Ouch, that sounds pretty painful mate, i think i would be seeing a sparky and asking if he could replace the fan with something from another vehicle and wire it up so it works as it should, after all it is just a fan, 800 buks for an ac fan = OMG, maybe he thought want engine too
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i dunno what state your from and if you have a pick a part, but you see ac fans floating around from various vehicles wandering around the wreckers,
it surprises me that a fan would die at such a young age.
Anyway, perhaps there is an opportunity to put a better fan in and increase the aircon mojo at the same time?
maybe see if repco can get one in, they surprised me the other day, i went to replace a 13 year old power window switch for my my falcon at ford parts and they are no longer available, yet repco can get them in.
good luck.