Viscous fan

[gas guzzler]

I need to replace my fan as it makes the awful whooshing noise. Is it the fan or the Viscous coupling that makes the noise. Has anyone got any views of which one to get, I see eurocar parts have one and there are numerous on ebay. Next question is how is easy/hard is it to replace, it's a 99 2.8.

Cheers Andy

[Del]

It’s the viscous coupling that causes the noise by not operating properly to engage/disengage the fan. The cheap ones tend to make a terrible noise and do not tend to operate correctly. My understanding is that the OE maker was Sachs – I have removed my own 1.9 one and helped a friend replace a cheap, noisy aftermarket one on an E46 with the 3.0 M54 engine. In both cases the Sachs product worked quietly and perfectly .

The Sachs product will be around £100.

It is a relatively easy job, there are special tools but in both cases I used an old, large size (can’t remember the exact size now) imperial spanner which fitted the centre bolt (left hand thread) perfectly. To stop the fan rotating I used a large screwdriver held diagonally across (to wedge in a static position) the four fan bolts.

[Southernboy]

Important to know - the center bolt is a "left hand thread" - ie it loosens in the opposite direction to the "standard" screw on / off bolts. If you use a large spanner, a sharp smack with a hammer on the left side of the spanner (left side of spanner towards the right is the direction the bolt loosens) will usually loosen the bolt.

[gas guzzler]

Ta for replies, got a coupe of other jobs to do first but it's a must to do as it's so noisy in a really irritating way.

Andy