i'll go ahead and post how to fix these buggers for the benefit of anyone else in this position. It has been a few months, so it's kind of fuzzy, but it should be clear enough. you need to take the aux fan out of the car, so you have to take out that cross bracket in front of the radiator. Once the aux fan is out the real fun begins. (to get it out you just remove 3 or four bolts placed in the "corners") you have to get the fan out of the metal surround, so you remove the three bolts in back, as well as the plastic cover in the front. YOu will have to cut a zip tie to allow the wire to come out, once you do those three things the fan should slide out forward. next thing to do is to remove the big bolt on the front of the actual fan. you have to bend down the little retainer metal strips and then unscrew it to the right i beleive(i'm pretty sure it loosens the way most bolts tigten, just play with it and youll get it). once you have that off you can unbolt the remaining three bolts from the back of the motor, keep in mind which bolts go where for re-assembly, some are "taller" than others. once that is done you can pull the fan halves apart. If your fan was like mine the front bearing will be completely shot, and there will be metal shavings everywhere inside the fan. Use some strength(it WILL take it) and pull the motor assembly away from the other half of the fan assembly. do your best to clean out all the metal shavings(it's kinda hard, a strong magnet helps here) and look at the oil-lite bushing in the back. try to wipe off all the old grease/oil and re-oil it. this next part is the fun part. the one metal plate that once has the bearing in it, you have to drill out the three rivets in order to get to access the bearing. Once i got this far, i took that plate to a local bearing shop, and they pressed out the old one, pressed in the new one, and glued in the new one. The place i took mine to was a place called "terry bearing". If you dont have one of these shops your kind of SOL on repairing the fan. re-assembly is the same as dis-assembly. My fan works great now with the exception that it seems to be a little more "wobbly" and when it winds down it hits the plastic protective screen. Both of which i can live with for the price of a replacement. BTW, total cost to me was four dollars and twelve cents! if any clarification is needed just reply back and i'll be glad to help. Hpe i save someone $175.82

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83 300SD.......sold
96 integra SE....sold
99 a4 quattro....sold
2001 IS300.......sold
2002 330i.........current.
2004 highlander limited....current.