T-100 Cooling System Fanblades

[joecowboy]

I have 1996 T-100 V6 3.4 SR5 4x4 w/100k miles. The radiator/engine cooling fan just disintegrated coming home from grocery store today. Out of 7 blades..one completely gone..three cracked..others are badly chipped. Just pulled out on highway going maybe 10mph..heard a noise and then a lot of motor shaking and vibration. Probably because it is out of balance with one blade missing. Idled home 2 blocks. Anyone heard of or experienced this before??

[robiewp]

I had something similar happen with the fan on a jeep that I had. The car had been hit on the front and repaired, but of course the fan was not replaced. 1 year later, the off-balance fan reeked havoc. I was accelerating onto the interstate when Crash Bang Boom two metal fan blades fatigued-off, one puncturing the radiator the other putting a huge 2" gash all of the way through the hood.

Point being, there's an amazing amount of force acting on those blades. Metal ones can become weapons, plastic ones can become a pile of chips. My guess is it all started with a small chip (sloppy mechanic, perhaps?) and all went down hill from there.