Hello everyone,
I have a 2011 Audi A4. This morning the car AC was not cooling, especially when the car was stationery, but as I drove, the AC was getting cooler, later when I parked for a while, there was smoke comming out of the bonnet.. I switched off the engine and opened to see, it was steam from below the coolant box, also the coolant dropped suddenly to a very low level. I immediately took the car to the garage in a recovery van, upon inspection in the garage, and a pressure test, they said there is no leakage, however both the radiator fans weren't working.
The mechanics told me that we need to replace both the fans, while he tapped the fans with a rod, when the car was ON and AC was on too, the fan blades rotated for a while with some sparks, but again stopped.
Could you please guide me for the following:

1. Can both the radiator fans get damaged at the same time? I was going through some forums and learnt that 1 fan starts only when the ac is on and not always.

2. Can the fans be repaired or they have to be replaced?

3. Whats the average price of a fan?

4. If we fit used fans, will that be OK.

Thanking you all in anticipation.

 

Sparks? Sounds like the contact brushes in the motors are worn down. Definitely need new ones if BOTH of them aren't running at all. You definitely need them to keep the engine cool. Since you say the fans do run if you peck on them, that tells me the control portion of the electrics is not the issue. The prices of the fans run about $150US each. The dealer will be twice as much and they are NOT hard to change out at all. So don't get ripped off on the labor as I doubt it would take a half hour to swap them out. 45 minutes tops. And you can get the same Behr (they are a VW/Audi/Porsche OEM supplier) part in a Behr box at the automotive store instead of paying an extra $150 for the pretty Audi box.