It started happening slowly and now after a week it is a constant squeeling from the passenger side fan every time it comes on. The fan also doesn't like to freespin as well as the driver side fan. How do the fans work? Are there any bearings that can be greased? I noticed after checking that the motors will run you almost $200 each, so I'm hoping it's not the motor. I have already pulled the fans out of the car and, sadly, I can't pull the blades off the motors... I don't think it should be this hard. I pulled the single nut out of the center and, nothing. I pull and pull and nothing. I'm about to run the fans down to Rotary Performance tomorrow and check it all out but I'd like all the help I could get anyway.

On a side note. The passenger side fan has 5 blades and the driver side has 4. Since they are only $25, do the 5 blades pull more air than the 4? Has anyone put in 2, 5 bladed fans? Any effect?

Thanks in advance...

 

A lot of times you can go to websites like digikey and other sites. and finght the EXACT same motor for like, 25% of teh cost. how is someone going to tell me in their right mind an electric fan motor is 200$ ? you can go buy a whole new fan assembly with both fans for that much. def do some research before you spend 200$ on a motor.

and dude... really creepy. the add on this page is for Digikey fan motors, ha wtf

 

I don't know if the bearings are lubricatable, but my guess would be that they are not, and that it isn't worth the effort of tearing things apart to try to lubricate them.

As for the fan blades, they have different numbers of blades to avoid unwanted resonance at certain frequencies. Do the 5 blade fans move more CFMs than the 4 blade fans? Dunno. I would think that the CFM rating would be more a function of the abilities of the motor rather than the blades.

 

No.
Search for "Ray Malloy". I imagine he can get you a much better deal than that on a new one.

Once that shaft nut is off, the blade assembly should come right off. You might try getting a thin screwdriver and try gently prying it off by moving around the center each time with each pry attempt.
The difference in number of blades is to cancel out the resonation noise that occurs from having two identical fans in close proximity. There have been claims from many that the 5-bladed fan pulls more airflow because they can "feel it", but that is nothing but a placebo effect in my opinion. The number of blades has little to do with the amount of airflow a fan assembly can provide.

 

sounds like a bad motor =p sometimes the windings inside just go bad

 

Well it turns out the motor is bad and I picked up a new one for $150 as well as a 5 bladed fan before reading these posts. I haven't yet installed the entire assembly.

As far as removing the blades, I borrowed a friends mini torch and stuck the assembly in the freezer. 20 minutes later I pulled them out and heated up the metal insert in the blades around the motor shaft and POP! They came off. Perfectly ok too. Saving them for any possible issues later.

Is the resonance effect just the noise or could it possibly cause damage? I'm just thinking of the ability to resonate bridges to the point that they collapse and maybe that same theory could hurt the fans... or maybe I'm retarded to think so Or maybe the resonance would sound cool... (Imagining a wawawawawa sound) Yeah my fan motors are bridgeported