brand new Tacoma fan stops spinning

My son bought a new 2025 Trail hunter last month. 3 days of driving on a right of way, (he's a pipeline surveyor) the truck started to shake bad when the AC was on.He was driving 0-20 mph.it would stop shaking if he sped up.He brought it back to dealership and they said it wasn't under warranty because he broke the fan.Then a Toyota mechanic looked at it and said it wasn't his fault. The road he drives on is dusty, no rocks,branches, and is always being grated an watered. I have no idea what they did to it but he brought back the loaner truck because they said it was fixed. 2 days later sitting just idling the engine started to get real loud but RPM not moving. He called corporate and they said bring it back. that day leaving the job the fan stopped spinning an he had to be drug back to shop..Dealership brought him the Chevy back to him for loaner and a towtruck came an got the truck. Dealership said fan was broken and they would replace it. Again son went and picked up truck. The same day it did it again.tow truck had to come pick up and took it back to dealership.once again saying it's the fan broken. corp tech says this is the last time they will fix the problem under warranty. has anyone had this problem with a brand new Trail Hunter. At this point the dealership has had his truck longer then he has.

 

So no one has asked "How is the fan breaking?"
That question has to be asked and answered before the fan will ever stop breaking, AND warranty coverage can be denied or claimed.

We needs more info. (And so do you)

 

They say there is mud on the fan an that throws it off balance. He did drive thru a mud puddle but so does all the other 100 trucks on this job. The chevy he driving now is still running. After work every day he blows out the air cleaner.

 

There'd have to be a substantial amount of mud on the fan to throw it out of balance and break the fan.
Can it happen? Yes.
Does it happen that often, and 4 times in a row? Never that I have seen, or heard of (until now)

I'd want picture proof of this "mud" before accepting that my warranty was denied.

Not to be harsh here, but your son and the dealership likely know more.

Either your son is abusing the truck in the mud. And not washing mud from the drivetrain and engine bay.
Or the dealership has no idea why the fan is breaking, and doesn't want to spend the time to figure it out.
Time cost money, it's a fact. The technician has to be paid for time spent fixing the truck. Once they run out of time (warranty), often times they give up.
Not saying that's what happened. But there HAS TO BE more to this story.

 

@TnShooter

Do the new trucks still have fan clutches?

Or have they moved to having ECU controlled fans?

Curious.

I too would like to know what's 'broken'.

I've had some stuff wear out in the past, even had a work truck that the water pump shaft broke and put the fan in the radiator. Have seen them mangle a hood.

Like you, me thinks there's more to the story.

 

I'm not sure on the 2024+ trucks.
My service data hasn't got 2004+ truck info.
Mostly why I don't hang out in this section much.

But fans don't just break 4x.
Not as fast as this one is breaking them.

 

I just asked him to see if he can get the picture the dealership mechanic sent to the corp tech..
He just got back and he did ask for evidence and they haven't gotten back to him.
if son was younger then yes I would say he would probably beat on a truck. But he takes care of his things and blows out the truck every evening he gets off work. He spent big bucks on this truck and it's nothing but a hassle so far

 

i don't know if fan is "broken" like in pieces.. just stops spinning an truck over heats..when the truck started shaking it would shake hard. Like the whole truck would shake. I agree mechanic doesn't know what is going on. corp tech is just going off words an pictures of dealership mechanic.

 

Also curious if this is a belt driven fan or electric

 

I don't know. He never said anything about a belt breaking..I haven't seen the truck in person he is working in NV. I'm in Colorado

 

Do you know if this is the hybrid (i-Force Max) or standard engine truck?

 

It would be interesting to see if he kept the truck on paved roads for a few days, if the fan broke again.

If it seems like mud really is the problem, maybe he needs to rig up some kind of mud guard for it.

 

it's a hybrid (i-Force Max)

 

Best I got.....So far.
While this data is for the same engine used in the Tacoma.
It's a broad overview of the engine. As it's used in more than on Toyota vehicle.
And this data is not "Tacoma" specific. Dm93 or Bishop might know.

 

Jakerou He bought this kind of truck because it was supposed to be a good off road truck. That's where he works off road. it's a dusty road but flat..If he has to jerry rig something why advertise it as a off road vehicle..
As of right now I just heard back from him. he sent a formal request asking for evidence. and he reached out to a arbitration company so maybe something will come out of this. I think Toyota is saying it's his fault due to a lemon law. 4 times in for the same thing makes a lemon
Fingers Crossed.

 

Electric fan on 4th gen, variable speed, controlled by the ECM.

 

Its an electric cooling fan,
So no fan clutch, not driven by the belt, its electric...

 

I finally found some info on it.
I posted it in post 14 above.
Which was confirmed by Dm93.

Still like to take a look under the hood of one.
Mostly to see if Toyota followed the trend of making simple things complicated.
It's a 4 cylinder. Working on it shouldn't be hard. At least not the physical part of it.
But the trend is, make it hard to work on, parts on back order, and special gateway access tools even "attempt" to work on things.

Point being, I'm I candidate for owning a 4th Gen?
Can the avg DIYer work on it in their garage?

 

I mean variable speed electric fans have been around for 20+ years, it's not difficult.
It's interesting though that the fan has 2 power inputs (constant power and switched power), most variable fans have constant power only and the control signal determines when and how fast it runs.

 

Bolting an electric fan to the radiator and controlling it with the computer is actually quite simple in theory. You gain reduced drag on the rotating mass and more control over a wider range of conditions with computer control. As opposed to a fan clutch that is limited by a fluid coupling

Both types have their advantages and disadvantages

The more precise control comes in handy when running cooling systems hotter and hotter like they seem to be doing these days