Can’t Explain This II

After arriving at work last Saturday noticed sometime later after parking car that the fan was going. Took it for short drive but would not stop. Kept going for a couple of hours.

Managed to take it down to Independent who had a look and said that fan needed replacing as it had burnt itself out (Not a common problem on 328's evidently but common on M3's I was told)

This was not good news as had a short break planned to Jersey from Sunday and was taking car. Only solution was to remove the fuse when the car was at rest so it did not flatten the battery and fit it when driving so it did not overheat. The other blow was that the cost of the replacement fan (auxilliary or "pusher" fan - the one in front of the rad that is part of aircon system) would be £256!!! (inc control unit) £320 fitted!!!

Anyway, got to Jersey and followed advice given. Lots of short trips (its a small island with a max 40mph speed limit) I did not remove the fuse everytime (i.e. overnight) and had no problems with the fan at all.

Bit of a dilemna now - I'm thinking about getting a second opinion about the problem. If it is a replacement fan I can't justify £256 for the part alone. Don't think I can get a recon unit unless someone knows better.

The cost of £256 dose not suprise me BMW parts are seriously expensive only brought my 328 c few weeks ago excellent car untill things start going wrong so I was told after I brought it. Lets not forget when these cars where new they where mostly brought and owned by rich buggers who could afford to maintain them. Ten or so years down the line maintance for these cars will always be well above your run of the mill makes like Peurgeot and fords

Also I thought that even if the fan is not running in the front of the car the 328 has a constant running fan the engine bay side of the radiator.

I made a bad mistake of not tightening the radiator cap up properly after topping up, cost me £120 for the RAC to come out and release the airlock created in the cooling system youve got to really twist the bugger on tight.