Radiator fan question

A

AKmoney

New member
Hi all,

I recently bought an '04 Sport Edition w/ V8/4x4. After taking it on a road trip across the desert, I noticed when it gets hot out (95+) and with the A/C on, the radiator fan clutch never seems to fully disengage. If I'm driving at say, a constant 70mph, you can hear the fan. Based on my past experience with cars that had mechanical radiator fans this doesn't seem normal. Is this typical behavior? Thanks!
 
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You can hear the fan through all that road noise? 70 mph is dang loud.

I have no idea if my fan is disengaged or not at 70 mph because I can never hear it.
 
Yep, you can hear it, and if you step on the gas to pass someone and the engine downshifts, you can *really* hear it.
 
Well, I have a V8 as well, and am about to run an errand. I will see on the freeway if I can hear it.

The wind at the speed my physically be turning the fan and it is disengaged. It would still be able to make the noise, even if the engine was not responsible for turning it.
 
Ideally, the fan should only engage at lower speeds (due to more heat off the radiator and condensor, so unless it's pulling A LOT of heat off the radiator and condensor due to another issue, the clutch may be no good.
 
Alright. I tried to listen for mine, couldn't hear it.. so I am assuming I wasn't hearing it on the highway.

So. Yea.
 
Don't need the fan at highway speed. It should de-clutch unless its 140deg outside

I hear mine on hot days but only at red light idle.
 
Good luck. I actually just had a 3rd gen 4R that had a bad fan clutch the other day. You could hear that thing constantly. Start up, highway, didn't matter. Loud as ****. The guy was complaining about the noise and the worse gas mileage. Replaced it, and all was good again.
 
ChaosStarter said:
Good luck. I actually just had a 3rd gen 4R that had a bad fan clutch the other day. You could hear that thing constantly. Start up, highway, didn't matter. Loud as ****. The guy was complaining about the noise and the worse gas mileage. Replaced it, and all was good again.
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Out of curiosity, do you know the part number for the fan clutch and how hard it is to swap out? Several years back I had a BMW 540i which had a similar mechanical fan setup and it was pretty tough to remove without a special tool - it was hard to turn the bolt that attached it to the pulley because serpentine belt didn't hold it tightly enough in place to get any leverage.
 
AKmoney said:
Out of curiosity, do you know the part number for the fan clutch and how hard it is to swap out? Several years back I had a BMW 540i which had a similar mechanical fan setup and it was pretty tough to remove without a special tool - it was hard to turn the bolt that attached it to the pulley because serpentine belt didn't hold it tightly enough in place to get any leverage.
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I replaced mine with an aftermarket part. It was about half the price of the dealer part. It is pretty easy to do. Your biggest challenge will the be the last bolt on the pulley. You will want a strap wrench to hold the pulley so that it doesn't turn. It is about a 30 min job at most.
 
id say its normal. and doing what its supposed to be doing.
running the AC puts a lot of extra heat in front of the rad, it requires more cooling. thus the fan being on.

i expect if you replace it, the new one will do the same.
 
AKmoney said:
Out of curiosity, do you know the part number for the fan clutch and how hard it is to swap out? Several years back I had a BMW 540i which had a similar mechanical fan setup and it was pretty tough to remove without a special tool - it was hard to turn the bolt that attached it to the pulley because serpentine belt didn't hold it tightly enough in place to get any leverage.
Click to expand...

On a 2008 it's 4 nuts, loosen them all and then remove. Fan shroud and radiator top need to come off as well.

p.s. there is a trick to the BMW type fan clutch removal. Several videos on youtube.
 
cabowally said:
.
p.s. there is a trick to the BMW type fan clutch removal. Several videos on youtube.
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Before I got the special pneumatic wrench that goes inside my air hammer, i just used one of the chisels (sp?) to get them off. Worked great (as long as you knew that it was reverse threaded :D )
 
ChaosStarter said:
Before I got the special pneumatic wrench that goes inside my air hammer, i just used one of the chisels (sp?) to get them off. Worked great (as long as you knew that it was reverse threaded :D )
Click to expand...

to remove it, it always goes the same direction the fan spins.;)
 
ChaosStarter said:
Before I got the special pneumatic wrench that goes inside my air hammer, i just used one of the chisels (sp?) to get them off. Worked great (as long as you knew that it was reverse threaded :D )
Click to expand...

Been a while since I did it to my old 540... I recall having to bang on it with a hammer until it broke loose. Just hoping I can avoid such tricks on the 2UZ-FE fan :)
 
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