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 hood of my 2008 Tacoma. I pull over a little way down the road at a park and ride, shut off the truck, and crack the hood. I notice that the small hose near the radiator fill has popped off from where ever it was connected and there is no fan. Like the radiator fan is in pieces What would have caused something like this to happen. I had the pedal down enough to shift into overdrive, I think? Maybe it was just the end of the line for these parts? It does run quieter now! If you have any thoughts as to what might have caused this it'd be very helpful to know.

 

Your picture does not display. You need to fix the link for it.

 

They most likely exploded because of age and mileage. The motor mounts are probably tired and it wouldn't hurt to check those out because the engine could've shifted upwards slightly when you accelerated. Take a look around the engine bay to see if something snagged a blade

I just now saw your pictures. holy crap

 

Uploaded them.

 

brandon78Lusch, do you think it is just replace the clutch and fan and on we go? I'm really hoping this isn't radiator damage. Looks to be in good shape other than the popped hose.

 

The way it looks like it let go it was most likely due to age related cracking of the plastic fan over time, it just finally got to a point where the higher RPM was enough for it to come apart. It is also possible that the fan clutch locked up and was forcing it to turn at max RPM.

 

You're gonna need a new fan shroud which also has the coolant overflow in it as well...

 

As one that is not super mechanically proficient, would locking up not have the inverse effect, stopping the clutch?

 

If there's no visible damage it may be ok, you won't really know until you fix the visible damage/leaks what else may be damaged and not immediately obvious.

 

Current mileage would help as well.

We need more info OP.

 

Fan shroud is torn up as well, but as @brandon78lusch mentioned you need to check your motor mounts. Fan, fan clutch shroud, and motor mounts if needed. It could happen again if your motor mounts are tired.

 

If the fan clutch locks up it forces the fan to turn the same speed as the water pump that it is attached to.

The job of the fan clutch is to allow slip between the pulley it is attached to and the fan to reduce load on the engine, the clutch application is internally regulated by a thermostatic valve that changes the flow if fluid inside to increase or decrease speed based on temperature.
There is always some amount of slip between the clutch and the drive pulley but if the bearing in the clutch locks up there is no slip and great stress can be put on the fan at high engine RPM.

You can try to turn the clutch and see if it's locked up, it should turn smoothly with a slight drag.
Also check the water pump pulley for play, failed water pump bearings could have led to this as well.

 

I recently clicked over 214,000.

 

I'm willing to bet you lost the belt and it did all that damage. I had that happen close to home on my '08 4Runner and the belt took out everything - hoses, fan shroud, etc. When it broke it wrapped itself around the fan clutch and whipped around. Look to see if your belt let go.

 

The belt is still intact in one of the pictures. This is gnarly, the fan just grenaded itself. Bummer OP, but it looks like most of the damage is cosmetic, besides the fan itself and the overflow can.

 

Dan, thats some carnage

You can see the belt is still on in his pics.

 

You can see from the pictures that the belt is still in tact.

 

Holy %$@#&!!!! Never saw one let go like that or even ever heard of such a catastrophic failure on one of these. I have driven vehicles with thermostatic fan clutches for years with 1-3 hundred thousand miles on them and never had one fail like this. I had one that stopped working correctly (if you don't hear the tell-tale full RPM "roar" for several seconds when you start it up cold before quieting down again: isn't functioning correctly), but never a failure like that one. Whatever caused it did a lot of damage to some expensive parts in there.

You're lucky you didn't have your head/face under there when it let go.

 

What kind of environment is your truck exposed to? I see corrosion on almost everything....even your hose clamps look bad. I had a plastic fan on a Ford Explorer that cracked and had to be replaced. In your case excessive corrosion may have cracked the plastic fan housing, leading to total failure.

 

Well hell I missed the belt. Oh well I tried