has anyone ever had this happen to their fan?

[BLampinen]

driving around today i started to hear this horrible grinding noise coming out of my engine, i thought at first it was the transmission until i pulled over, turned off the ignition, looked under the hood, then started to turn the ignition back on to see where the sound was coming from. as i turned the key to "On" the fan kicked on and it turned out to be the problem. very obviously since the grinding returned when the key turned on. long story short, it turned out that the fan blade had come off of its mount on the motor. i dont know how that happened or could have happened, since it had always worked fine before. i regularly inspect my car very closely (habit from driving fire trucks for a living) and the fan had always been very tight. anyone have any ideas what may have caused this? also do i need to replace the whole assembly or should i be good with just finding a new fan blade. also, (idiot question) is the fan on the driver's side the radiator fan or the AC fan?

 

[99gst_racer]

the driver's side fan = the AC fan
I've never heard of that happening before.... You are probably better off replacing the entire thing as apposed to just the blade. I've never noticed how the blade attached to the motor, but I doubt you would even sucessfully locate someone selling just the blade itself. I have an extra OEM ac fan in my garage. PM me if you want it.