GTI TDI PD150

[red16v]

Hi everyone - haven't been here for quite a while which may say something about the reliability of my car !

Took it in for 40k service the other week and when it came back from the VW main dealer he said the radiator fans needed changing and muttered something about the fuse carrier (couldn't get a straight answer out of him). I said " ah yes I believe this is a common problem on these models - I've read about it on the forums' he said 'well we've seen one or two but I wouldn't say its a common fault' 'No no', I said 'I'm sure I've read that this is a common failing on this model and to have the fans replaced is not unknown ' he said' well it's going to be carried out under the warranty so it won't cost you anything' - so now it's been done.

In fact I had been a bit concerned about the fans on my car for a little while. It seemed to me that the fans were cutting in even when it was stone cold - sitting in traffic they would repeatedly come on for say 30 secs then go off for say 10 secs then come on again etc etc. This seemed to happen all the time when the car was at a standstill |(which to be fair is the only time you can possibly hear it the fans). I did mention it to the dealer some time ago but he said it was normal - I didn't pursue it at the time because the engine temperature was always maintained properly at the mid point.

I suppose when it was in for the 40k service the technician may have noticed this 'stock' fault on the car ?

My question to the forum is - is my memory playing tricks ? I seem to clearly recall on this forum that this was a common fault on this model. If that's the case can anyone tell me what the fault is and why do the radiator fans need to be changed ? what is the 'burned' fuse holder connection to all this?

Kind regards, yt.   

[shagmeister]

i have cut and pasted this from one of my earlier posts, the fuse holder is one of the factors to do with the comp prob aparently.  Glad yours was under warranty mine was out by a week and the twits wouldnt honour it  , still heres the bit from earlier 

The fans system is quite complex, it keeps air flowing over the aircon cooler matrix as well as the water system. the common problem is the fan controller finds life to hard for it and it retires, normally when it does it damages the fans!  Then the comp system then goes into what the main stealers casually called emergancy cooling, hence the cycling of the cooling system even when cold.  Another symptom can be a grumblin noise when the air con goes on and off load similar to a fan running down and rubbing, this is the under cooled over pressurised air con coolant expanding over the restrictor.  You need to get it checked out if your still in warranty, mine died a week out of warranty and although i got half the price off because it is covered by the vw friendship scheme it still set me back best part of a 150 notes.  worth checkin innit, cheers shagmeister


ee whats this button do?