All y'all owners ARE giving yer fan a wiggle every so often, right?

[civdiv99]

Maybe folks are already doing this, but when I read something regarding a failed cooling fan and related carnage..........well, just a thought.

On my cars that have a longitudinal engine with fan mounted to the water pump (i.e., E53), maybe a few times a year I'll wander out on a Sat morning and pop hoods, grab hold of the fan, and try to wiggle it fore & aft. Should be no detectable play.

About year or so ago, the X5 fan "wiggled." No other symptoms, no leak, no noise, but any perceptible movement means 'tis on the short road to a bigger problem. I ordered a water pump off Rockauto, and replaced it, along with the idlers and belt. So maybe $100 for the parts load, and an afternoon in the garage.

If not caught early, the internal impeller can contact the internal housing and begin to self-destruct. Some cars may be able to tolerate quite a bit. Some may get noisy. And sometimes I wonder, when I read about a more catastrophic failure, if there wasn't an underlying cause that could have been detected and dealt with sooner?

My thought for the day.

Civdiv99