New fan clutch day

[av8r4aa]

My friend commented on how loud his clutch fan is on his MB.
That got me to listening to my wagon. 2 years ago I installed
A Wang Chung brand clutch fan. It was mid July. I was very pleased
at the airflow. Living in Texas, never want to have cooling issues.
Today, I took that clutch off and installed a Behr.
Completely night and day. No more Dump truck or School bus sound.
I kept the old clutch. I will swap it out come next June. When slightly
cooler weather shows, I will swap for the correct one.
Didn’t realize the noise, till there wasn’t any.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Toss out that old clutch, you don’t want to us it anymore. Replace the fan blade too. It happened last winter, I had a catastrophic fan clutch explosion, it was like in the 40’s that evening. I totally forgot to stay on top of it on that wagon. At least I think it was the fan clutch, could have been the fan blades, a blade just decided that it had had it. maybe a blade busted off, and the sudden imbalance shook the living crap out of the whole assembly. <<< This is the problem when you have too many old cars! Totally my fault.

I was on my way home, typical traffic , I was slowing down for a light, I felt a shudder, like I went over a tiny patch of rumble strips on the road, I looked in the mirror, I ran over nothing, looked at the gauges, battery light was on. My brainpan told me, a belt went! I was still slowing down, traffic up ahead, that traffic light was a long light, oncoming lane was empty, but cars were coming, quick decision, I made a U-turn and floored it, made a left into the parking lot of a little strip mall, steam was now coming out of the front end, and I knew it wasn’t just a belt, parked it, and shut it down. Then more steam came gushing out.

Popped the hood open and what I saw was the total destruction of the cooling system in the front end, inside the hood. What was clear, the fan blades blew up, totally shredded the fan shroud, most of the blades fell down to the bottom of the shroud, and into the engine cover down below, one of the blades punctured the radiator, both belts were history, all shredded up, the water pump blew up, I was picking up ball bearings in the bottom engine pan, I was scared that a ball or two might have shot into the engine, but none did. The fan clutch and the hub of the bladeless fan blades aiming downwards. I couldn’t even limp the car home, even though I was close, the drive back to the house had about six more traffic lights, and they were super long lights, this was when I realized, for the first time, since owning a bunch of E39 BMW’s, after 22 years, I was gonna have to call a tow truck. For me, that was just a total defeating moment.

At least, I have other cars to drive. So I started tearing the damage apart, and put in an order at FCP for all the good brand name parts, OEM fan shroud, even though I decided not to bother ordering a clutch, and the fan blade, I was totally against this route a long time ago, but many guys on the forum do it, including a few of the guys out in Arizona, so I made the decision to try it myself. I was lucky, some guys that have had this same catastrophic eruption have had a blade, or two fly through the hood, I did not even have a ding, but I did pull a blade out of the hood insulation, so a blade did try to shoot through the hood. Like I said, I got lucky.
I went ahead and ordered all the cooling hoses, including all the hoses to the firewall from the aux pumps for the heating system, the two plastic pipes from the engine, intake manifold gaskets, CCV pipes, a new expansion tank, new water pump, thermostat housing, new belts, new pulleys, including the two tensioners, even a new pulley for the power steering pump. While all that was gonna get pulled apart, I went ahead and ordered the gasket for the oil filter housing. I had some oil leaking out slowly, and knew that was it, it was, also got new power steering hoses, but forgot to get the tank for the fluid. I got a new aluminum radiator, and all has been good since. This summer was pretty hot out here, had a bunch of 96 degree days, car ran just fine without the stupid fan clutch, no different from any of the new cars BMW has been churning out. The aux fan has become the main cooling fan, just make sure it is all in order.

[StephenVA]

I wish our e39 came with slim Puller fans like the x5 4.8is and no fan nor clutch, so cleaner looking. Oh well 20 year old cars. Technology marching on without E39s.

[av8r4aa]

Definitely a concern that blade might let go.

The aux fan does work great.