Loud clunking in front A/C in Aspire

[gbrash]

We turned on our A/C this morning in our 2018 Aspire and the front unit produced an amazingly loud clunking/clanking noise. Sounded like lawn mower blades were hitting against the roof. It continued until I could get it shut down and obviously was struggling, to say the least, and wouldn’t have lasted much longer. Any ideas what happened? I gave Entegra a call on their emergency number, but for now the two rear units are on and working. Will be hot today in Bend, Oregon, where we’re currently located.

[brobox]

Squirrel cage fan has come apart, main fan has lost a blade, or the fan motor has come loose. All have been problems with the Mach 8 A/C. Being almost new, hopefully it is just a loose motor. Pulling the cover off will tell. Several good post with photos that will help.


If you are in Bend, at least you are close to an excellent dealer. Ours failed in the Black Hills at 102 degrees with the closet dealer in Denver

[gbrash]

Thanks, we’re full timing and will try for mobile help. Was unaware of the past problems. Entegra responded, suggested similar fan issues. I’ll look again for previous posts.

[brobox]

Here are a few posts on fan issues. https://www.google.com/search?q=Ente...earch=irv2.com

[Rollin101]

Easy way to determine which fan is at fault. Turn on fan by itself if it makes noise it's the squirrel cage fan under the curved cover once you take off the main cover. If that's not the cause turn on the a/c unit if it then makes the noise it's the condenser fan accessible as soon as main cover is removed.
The fans run independently of each other so easy to troubleshoot without even going on the roof.

[gbrash]

Thanks...a local mobile RV repair service has worked with Entegra before and is coming out tomorrow to diagnose. He mentioned possible issues including those mentioned in this post. I’ll update with his findings. Thanks for the input.

[brobox]

Thanks J.H. learned something new today! What a great tip.

[Rollin101]

Originally Posted by brobox

thanks j.h. Learned something new today! What a great tip.

👍👍👍

[GrandPaPat]

We had similar noise from our rear AC in our 2015 Winnie. Quickly turned it off. I went up on roof and removed shroud and told DW to start AC up again. I was standing behind the AC near the back of coach and within one second of start up the fan started to wobble violently and I screamed "turn it off". The fan (condenser not squirrel cage fan) and motor destroyed itself a second later. A blade from the fan flew off and missed my head by a foot or so and landed about 50 feet from coach. If it had hit me I would probably would have recoiled off the roof and not be able to tell this story now. The fan motor is held down by three small bolts with rubber vibration isolators on top. When I was removing the damaged parts one of the isolator/bolt combos was at least three full turns loose compared to the other two that were tight. I figure that was enough wiggle room for the motor to start moving and the fan clearance is so tight near other components that the blades started hitting stuff and came apart. That sucker is moving at thousands of RPMs very quickly and I am pleased to say that once again God saved me from another one of my dumba$$ moves!

[gbrash]

Will try to include picture of the problem with our air conditioner. Started as one piece. Mobile tech said he’d only seen it once before. Not caused by critter. Maybe someone will recognize the part. He told me, but I can’t remember exactly. Thanks for the comments and input.

[brobox]

That's the squirrel cage fan. 2018 it should still be under warranty.

[gbrash]

Thanks, yes. Working with Rntegra on that

[brobox]

To bad it happened, it would have been a good time to try J.H's new tip.

[gbrash]

True, but the noise it made sounded so destructive when it first happened we didn’t want to chance anything. Excellent tip, notwithstanding