levtron

Love these little stories... Here we go...

Driving today, and as I was overtaking a car.. I hear a hard bump from the back... First thought, oh, I must have hit the rev limiter, then seconds later I think to myself.. Man that was a little loud for a rev.limiter. I look down and see that half the lights on the dash are on.. Specifically the belt light... Oh.. No.. This can't be good.

I immediately pull over, and pop the engine lid... And here is what we find.

The black areas on the fab blades is interesting. Wonder if it was a bad casting? Unfortunately I think i may be a decade out of warranty ;-)





This may be the worst one!!!!




I need to source a new fan and housing.

Part # 993 106 667 01 for the fan housing

Part# 964 106 015 21 for the impeller/fan

Does anyone have either one they want to sell?

Howdy993

Can't tell from the photos but if the dash lit up like Christmas tree, you probably broke a belt - which lead to the other stuff?

Once its all sorted out - you'll be back to driving with the silly smile we all know and love.

Best wishes

Quadcammer

this is not serious right

levtron

Quad... Not at all... driving it cross country tonight....

User 122821

Ouch, first time I've seen that. At least it didn't damage the engine.

bobt993

Looks like something got lodged in the fan housing. Your one belt is flipped so the fan blade jammed against something when this happened. It is possible the fan blade bearing failed which would cause it to hit the housing, but I have never seen that happen. You should take the fan completely out and inspect the alternator etc for crap in it.

levtron

I know its a crazy sight...

The bearing was changed 4k miles ago... I dropped it off at Eurotech in Framingham Ma, with Bill Fister.. Will be breaking it down next week.

Cant find the Fan housing anywhere. Sunset is backordered. Will make more calls Monday.

ShdwFx

Never seen this happen before. Good luck with the fix and hope you're back on the road soon.

jhg41977

Ouch!

TMc993

Those black areas on the nubs of the fan blades looks like evidence of some pretty significant cracks/corrosion...Wonder how many of us are cruising around in our 14-17 year-old cars under similar conditions...

bobt993

Pelican, several listed.

kjr914

OP, is that black on the end of fan blades corrosion or is it fan belt bits?

Various possibilities for debate here and very hard to determine which happened:
1. Belt just broke, belt into fan, snapped blades off, mayhem ensues.
2. Blade broke, flying blade broke belt or jammed fan causing belt to snap, blade/belt into fan and more blades snapped off, mayhem ensues.
3. Fan bearing seized and broke belt, resulting in #1. Least likely as OP said it was a relatively new bearing.
Regardless, damage is done.

It seems that our 993 fans are degrading in a bad way. I was just doing my alternator and replaced my fan when I saw the corners of the blades chipping off, and worse, the blades delaminating. You really can't see the delamination without removing the fan from the housing. Bad news is that the fan is about $400. Good news is that includes the fan bearing, which is something like $250 itself.

+1 on full disassembly and check out of the pieces that might have gone into the alternator. You'll find a bunch of blade parts laying on the top of the engine after pulling the alternator.... Good time to see if the alternator needs attention (brushes, etc). On the bright side, you can soon have a freshly painted housing and fan for some engine bling....

bobt993

Keith,

It appears as though the belts are still on the pulleys. The one belt has flipped either from oil or tension from the blade being jammed. If you have ever media blasted the fan blade to powder coat you would see that the factory paint is very thick and looks like it is pealing when it comes off. The fan blades are solid material and won't delaminate. The center shaft is for the alternator to spin at a different speed while the cooling fan runs on the outer shaft. If the bearing seizes both pulleys will try and operate at the same speed. That is likely what happened and caused the fan blade to nutate and the belt to slip then flip (melted a bit too).

JM993

This makes sense. Too much of a coincidence that the bearing was recently changed. Likely either your shop damaged the bearing installing it or it was defective to begin with.

levtron

when I opened the lid... with engine off.. the fan was still spinning... So the bearing did not fuse up. You can actually spin the fan assembly right now.. (Well if I was at the garage ;-) ).

The black stuff is Corrosion.. I tried to wipe it off, and it does not come off. Bill Fister pointed out that it was most likely an air pocket trapped when casted. The funny thing, is that one of the blades had a small crack in it, which I noticed a few months back, when I replaced the ALT and the bearing.. It is one of the shredded blades, but it DID not break off at the crack. You can see it on the second picture... on the right side.