2.8 air con fan, where to get?

[TiggR_R1]

Hi all.
My air con fan for the condenser (front mounted electric fan) is knackered and in need of replacement.
Does anyone know of a good current replacement part?

Mine works but partially seized, need to give it a shove to get it to move then it spins up for a little while
(electrics working and ac condenser kicking in) before I guess getting warm through friction and slowing to a stop.

Is there an easy way to remove it or is it a radiator, viscous fan out job?

I may be able to strip and repair it.

I know I'm not supposed to interfere with the refrigerant pipes before anyone mentions it and would loosen
the brackets etc to move them to one side for access

 

[MickyG]

You will not need to touch the Aircon pipes to remove your fan, and certainly don’t need to remove the viscous fan if it’s the same as my pre facelift 2.8.
Elevate the front of your Z3 so that you can lower the fan out through the underside of your car.
• Remove the plastic mesh covering the fan - four small Torx screws
• Remove the under tray- easy : half a dozen tek screws
• Remove 6 hex head screws securing fan to condenser - four face you looking at the slam panel : the upper two are less easy to see and access
: middle two very obvious and easy: two lower ones screw in from the sides.

If you are very careful, you may be able to open up your motor by rotating it to a free moving part of its cycle, and then pull out the plastic plate holding the bushes ( the reverse process will be a fiddle!)
My motor was so seized I could not then remove the armature from the magnets in the case.
If you can pull the armature out, and clean all the debris from within the magnets, and return the armature so that it rotates easily once the plastic plate is refitted you should be good to go. New brushes would be worth fitting if you get to this point.

If you buy a new one I strongly recommend you research after market ones thoroughly.
I bought an NRF which states it is suitable for a Z3 2.8, and it was never going to fit as it had a large duct in the upper right corner that fouled parts of the bodywork of the front panel.
Eventually I decided to cut the duct off as it had no detriment the the integrity of the shroud and made it fit
( There are photos under my Progress thread that may help).
Good luck!

If you do buy one and its straightforward to fit, please let me know the make and model number!

 

[TiggR_R1]

Thanks for the detailed reply MickeyG.
Lots of good info.
I was considering stripping it down and cleaning it up, also looking at replacements just in case.
Aswell as looking at the possibility of a motor only and trying to cross reference OEM part numbers etc.

 

[Pond]

Just bear in mind that the aux electric fan serves two purposes.....cooling the a/c condenser AND an additional engine cooling fan. It is often needed in hot weather, especially when sitting in traffic.

 

[Pingu]

Salvage is a good source of spares for something like this.

I needed an air-con fan for an M. They are unique. I had to buy the wholefront end (slam-panel, radiator and aux fan) off a car and attack the fan housing with a Dremel. The fan is now on my car and works a dream.

You should be able to get similar and not need to do any modifications.

 

[MickyG]

Salvage is a good source of spares for something like this.

I needed an air-con fan for an M. They are unique. I had to buy the wholefront end (slam-panel, radiator and aux fan) off a car and attack the fan housing with a Dremel. The fan is now on my car and works a dream.

You should be able to get similar and not need to do any modifications.

……….provided they are in good condition.

My problem was that the guys breaking these cars are asking such high prices for common failure items, and some of the motors looked so poor visually, that I felt a new one would offer better value:
- (but then ran into the “Aftermarket nearly fits” syndrome).

 

[Pingu]

- (but then ran into the “Aftermarket nearly fits” syndrome).

That's why salvage is often the best solution - especially for sensors, but radiators and air-con fans are pretty unique as well.

There isn't much wrong with an air-con fan that a Dremel and a soldering iron can't fix, as long as the fan motor is ok.