Has the Fan Assembly truly failed?

Hello all

I have a Glow Worm Ultimate 120FF boiler that serves the central heating in my home. The system is only used for central heating and is only on during the winter months.

Unfortunately, the system packed up the other day. I read the manual and used the fault finding guide to perform a diagnosis. In short I believe the fault to be with the Fan Assembly as there is 240V present at both terminals but it just makes a buzzing noise and doesn’t move. However, when I help the fan along a bit and it starts working again. When it was working it sounds as if the fan is really struggling to keep up. Although this worked, only for a short time, the system failed after say ten minutes and the fan buzzed.

I took the fan assembly out and had a look at the connections and noticed the plastic casing (containing the copper coil) was quite brown in colour, almost as if it had overheated or burned out at some stage. I am beginning to question my diagnosis as the fault finding guide asks “Does the fan Hunt?” Thus implying that I need a new PCB! I would have thought that if the PCB is really dead then it wouldn’t fire up the system at all. All 4 neon lights come on and the system operates as normal, but again the system doesn’t stay on long.
The other bit that I didn’t tell you was the fan assembly was only replaced a few years ago. I telephoned Glowworm and they say it should last at least 5 years. Other than this they were really useless and charged me 60p per minute on they premium rate phone number; for a hotline they really are not all that hot.

How can I otherwise test the fan assembly? Does it sound as if fan is in fact on its way out? I am making the assumption that the fan assembly has ball bearings and these are starting to go.

Any help with this problem would be gratefully appreciated. If you need any more information just ask.

Thanks

Gunter