# DIY: Cooling Fan Replacement



## KIDVersion1 (May 10, 2009)

Yesterday I had to replace my driver's side cooling fan (*1K0 959 455 DT*) and instead of having my bank account emptied, I bought the fan, through the dealer for a good price, and did it with a buddy. This is actually pretty simple and does not take very long. The dealer told me an hour and a half to replace one fan or two hours for both, which is a very generous amount of time.

This is my first DIY so I hope it comes out well. The usual for a DIY still stands...do this at your own risk and this DIY is merely a guideline and I am not responsible for any damage that may occur when you do it.

*Tools needed*

- T25 torx bit
- T30 torx bit
- 1/4" socket
- 10 mm socket
- 3" extension
- Ratchet
- 1/4" ratcheting wrench
- Car ramps or a jack and jack stands










*Estimated Time*

- 45 minutes with two people

*Step one*

I would recommend that the car is cool when you do this. We did not have this luxury so we had a fan blowing on it the whole time and we were fine.

Raise your car, either by car ramps or with a jack. By the time mine was in the air, we had 15" on clearance to the bumper which was plenty. Make sure all safety measures are taken to secure the car (e-brake, in gear, wheel chocks, and jack stands).










*Step Two*

Remove the plastic oil pan cover via removing the eight T25 torx screws.










*Step Three*

There are four T30 torx screw holding the cooling fan mount to the car.

Driver's Side Top (next to the headlight and coolant hose)









Passenger's Side Top (Next to the headlight and the noise pipe mount)









Driver's Side Bottom









Passenger's Side Bottom









The only one that is kind of tricky to get out is the Passenger's Side Top. I used the 1/4" ratcheting wrench with the T30 torx bit to get to it. It's a tight fit (that's what she said).

*Step Three*

Disconnect the power cable. You can see it from the top...









...and from the bottom.









My buddy said it was a little hard to get undone, but didn't take long.

*Step Four*

Once the four screws are out and the power clip is disconnected, the fan housing will freely slide downward. It may get caught up on some wires, but easy enough to free.

*Step Five*

With the housing out, it is time to take the fan off. This process will be the same for both the driver's side and passenger's side fan. For this, I replaced the driver's side.










First, you will need to remove two clips, circled in red. They just pop off with a flat head screwdriver. Secondly, you will need to disconnect the power clip that connects the left fan to the right fan. Then, remove the three 10 mm nuts that hold the fan to the housing. Pull the wire out of the track, and the fan is ready to take out.

From here, everything is a reverse process. Place the new fan in, tighten the nuts, plug in the fans, tuck the wire in the tracks, put those two metal clips back on, slide the housing back up in, put the four screws in, connect the fan power, replace the plastic oil pan cover, and you're done. Everything is plug and play and once everything is installed, the fan should work properly. I don't have any torque specs on any of the screws and nuts, but just don't go crazy on them.

I hope this was written well enough for someone else to understand. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

And just because I can


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## IMAN973 (Jun 1, 2006)

Nice diy 

FYI Be carefull with that red clip, dont break that connector.


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## Joeydabomb (May 1, 2009)

Yeah the top passenger side screw sucked to get out but overall it's not a hard job at all.


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## KIDVersion1 (May 10, 2009)

Yeah it did. Patience was key.


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## jakellama123 (Oct 11, 2009)

KIDVersion1 said:


> Yeah it did. Patience was key.


 damn wasnt sure if u could buy just 1 fan 
i cracked both fans so i just replaced the whole assembly


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## KIDVersion1 (May 10, 2009)

And I'm sure that whole assembly with fans cost about $500, right?


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## OOOO-A3 (Jul 20, 2004)

Why did you replace the fan - was it not running, or was it due to blade damage? 

My passenger-side fan doesn't work, and the driver's side comes on a full-blast most of the time, even with a stone-cold engine on startup on a cold winter day. I'd like to be able to just replace the pax side fan and have the problem cured, but I'm suspicious that if I did that, the actual problem would be something else (controller, etc.) I replaced the coolant temp sensor with no effect. The temperature gauge is always normal.


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## KIDVersion1 (May 10, 2009)

From what I was told, the passenger fan runs off of the driver's fan. So if your driver's fan stop working (in my case the motor was shot) the passenger one will not work. But if you're saying the driver's does work, then you'll probably need to replace just the passenger one...which is a good thing because that is the cheaper of the two.


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## INYNN (Apr 14, 2008)

This was helpful, add to the DIY FAQ thing.


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## CanadianJetta2.0T (Sep 14, 2006)

Thanks for the DIY. 

My driver fan was running like crazy, while the the passenger fan was fully stopped. I changed the passenger side and all is well. Took me around 1 hour for the fan + cabin filter under the glove box.

For anyone looking into doing this DIY, please note that there is _*three (3)*_ part number for this fan, depending on your VIN. Mine was *1K0 959 455 ET*.

Also, shop around. My local dealer in Quebec was selling it at 310$ CAD. I ordered it through a dealer in Ontario (H2Sport) for 168$ CAD + added a cabin filter (18$) + shipping (29$) + only 1 tax since I'm out of Ontario , for a total of 225$... What a difference !

:beer:


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## iGen3 (Mar 21, 2002)

*Thanks for the DIY*

I actually overheated last week in DC, got the STOP NOW MIL message and all, then it actually overflowed. 

small fan wasn't working. 

popped the shroud, dremel'd off the tabs holding the motor can lid on, to find one of the 2 brushes simply hung up on some sand/grit. blew it out, cleaned things up, put it back together and all better now, cost: $0.00. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


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## joantlim (Aug 20, 2008)

*Reply on the DIY Cooling fan replacement*

Thanks for the pictures and tips Kidver.1. I just replaced my cooling fans on my Mrk. IV jetta with the help of my pops two days ago. Gotta tell ya, we both had a hard time taking those suckers out. It took us almost the entire day just to take them down cause we ran some issues with the old screws that mount them. Two of them broke cause they were rotten old. So we had to make a custom mount on the radiator. Fortunately, the other two were alright. Also, we had to wiggle the fan left and right just to remove them down and that took us more time than expected. Also it took us time to remove the old fans from the shroud cause the screws broke as well. But at the end, we got them in and working However, I gotta replace the old screws that I put in with new ones tomorrow cause I don't trust the old ones. Again, thanks.


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## swornham (Aug 16, 2011)

*need pics from the DIY*

Does anyone have the images from this DIY?


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## Tvp125 (Mar 4, 2008)

I need to replace my passenger side fan and there dealer told me they were not sold individual and were sold as the whole assembly. Auto Zone had no fan motors in there system for the 2.0t.


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## HotRodDodge (May 1, 2011)

Nice write up! only thing i do differnt is when i take mine out i take them out the top, dont need the car up nearly as high that way. I to like iGen3 just took my small fan apart and fixed it myself, same problem just had one of the brushes stuck. Cleaned it all up and and has been working for 2 months without a problem.


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## Chadd (Jan 27, 2003)

Tvp125 said:


> I need to replace my passenger side fan and there dealer told me they were not sold individual and were sold as the whole assembly. Auto Zone had no fan motors in there system for the 2.0t.


 They are not sold in pairs. I replaced both of mine but could have bought separately. Try a different dealer. I bought for Audi from a VW dealer. 

As mentioned before you may be able to get it working again. A hammer did it for me. It's nice to have the new fans bit I liked the $600 better.


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## ponchoboy (Sep 12, 2002)

Are the tabs that need to be Dremeled off on the back of the fan assembly fairly obvious? If not, anyone got pictures?


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## HotRodDodge (May 1, 2011)

ponchoboy said:


> Are the tabs that need to be Dremeled off on the back of the fan assembly fairly obvious? If not, anyone got pictures?


 I didnt cut anything off mine i just pryed the cover off and it went back together easy


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## 67dcab (Feb 6, 2011)

*Broken fan blade in MA*

Anyone if you have a good blade and a dead motor I am looking for the blade for a 1K0959455FJ HELP


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## Chadd (Jan 27, 2003)

67dcab said:


> Anyone if you have a good blade and a dead motor I am looking for the blade for a 1K0959455FJ HELP


PM sent


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## division12 (Dec 5, 2008)

How can one tell if its the smaller fan that is not working? from the short amount of time i was observing it, it wasn't turning. Any way to test it for sure? I tried turning it manually and it is not stuck. My driver's side fan (bigger one) gets loud...

I'm just concerned that the bigger one needs replacing also as I read there's a control unit on it to turn the smaller fan?


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## Chadd (Jan 27, 2003)

division12 said:


> How can one tell if its the smaller fan that is not working? from the short amount of time i was observing it, it wasn't turning. Any way to test it for sure? I tried turning it manually and it is not stuck. My driver's side fan (bigger one) gets loud...
> 
> I'm just concerned that the bigger one needs replacing also as I read there's a control unit on it to turn the smaller fan?


Unplug the small fan and apply 12v. The Plug for the small fan has only 12v + and negative.


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## division12 (Dec 5, 2008)

Chadd said:


> Unplug the small fan and apply 12v. The Plug for the small fan has only 12v + and negative.


Also maybe worth mentioning is when I'm parked and I turn on the AC...this is also triggers the big fan to accelerate...it starts to slow down as soon as I turn of the AC.

I found the complete assembly including both fans for $250...I'm wondering if its just easier to replace everything. The small fan alone from VW is close to $200.

BTW, could I pull out the assemby from the top? Somebody mentioned they did it this way. I have 2008 Rabbit btw.


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## Chadd (Jan 27, 2003)

At that price I would replace both. I pulled mine down and out the bottom with the car on ramps. You will still have to go under to get the 2 bottom screw and the connector. It's one of the easier jobs to do one these cars.


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## division12 (Dec 5, 2008)

Chadd said:


> At that price I would replace both. I pulled mine down and out the bottom with the car on ramps. You will still have to go under to get the 2 bottom screw and the connector. It's one of the easier jobs to do one these cars.


I only have standard jacks..I hope I can get enough clearance. So all you took out was the belly pan? what about the bumper grill?


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## Chadd (Jan 27, 2003)

division12 said:


> I only have standard jacks..I hope I can get enough clearance. So all you took out was the belly pan? what about the bumper grill?


 Just the belly pan. You may be able to pull it out from the top. I didn't try.


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## RABBIT170 (Aug 26, 2009)

Great write up, but will this work for the 2.5L Rabbits?


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## chadc84 (Jun 7, 2012)

good info, i need to replace the passenger side fan due to damage, when it runs it vibrates the whole car. can i pop the fan off without taking the whole assembly off? is there a write up on it? thanks!


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## TracyZ (Nov 16, 2011)

*pictures are gone*

Is there away to view the pictures? I think my small fan might be dead. It spins when I turn it by hand. I got the error codes po480/po481 cooling fan control 1 and 2. Is it worth checking the fan control relays and fan control modules or should I just bite the bullet and replace both fans? Radiator fan runs but seems to run really fast at times


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## wreckemtech (May 7, 2010)

*Images!*

I used some URL magic to get the images, I dumped them into an imgur album and added descriptions. This DIY was really helpful when my fan went bad. I'm not sure about checking the relays, but when my fan went bad the other one ran at high speed constantly.

http://imgur.com/a/AvGxA


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## christofambrosch (Jul 5, 2011)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5867055-DIY-Cooling-Fan-Replacement


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## Rabbit07loveit (Jul 25, 2013)

*Radiator fan running after shutting car off*

Just replaced the entire fan assembly (both fans) in my 2007 rabbit. The big fan was running fast and the little fan had died. Bought a non factory OEM fan for $150 (online) and put it in myself based on above directions (which were awesome). The new fan works fine except the fan starts running a couple of minutes after I shut down and runs for about 10min. This never happened with the old (original) radiator fan. Does anyone know how to fix this? I'm worried about it killing the battery and it is quite loud (I can hear it running in the garage even when I'm in the house)

Thank you!
Devon


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## benmcwill71 (Jun 12, 2013)

Has anybody tried a dual universal fan?

I've been overheating a lot lately in traffic. i actually had to pull over turn the car off and open the hood to help it cool off today twice in traffic today. I live in Houston so I'm going to be in traffic and its going to be hot outside almost all year round. I'm trying to find a permanent fix to this problem so instead of fixing these sh&$ fans I'm thinking about putting in better ones in. As well as I'm thinking about trying to find a hood scoop so it cant help let the air in and out of that cramped engine bay. what do you guys think?


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## scottb8888 (Mar 6, 2014)

*Driver's fan shot*

Passenger fan working. Driver's fan out. Should I replace both?


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## FinderRO (Sep 17, 2012)

No


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## nj12nets (Dec 11, 2012)

Will this guide work on a 2006 passat 3.6l blv?


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## dping28 (Nov 12, 2007)

*Fan Testing question*

Hey all,

So I have a 2008 VW Rabbit that had the Engine light on.. I had a OBD cable that allowed me to determine it was one of my cooling fans that had the problem.. I followed this DIY and got them out.. 

I had a small 13V benchtop PSU and I hooked it up to both fans to see which didnt work.. The small passenger one spun both directions (changing the polarity) however the bigger one only spun backwards (According to the arrow on the blade).. Im sure that means it is bad but just wanted to get someone elses view on it.. Is it shot and should be replaced or is there a possible way to fix it? Thanks!

-D


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## arismkv (Jun 17, 2008)

thankyou, will be using this


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