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What did you do with your GMT400 today...or yesterday....

Big T said:
Check this out. My wife was headed to Montana in the 2014 4Runner. Just north of Idaho falls she was passing someone at about 65 mph (speed limit is 80 mph) and the cooling fan disintegrated.
View attachment 84363View attachment 84364
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I texted her to let her and you know I'm ready to roll as needed. I got family near ID Falls and I'm only 4 hours south.
 
She got it towed to the Toyota dealer in Idaho Falls, like myself, they had never seen anything like it. Lots of questions that need to be answered. Granted, it has 342K trouble free miles on it (courtesy of my maintenance), but I would think Toyota engineers would be interested in this.

They gave her a rental car to finish her trip. They won’t get to it until tomorrow and have been instructed to deal with me. Parts will need to be ordered.
 
Of they never seen it-that is an inexperienced crew.
This happens semi frequently with plastic fans.
If I was at liberty to show things from my current employer- I could show damages exceeding $150k from a single fan failure that did no engine damage on a generator.
I have seen approximately 30 in vehicles fail on the job and remember I have only worked as pro mechanic about 20 years worth.
 
dbrannon79 said:
You could just imagine if that was a steel blade fan where the rivets let loose! I don't even want to think about what the aftermath would be like.
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Usually this gets caught when replacing a water pump that was new, then failed.
The movement causes an unbalance and that makes the shaft wobble enough to wipe out the front seal.
 
Big T said:
Well, looks like we are not alone on this:

www.tacomaworld.com

My Radiator Fan Exploded Today!

I'm trying to figure out what happened this morning. I was climbing a hill to pass a slower driver when all of a sudden I hear a loud bang under the...
www.tacomaworld.com www.tacomaworld.com
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So in Post #38 he reveals the fan clutch seized. This is what Paveltolz was guessing might have happened. In retrospect, the fan was locking on at every transmission downshift, regardless of engine temp. It would even come on while going downhill. Well, now I know the symptoms.
 
Talked with the dealer service. Said lemme guess, fan clutch seized? Yep.

Punctured radiator, sliced line to oil cooler, but she shut it down before it lost oil pressure and they confirmed there is no engine damage. So replace fan and fan clutch, radiator, oil line and fan shroud. I will source hood ($250) and the cosmetic engine cover ($70) from salvage yards in SoCal. May have to paint the hood. I will also replace and paint the front bumper shell and the left front fender that she dinged backing out of the garage. Good practice using the new to me turbine HVLP sprayer in the new to me inflatable spray booth. Woohoo!
 
I wonder if this is going to be common thing for yota now with the fan clutches? I would say if so, the way yota is with things of this nature and how much of a safety issue this could turn into with flying shrapnel from the engine bay, Yota might issue a recall or warranty campaign like they have done many times in the past.

their warranty campaigns is how I was able to have the complete dash replaced for free in my old 2004 4runner back when I had it. it only had a couple of cracks but the campaign was for them "melting" in the summer heat!
 
This isn’t just a Toyota thing. I’ve seen GM ford dodge Cummins cat etc all do it.

Think about the hmmwv fan for a moment. A 6.5 we are all familiar with here. That clutch engagement/ disengagement is instant. Hmmwv fans are plastic or metal depending on application/ revision.

Semi trucks and yellow iron use air to instantly engage/disengage their fans- also plastic for many years. Much larger and heavier. Insanely more miles/ run time.

This is akin to a tire blowout. My sister never had a flat tire in her life. My other sister and brothers had tons. None ever had a blow out. I have had a couple.
It is rare but not insanely rare. At work, typo btw it was over $105,000 not 150, the conversations started with how did this happen. What went wrong and how do we make sure this can never happen again?
“Easy- replace the fan and it’s drive every oil change.” I said and continued “Why so often is the first time I saw this occur was on a chevy that had 5,500 miles on it.”

Tire shops sell warranty because it is profit, 95%+ tires never get a single repair. The few that do they loose some time but the profit is already been paid. Go ask a tire shop salesman often they see a full blow out and have to warranty it. They are rare but not insanely unheard of.

The fan clutch is not the cause. Correlation does not equal causation. If it was the cause 99% of semi trucks made from 1950 till now would have blown up their fans.

You KNOW the clutch was engaging because you stopped engine and tested it, or heard the noise and felt the drag? Could that have been the blade flexing where it cracked before failing? Yup. Could it have been the clutch? Yup. How come all these other of other fans withstand locking up instantly without the damage?
How come the fan at my work which NEVER UNLOCKS BECAUSE IT IS CONSTANT DRIVE failed without the force of instant lockup? Simple- the fan failed.
 
Will L. said:
This isn’t just a Toyota thing. I’ve seen GM ford dodge Cummins cat etc all do it.

Think about the hmmwv fan for a moment. A 6.5 we are all familiar with here. That clutch engagement/ disengagement is instant. Hmmwv fans are plastic or metal depending on application/ revision.

Semi trucks and yellow iron use air to instantly engage/disengage their fans- also plastic for many years. Much larger and heavier. Insanely more miles/ run time.

This is akin to a tire blowout. My sister never had a flat tire in her life. My other sister and brothers had tons. None ever had a blow out. I have had a couple.
It is rare but not insanely rare. At work, typo btw it was over $105,000 not 150, the conversations started with how did this happen. What went wrong and how do we make sure this can never happen again?
“Easy- replace the fan and it’s drive every oil change.” I said and continued “Why so often is the first time I saw this occur was on a chevy that had 5,500 miles on it.”

Tire shops sell warranty because it is profit, 95%+ tires never get a single repair. The few that do they loose some time but the profit is already been paid. Go ask a tire shop salesman often they see a full blow out and have to warranty it. They are rare but not insanely unheard of.

The fan clutch is not the cause. Correlation does not equal causation. If it was the cause 99% of semi trucks made from 1950 till now would have blown up their fans.

You KNOW the clutch was engaging because you stopped engine and tested it, or heard the noise and felt the drag? Could that have been the blade flexing where it cracked before failing? Yup. Could it have been the clutch? Yup. How come all these other of other fans withstand locking up instantly without the damage?
How come the fan at my work which NEVER UNLOCKS BECAUSE IT IS CONSTANT DRIVE failed without the force of instant lockup? Simple- the fan failed.
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You wrote a whole lot…as usual.

Bottom line, the plastic fan was not up to surviving on a locked up fan clutch driven by the water pump. This plastic fan is probably sufficient in an electric fan application. They should consider using fiber reinforced plastic for the blade because this is ultimately driven by the water pump, as opposed to an electric fan. Otherwise, they should recommend replace every 100K or 200K miles.

BTW I asked about duty cycle replacement of the water pump and timing. Toyota does not have specific mileage recommendations for either. On the water pump, replace when it starts leaking out the weep hole. On the timing chain, replace when you start hearing chain slap or the idle gets rough/erratic. Changing the timing chain is a big job. Probably two days work pulling crap off and putting it back on. Might as well pull the engine and do it.
 
$2,000 and that does not include replacement of the hood and cosmetic engine cover. They got close to matching the online Toyota parts cost which is good because I would have to add shipping. But this highlights how much my labor is really worth, because I could do all of that in a couple hours. I always consider the fact that I’m paying with after tax dollars, which means my labor value needs to be grossed up for the tax effect.
 
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