I checked my car today and noticed my radiator fan is on as soon as I start the car which may explain why it takes longer to warm up. I put on the a.c. and both fans went on which I think is normal but the radiator fan shouldn't stay on all the time correct?. I checked three hours later and the fan went on as soon as I started the car with the temp ice cold.

From reading it could be a cooling fan thermo switch which is located in the lower radiator hose on passenger side. Does anyone have experience with this issue. I'm thinking this could be related to my thermostat heating issue.

Let me ok know your comments.

 

I'm not sure which fan you're talking about when you say "radiator fan". There's the one on fan clutch, and the electric one. The one on the fan clutch is going to turn all the time. The electric only comes on with the AC. Even when the fan on the clutch is turning, it might not be pulling much air. When the clutch is cold, you can usually grab the fan with your bare hands, meaning it's not really pulling much air.

 

The fan on the drivers side is always on and I wouldn't want to grab it cause it really looks like its going on a high speed . I thought the fan shouldn't go on until it's told by the computer.

So u are saying it's normal for the fan to be on when u start the car?

 

The clutch fan will spin even when you turn on the car. I've grabbed mine when its cold. It has very little force behind it when the clutch is cold. But yes, it always turns.

 

...so went out this morning and started car, the clutch fan went on and there is no way you can grab it without cutting your fingers off. I touched it with a ruler and couldn't stop it, it's going at a high force of speed.

I turned the car off and wanted to see if I could spin it with my hand, it moves pretty easy, does more than a revolution when pushed by hand...

any ideas, is it the fan clutch, a relay gone bad?

 

I just looked at mine to be sure. It's -2F in Minnesota this morning. Most fan clutches lock up at about 170F, so there's no way mine should be pulling much air at all. I start it up, it looks like it's spinning fast but I grab it with my bare hand. No glove, nothing. In fact just for the heck of it, with the motor running I grabbed it with my bare hand and spun it back the wrong direction. The fluid in the clutch is so loose it coasted for about a full revolution before the rotation of the engine turned it back the right direction.


Is this your problem? I don't know. I just know that they can lock up and over-cool, and that I have no problem grabbing mine by hand.

 

As I said previous, the fan is spinning high all the time and I hear and feel the air when I open the hood. It's loud and I wouldn't advise grabbing it with bare hans, like I said I touched it and tried to stop it with a ruler this morning and it didn't stop, it felt like it could chop off your fingers..

 

is there any way to test to see if it's working correctly.

Also is there a fuse I can pull to stop it from spinning?, and where is it located?

 

There's no fuse. It's not electrical at all. When the temp reaches 170ish F, the fluid clutch locks up. I'm not sure how to test past what I've said. Google "fan clutch", I'm sure you'll learn a lot.

 

I've been reading on Google and Audi sites and all it does is add to the confusion, I've seen post that say the clutch fan should not be running and some say it should run, and then some say the fan runs but only at slow speed...so I really can't get a right answer. From what I assume, it doesn't seem normal that the clutch fan should be running at full speed at start up.

I hate to throw parts at it before I know the problem. If anyone else can help please chime in.