Fan rubbing on shroud

[Lars]

Turned on the AC yesterday to make sure it still comes out cold and I heard an ungodly sound at the intersection I was at. Turned it off right away and tried it again with the hood popped up in my driveway.
It seems the electric fan thats mounted to my radiator turns on when the AC is turned on. I`m noticing that the fan rubs quite a bit on the shroud. So much that when the Aveo is not running, the fan is somewhat hard to spin when its tuching the shroud.
Now I havent gone to great lengths yet to determine exactly where inside the shroud it is rubbing.
But my question is, what could possibly be out of wack to do this? The car has never been damaged, especially in the front. And it`s never overheated which possibly could lead to a warped shroud.
If the shroud isnt warped, I may just grind a small amount, maybe a quarter inch off the tips of the fan blades, at first rather than pay for a new fan/shroud.

[MetroMPG]

Strange.

I'd recommend figuring out how to reposition the shroud instead of grinding down the fan blades - there's a chance you could put the fan out of balance which would shorten the motor/bushing/bearing life (and cause vibration).

I'd investigate that shroud a bit more.

[OG-Lou]

My 2008, (hatch back, manual transmission, A/C) fan shroud bowed forward on the passenger side, contacting the radiator tubes, and rubbed holes in the radiator tubes.

I took out the fan shroud and the radiator. I put a straight edge on the passenger side of the fan shroud where it was contacting the radiator and it bows forward about 3/16" - 5mm.

OG-Lou 25 yrs certified ACE master mechanic, retired.