MK5 Golf GTI radiator and radiator fan replacement
Channel: Spicy_FPV_Jamaica
Date: 2021-07-24

Months ago, I had noticed that my main radiator fan had stopped working and sometimes worked intermittently.  I had thought nothing of it as I still had a functional air conditioning fan (for which I left the HVAC system fully engaged).  The generic fault code I would get is P0480.  Attempting to do an output test from the ECM using VAG tools like OBDeleven or VCDS resulted in only the airconditioning fan working as suspected.  I try not to stay in traffic anyway so I normally have ambient air flowing through the radiator.

One evening, I had the car idling, and I forgot about the cooling issue, causing a rupture to a previous "patch" job on the radiator.

I recorded this video of me finally resolving both issues once and for all.

Note that the steps for this video are for the GTI model that has the intercooler mounted to the radiator support.  The standard golf would just have the radiator and air conditioning condenser, so the job would have been easier.   I'll explain for the GTI that the airconditioning condenser mounts to the front of the intercooler, and the radiator mount to the rear of the intercooler, and the fans mount to the rear of the intercooler.  Here, the intercooler is the main mounting point.  The standard Golf would just have the radiator as the main mounting point, so the replacement is easy as there is room to work.