Cooling fan stops spinning instantly when engine turned off!

[alpinewhite318i]

I noticed when I turn off my engine the cooling fan stops instantly instead of spinning for a little bit. It doesn't seem like the fan clutch is seized but shouldn't it spin around a few times when you turn off the engine? The car is 86 bmw 325es?

[richardodn]

Next time you're going out for a drive and the engine is cold, the fan should be easy to turn. Try it. Then when you get back and everything is all warmed up, try it again. The fan should be relatively harder to turn. If that checks out, you shouldn't be concerned.

[323i E30]

With the engine hot and the clutch at maximum grip on the fan to make it spin, I would expect it to stop quicker than when the engine is only halfway warm.
Start the engine cold, and see if it does the same thing when you turn it off after just a minute
If it will also do it then, the clutch is probably toast / permanently 'locked'.

Do you always get a lot of wind-noise from underneath the hood when you rev the engine a bit?

[alpinewhite318i]

Thanks for all the tips! There is a little bit of wind noise. I just went out to the car and turned the fan by hand with the engine cold, it was kinda hard to turn! I guess it's bad. Any recommendations on the best brand to get right now? There are so many junk parts out there currently from China.

[richardodn]

I'd suggest Sachs or Behr/Hella. The Chinese parts are probably good enough for this application as long as the're less than half the price of the better ones. Fan clutches are pretty easy to change out.

[alpinewhite318i]

I purchased a Sachs one from Bavarian Autosport and installed it today. When I start up the car the new clutch is making the fan produce a lot of wind noise, but once the car warms up it goes away. I will call them tomorrow, I guess I ended up with a junk part?

[locknload]

Nope. That's what it does. Takes a few minutes for the clutch fluid to "warm up", then fan thermostat takes over to regulate the fan speed.