Hey guys. I need your help. I have a 2008 Rabbit, 2.5. 64,000 miles. Have been using the car to commute 78 miles a day for work. On Thursday of last week I started noticing the cooling fan come on more often and louder than usual. When I came home and shut the engine off I notice it took about 20 seconds for the fan to shut off and it sounded weird. What do you guys think? A recall problem? Gas? Please help. Thanks.

Next time this happens take a peek under the hood. Which fan is on? They BOTH should be on at the same time. So if ONE fan is on and the other is not then the one not working needs to be replaced. When one fan dies, the other takes up the slack and spins twice as fast.

Thank you nitroscope8. This will help me when I go to the mechanic tomorrow! I hope this works. Otherwise, haven't had any issues with my rabbit and I am new to the VW World. Love the cars! I will buy no others now.

Ok, this morning I took my rabbit to the mechanic. First, he had me turn on the engine. Nothing. Then, he couldn't get the engine cover off (I don't know how either), but, he said that my readout on the dash should be telling me something about a failure. Nothing. Let the car run a bit. Nothing. He said that these cars are designed to run the fan more often. Ok, turned on the A/C. Nothing. WTF? When I drive the car it sounds like a computer fan, ya know when your computer is on for awhile and the fan starts up and gets louder and louder until it cools down? That is what it sounds like, but except I have never heard it this loud before. So...what do you think? Thanks.

Check for failure codes in the ECM. a bad fan will set a fault. Also, the a/c should kick the fans on.

My advice is do what I said before and find a new mechanic. Put hte a/c on and drive for 10 minutes. Come to a stop and open the hood. check the operation of both cooling fans. Let us know what you see.