Coolarj10

Hi everybody,

I'd love your help on this. The other day, I was driving normally to the movies and noticed my coolant temperature was slightly above the middle level. After the movie, I drove home and noticed the coolant temperature level on the dashboard started climbing quickly from the middle level to "High." I got a temperature warning/alert, and immediately pulled over and shut down my engine. (This was all on side roads , not the freeway)

This problem now persists - if I turn on my car and try driving it, after a few minutes it will start to overheat again.

Luckily I have a shop only a mile or so away from my house, so I was able to get it checked out. We looked under the car, and it seems that the driver's side radiator cooling fan does not rotate.

If I flick the passenger side cooling fan with my finger (while the car is off), it will spin effortlessly. But if I try to spin the driver's side fan, it won't budge.

Any recommendations?

Initially when I called Audi service, they assumed it was a Thermostat malfunction and are quoting me $1200.

1) What are your thoughts about the source of my issue?
2) Any recommendations on how to fix the existing cooling fan? (Is that likely the only source of the issue, or is something else likely wrong as well?)
3) What is a good price reference for these repairs? Supposedly the labor is really expensive because they have to remove a lot of components. The shop where I took my car said that a replacement cooling/radiator fan is around $$800 to $1000 plus expensive labor (I'm guessing $600-$1000). I'm having some difficulty looking up the cooling fan online for a price reference.

Your advice would be very much appreciated!

Thank you!
-Arjun

P.S. Unfortunately my car is out of warranty. It expired last year, although I'm only 5,000 miles over the warranty (55,000 on my car right now)

togatown

I haven't heard of any issues with the cooling fans themselves, but it sure sounds like the usual T-stat failure common to our engine. $1200 at dealer for replacement sounds right, as a lot of plumbing and supercharger have to come off. Obviously you have to rule out the fan first.

jsh139

+1 on the thermostat. But, before you pay out of pocket, I would suggest calling Audi of America and see if there is anything they would be willing to do for you in the way of cost sharing. Alternatively, you could ask the dealer if they would cover it under goodwill since you aren't that far out of warranty.

Coolarj10

Thank you all for your suggestions. I tried asking the dealer if they'd help me out by covering it, but they denied my request. I'll try them one more time, then reach out to Audi of America.

I'm not sure how to rule out the fan or thermostat without having someone remove the supercharger, and I don't know which issue I'd rather have!

speed_racer

Takes 30m to remove the charger, just an FYI

Coolarj10

Haha I know how to solder motherboards and rewire 3D Printers, but I've never worked on a car before.

If there are simple instructions, I would consider it, although I'd still need access to the parts (thermostat and cooling fan).

I suppose I could ask my local repair guy to order the parts? Don't know how to find helpful instructions for the supercharger removal and thermostat and cooling fan replacement.

Plus, don't I have to make sure to re-align all the parts precisely? What happens if I mess up...

KReddy05

Reach out to Audi of America, they may be able to help you out since your car only recently went out of warranty.

Also, you might want to check to see if your car is covered under any campaigns that extend the powertrain warranty to 100k miles.

corobetz

I was about to post a thread but will post here in hopes someone can help. I noticed last week that my fan kept running longer than normal after shutting off. Also, in fairly average temperatures last week, the fan was running quite often and I could hear it almost like it was stuck in the on position. All this time there were NO warning lights and the temp gauge was at normal. However, tonight after seeing a movie, I drove not even a couple miles at about 40MPH and noticed for first time the needle creeping just slightly above the normal line. I drove into home and again, the fan was running. I went through a nightmare with my old acura legend and overheating issues which turned out to be a head gasket.

Any thoughts here? I want to bring it in tomorrow for them to have a look at.

I am still under warranty btw.

togatown

Impending T-stat failure no doubt.

corobetz

^Thanks. On the way to my morning golf game after 10 mins it did the same thing. I watched it closely, pulled over once and got it to dealership. They are going to look at it over the next couple days, but sounds like t Stat is common problem so hopefully they dont come back and say "stassis tune bla bla bla". Fingers crossed its simple fix.