I've just been poking around in my engine bay, familiarising myself with all the pipes and cables, and noticed that the cooling fan didn't turn as freely or smootly as the A/C fan. Looking closer, it seems that the whole fan assembly is not centred on the motor axis and is fouling on the motor mounting bracket and surround!

I have no idea how long it's been like this. I've had the car (S-reg Octavia SLX 1.8 20V) a few years and had it dealer-serviced yearly and they've never mentionned it either. It's never overheated, and doesn't seem particularly prone to misbehaving, no obvious nasty noises or lights, but surely it's not working as it should.

I'll be taking into the garage on monday morning, but in the mean-time, has anyone else had this happen? What caused it, why doesn't it seem to effect the car, and how much is it likely to cost to fix, assuming it needs a whole new fan motor?

Looks like circa

I've gone and got myself some torx screwdriver bits, and shall have a go at taking it off myself tomorrow. Hopefully I can just re-seat the fan on the motor spindle and nothing will be broken or burnt out *fingers crossed*.

Is there a way of forcing the fan to turn on, other than waiting for the engine to get up to temperature?

On the vRS just turning on the A/C compressor is enough to start both fans.