Solved - Truck is making a loud noise / vibration like an air compressor running from the engine compartment

[Rustfish]

On a recent trip down in Baja with Exo Offroad my truck started making a loud sound like it had an air compressor running or a fan blade rubbing hard. It only happened when the truck was stopped. It had been really muddy due to recent rain and we had been driving through some deep mud holes. Turned out to be the intercooler fan was coated with mud and off balance. Makes sense now since the fan only runs when the truck is stationary and it needs to draw air through the intercooler.

Pulled the fan and radiator when I got home and hosed em off. Problem solved. I didn't really need to pull the intercooler to clean the fan but did it anyway. Hope this helps someone else.

 

[New recaros]

Man, should have washed it before tearing apart. It hard to keep dirt out of the engine when dirty like that.

 

[2slo4u]

Yep, in my opinion, this is a flaw with the Raptor design. I always try to give people a heads up for this when doing trails with a lot of mud and water. Hearing it the first freaks everyone out…haha

 

[raptorsub]

I had that same thing happen to me. I was able to take a hose to them on the truck and it went away. I could see the buildup on the fans. Not too long after that I put a cobb intercooler on. Once I realized how low the factory one was and I knew it would happen again.

 

[Bracamonte]

Happened to me several years ago going through the La Sal mountains. I happened to go through some forest service roads that had cattle - hence, lots of mud and cow manure. A day later, after all of that had dried on the truck, the horrible sound kicked on while in Moab. Yeah, it'll freak you out first time you hear. I spent about 15mins until I figured out the intercooler was vibrating drastically, and I could stop the sound when I pressed on the intercooler while it was running. The mud clumped on the fans was throwing off the oscillating balance. Took it to the car wash and got underneath and hosed the intercooler down. No need to take off and remove it.

 

[aFallenTree]

Great heads up! Not to highjack the thread but I think this is a good place for it. I've wanted to try and figure out or see if anyone knows... Is it possible to command the air dampers in the grille open? When I'm washing the truck I'd like to be able to wash out the radiator/intercooler/condenser but the dampers are usually closed.