Just wondering what is the best sequence that others have found w/ S4's.

Drain the water (use a small funnel through lower bumper hole)
Remove upper Rad hose to T Stat
Remove Hose connection to Air-Pump filter
Remove Band Clamp on PS Reservoir (for extra clearance)
Disconnect the Fan wiring from clips and Fans.
Remove the two #10's on top of shroud

They always seem to hang up on the Upper Oil Cooler line (can't remove Line as no room w/ the shroud in-place to counter hold the Cooler fitting).

Some seem to pull right out, and some just get hung up (brittle plastic can break easy).

What am I missing (scratching head)?

Thanks you,

Dave

 

Take the top radiator hose off.
Then pull up slightly to clear the three tabs at the bottom of the radiator.
Push the assembly a little to the passenger side to clear the oil cooler lines and then pull up straight while wiggling.
Hope that helps.

 

To remove the fans on an S4.

Disconnect the battery.

Drain the coolant from the radiator drain plug ,
NOTE Have a spare plug handy incase the original snaps off

Remove upper Rad hose to T Stat.

Remove Hose connection to Air-Pump filter, bend hose towards the rear out of the way.

Disconnect the Fan wiring from clips and Fans. push to the rear of the car.

Remove the two #10's on top of shroud.

Remove the PS reservoir clamp, let reservoir hang.

Gently lift the fans up about 2 inches and push them back about 1 inch,
fit the 27MM and 32 MM wrenches in between the radiator and the fans .

Unscrew the trans cooler top hose and the oil cooler top hose,
these will get pushed out of the way as the fans come out
NOTE fit drain pans to catch any oil.

Install is the reverse of dissassembly

 

I always disconnect the oil cooler lines and pull the fan and the rad as a unit.

Cut the fingers off a set of nitryl gloves to put over the lines, and stuff a couple with paper to plug the holes in the rad and you won't have a mess.

 

Thank you all for the replies!
It didn't look like there was enough room to get the counter hold wrench in there (Thanks Stan).
Will give that a try tonight, already removed the band clamp on PS reservoir I'll up date the my list

Dave

 

Wow, what a palaver!

I've just replaced a fan in the last few days and it was as simple as Bilal suggests. The only addition was the air pump filter but the hose simply pulled away from the filter as it has a plastic attachment.

And the electrics are on the front side of the shroud and easily accessible once you've removed the shroud.

For once, this was a simple process, unlike most other repairs on this car.

 

On my '90 S4 which has the separate oil cooler below the radiator I can remove the fan shroud without draining any fluids. Sounds like this is an improvement over earlier arrangements.

Myles

 

Same for me. Takes about 30 seconds to get the shroud out.

Unhook fans, loosen PS res clamp, remove shroud.

 

All I do is undo the bolts, the oil cooler upper line and hold the upper rad hose out of the way. Sometimes it's best to have two people doing it though.

 

I'm confused.

My S4 is apparently unique.

I removed the 2 bolts, upper rad hose, air filter hose and, Hey Presto, the shroud came free. Electrics are then exposed on front side of shroud.

No PS reservoir, no oil cooler lines and no fan wiring to disconnect.

???

 

Glyn,

The later cars with no engine oil cooler in the rad come out much easier, and require nothing normally to be loosened. Earlier S4s you can get away with just loosening the power steering reservoir clamp and allowing it to float shall we say. But most who do this method will end up breaking something.

 

.... order one of my new shrouds that clears the cooler lines (shameless plug).

Should have these shipping soon, just in time for spring maintenance.

 

Yep that did it, "Gently lift the fans up about 2 inches and push them back about 1 inch,
fit the 27MM and 32 MM wrenches in between the radiator and the fans .

Unscrew the trans cooler top hose and the oil cooler top hose,
these will get pushed out of the way as the fans come out...".

The bottom large hose clamp was pointed up into the shroud, figured that shroud went on after it was done. I just remembered some come right out and some don't, it's the top cooler lines that need to be disconnected.

This one is an '87 Stick Black/Black (still has the stock radio

Thanks again!

Dave

 

once you break your first set of fan housings, Or see someone else break theirs,

following this advice will prevent that from happening again.

Glad you got your fans out

 

That is exactly what happened to me a month ago...I broke the shroud trying to get it our of there...I needed a little more patience...