiator splash panel and a small electrical protection panel just above that. That gives you access to the plug. In my case, the plug was in mint condition. I sourced my part through LKQ. Got it for $335 after a small discount. Put everything back together, ran up the AC, and she spins again! We'll see how long this one lasts. Saved me $1300 in a new fan + labor!