Hi,
my niece has a 2008 RX400H and it was making a funny noise from the front end. I looked under the hood and I could see the noise was coming from the fan area. I could see the left, drivers side, fan was wobbling quite a bit. I turned off the car and spun the fan by hand and all seemed well. I did not think this was urgent. A couple days later she was cleaning her car and using a plug in vac, so she left the car running and the car overheated. She asked me about it the next day and when I went to check the fan, it was jammed and not moving. I wiggled it a bit and manged to get free, but it did not feel right. It felt like it was not attached to the motor. I had more time to so I started to poke around. The first thing I noticed is that the fan motors was skewed to the side. That seemed odd to me, so I looked at the other motor and it too was at a similar angle. I did not see anthing, like a clean area, to indicate the motor had shifted, so I assumed it was normal. I tried to pull the the fan assembly, but the two bottom bolts were really rusted in place so I could not pull it as I had run out of daylight. I was able to get the fan blade out, it was not attached to the motors, and he center area looked chewed up a bit. I used a mirror to look at the motor shaft where the blade mounts and I could see nothing wrong. So now I was wondering, are the motors on this fan assembly normally at an angle? How do fan blades attach to the motor? Is this a common failure? About how much does a fan assembly cost? Any tips on getting the two bottom bolts out? TIA.

 

IMHO, replace the fan...

 

any tips on getting the fans out?

 

here for radiator - https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...l#post10944628
look it and, probably, it will help with your question also

 

Thanks, I already saw that video. None of the video has a clear shot of the rear of the fan assembly, so I can't tell if the fan motors are supposed to look like they are mounted askew. Unfortunately tow of the screws that they pull out without an issue, are pretty solidly rusted in place on this car. I might try some WD-40 if I can find the back of the screw.

 

There's 2 bolts on top that easy to access and 2 on bottom that are a little more hidden to remove the fan shroud. The video above shows that pretty well, bottom bolts at 20 mins. Once you have the shroud removed there is a nut on the fan to remove then 3 Philips head screws/bolts to remove and the fan just drops out the back. Very easy replacement, I changed mine out this week on my 2007 RX400h. One bit of advice: compare prices on the replacement fan motor. Mine was the same as the 2006 Highlander fan motor, part# 16363-20400. My local dealers quoted $304 for it. I looked online and found toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com/ had it for $206!

https://toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.c...tor-1636320400

A few others had it for a similar price, search the part number and you can save a chunk on the motor!

 

Hi,
I just wanted give and update and thank everyone for their tips. My niece ended up taking the car to a local mechanic as she was in a hurry to get this fixed as she was going away in a couple of days. I told her to tell the mechanic to save the parts. The car has 147k miles and it never had the timing belt replaced, so she decided to get that done too. The mechanic said both motors were burned out. I checked the shroud and I could see what happened. It seems that the fan blades came off the the motors and they got jammed against the shroud and that caused the motors to over heat and they in turn melted the plastic where they mount to the shroud. That is why the motors looked angled. Attached are pics of the fan assembly. You can see the melted plastic. I took a close look at the timing belt, and it looked pretty good. There was some wear on the teeth, but no cracks or anything that would indicate the belt was going to snap any time soon. I then checked the water pump and idler pulley. The pump was not leaking at all and the internals looked as new, but there was a tiny bit of play in the bearing. Same for the idler pulley, a very tiny bit of play. So this was a good time to replace it.