Rumble/shake and racing engine - 2 issues I was able to solve

[heath3000]

Hi,
I've gotten a lot of useful info from this site so I thought I would pass on a couple of resolutions to recent issues I was having on my 2003 Vue, 2.2L 5sp.

The first issue was a significant rumble and shake when the A/C or defrost was on. At first I was losing some RPMs when this happened, and I switched out the cooling fan resistor, which was almost completely gone. I think the resistor failure may have led to my next issue. When I turned on the A/C, it sounded like a lawn mower had started up under the hood. This was caused by a broken cooling fan blade, or rather one section of the ring around the 5 blades was missing (had broken off). So the loose flapping plastic was causing the horrible noise, and the now out of balance fan blade was causing the rumble and shake. I could have gotten a used replacement fan assembly (blade not sold separately), for about $100, but I was able to trim the broken ring around the five blades off and the noise and shake was gone. I suppose the fan won't be as efficient now, but I was happy to pay nothing for the fix.

The second issue was a surging of the engine when it was in neutral (or the clutch was in). It would not happen when I first started the engine (like when leaving for work in the morning). But the very next startup, the engine would surge and race, sometimes over 3000 rpm. The RPMs would come back down when I put it in gear, but it would go right back up again when switching gears or idling. This was fixed by switching out the ECTS (engine coolant temp sensor), which is on the back of the engine (a $25 part plus some coolant).

Thanks to far2grumpy for sending me instructions for the cooling fan and ECTS!

Hope this helps someone who has similar issues.
Heath