Type 44 Radiator Fans -- Fuse them or lose them (plus other meltedparts)

[Pat Korach]

Tim

This happened to a 200TQ I purchased.   The ground was melted and the big
red power lead was melted all the way up to the
fan relay.  What I did was remove the radiator/fan, disconnect the ABS
connector and power steering pump and move both aside.  I peeled the wiring
harness back from the
radiator all the way to the firewall.  Used a
box knife to cut the harness cover.  the hard part was under the ABS unit
but can be done.  You have to twist the harness to cut it. Some small wires
were fused with the large red wire and had to be seperated.  I had some
large wires I spliced into the fan power and ground.   This was all done is
a Audi dealer's parking lot 1200 miles from home.  After I got home I
replaced that whole wiring harness which required removing the dash.

Pat
Kirkland, WA


 Original Message -----
From: "Tim King" <tking_ms at hotmail.com>
To: <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 11:10 AM
Subject: Type 44 Radiator Fans -- Fuse them or lose them (plus other
meltedparts)


Hi All -- I've been off list for a number of years but thought I'd better
hop back on to share this warning....

I recently had the dreaded seized radiator fan and subsequent wiring harness
meltdown. I always _planned_ on putting in the fusible line (as recommended
in so many places like
http://www.audifans.com/archives/1997/12/msg02726.html and
http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/TROUBLE_SHOOTING/cooling.html#fuse), but for
some reason, never got around to it. I think after a while, I just convinced
myself I had done it. Well, I hadn't.

As far as I know, the fan gave no warning squeaks, etc.. it just went,
taking at least a chunk of the main harness with it.

I'm in the middle of trying to assess the damage. The fan is a total charred
loss. It may have saved me by burning up internally pretty quickly and
stopping the current draw.

I've cut into the harness and it looks like it's mostly only the fan ground
and power wires from the fan up -- at least as far as I can get to. I'm sort
of stuck at the area under the abs unit bracket. That bracket is really
beefy. Why? I've removed the ABS unit, but still the bracket is in the way.
I'm almost temped to cut it to give me access to the harness.

I'm holding out hope that the ground wires are torched up to where they go
into the main harness (under the bracket), for about an inch, then make a
turn to the front of the van and exit where they are grounded to the frame.
The exited grounds are torched, and I'm hoping the damage is limited here
and to maybe the inch of crossed main harness (a fellow can dream right?)
The various sender wires that run next to the ground from the radiator fan
on are in surprisingly good shape, so I'm hopeful (there's that word again),
the rest of the harness fares as well.

Anyone have any repair tips? The archives are filled with warnings, but
nothing really on repair.Assuming the harness isn't a total loss, I should
be able to handle the wiring splicing (especially after the suby-vanagon
conversion project). However access to the harness at the ABS bracket has me
stumped. I guess I could pull one end of the thing and work from there, but
if turns out it's only a couple wires, I'd like to avoid that.

Even if you don't have any tips, if you have a type 44, go out there and
check to make sure it's fused. I'll wait....Back already? Is it done? Yes,
good for you. No? You better get this thing fixed. It'll only take a hour of
your time, tops, and save you lots of grief down the road.

I'll take leads on cheap working fans and resister packs, too.

See ya.

Tim in Seattle
89 200tqw
87 syncro westy suby 2.5 project
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