driver's side Aux fan not working
 

I was doing some in town driving today and noticed that the temp gauge was well above 100..... turned on the heater to bring it down to about 90...

when i got home the driver's side fan was not turning... but somehow, i don't feel it is the fan itself.. in the past when i have lost a fan..albeit a 103 fan, the fan started getting bearing fatigue.

any thoughts would be appreciated... a/c is working like a champ in the hot south Florida summer.

this is the 95 e320 with the 104

They are connected in parallel, so both should always come on at the same time.

Most likely a bad motor.

i manually turned the drivers side and it came on..although at a much slower speed than the passengers side...

ugh.... the manual says that you have to disconnect the condenser pressure hoses to get to it.... that would mean an a/c recharge as well.... and maybe a new drier???:

Yes, snug as a bug.

Can be done w/o removing the assembly,

Could just be the brush. Mine's been doing that for the last year. In the hot Atlanta summers when I crank the car, turn on the AC, pop the hood, tap the fan with my maglite. Fixed. Not very scientific but not going to replace it until the motor dies...or the carbon brush disintegrates :P

New clue
 

it turns out that the fan wiring from the drier was jumpered, so the passenger's side fan ran allllll the time.

i unplugged the jumper cable and plugged in the drier wiring.. passenger fan is working... not so with the driver's i guess it is shot.

Lee,just did the same job on 95 e300d yesterday.it can be done without pulling the condensor.the right side h/light assembly has to come out but that is easy.when you remove the aux fan shroud yo will find a lot of dirt that has been blocking the airflow thru the condensor.btw the little round trimclips in the front of the fanshroud [6 i think] are the same as the ones that hold in the glovebox.

thanks so much david and mb doc.

Why didn't the mercedes manual advocate removing the headlight assembly... that's b.s. on thier part.

i can "jump start" the drivers fan by manually turning it, but it turns only at fraction of what it should.

I will invest in a new fan.

When installing the new fan, be sure to check the direction of rotation before reassembling everything. There was a production run of these fans that had the polarity reversed. (Ask me how I know...........) Simple to correct while the plug is still accessible, just reverse the pins in the connector.

J. M. van Swaay

thanks, jm,will do..

hello lee,

if you have some free time on your hands and feel like getting them dirty, save yourself some cash, and just go out and buy a couple of brushes for your fan. when the fan is removed, they are easily accessible from the back of the fan(just remove the back plate/cover) P.S. no need to remove the fan blade.

hope you get it fixed soon,
tim

tim..... i think i will try that....after i install a new one...picked one up for 80 dollars shipped..

keep in mind there's the passenger side...it's working fine, but you never know...

this way i will have a spare.... already have a spare for the 103

i am probably going to get a new fan clutch.... and a new thermostat..... i don't have history of those items... i did pull the thermostat yesterday.. and it broke as i was pulling it..... it looked cheap and the o-ring was brittle and hard...

where do you get the brushes?..... ones that fit...????

hey lee,

unfortunately, i no longer reside in the states. i am currently in europe.

when i went to rebuild my fan:i took out the old/bad brushes, i then went to a local shop which sells electromotor parts, and picked up a similar pair of brushes, and then installed them(you will need to have a soldering iron to remove the old brushes and install the new ones).

I am not an electronics expert,but i trust that the guy who sold me the brushes , sold me the appropriate ones for my fan, and so far so good! (2 weeks since the install, and all is well. will let you know if the fan dies anytime soon)

as far as brushes go, try ebay, or better yet, find a local shop that sells them.

good to hear that you have already taken care of the faulty auxiliary fan. good job man! it sounds like yer a pretty responsible owner.

Since it seems like a lot of debris get trapped in these fans, it might not be a bad idea to blow some compressed air through your working fan , and perhaps clean out the condenser as well.



take care
tim

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w124-e-ce-d-td-class/1506516-opps-auxiliary-fan-fun-never-ends.html

see the pics, might be helpful

pictures are a big help, thanks