RE: Viscous Fan diagnosis?

["Aaron Ness" <aaron@xxxxxxxxxx>]

A friend and former '88 528e owner replaced his with a thin electric fan
mounted on the radiator, operated by a thermoswitch.  As an extra benefit,
he picked up about 1 mpg or so because it was only operating when it was
necessary.  I don't know how to properly test your fan, but if you feel like
spending the money (I think his ran about US$90 or so), you might replace it
in this way.  I'm kind of waiting for mine to go so I have an excuse to do
this.

Aaron
'87 528e
'82 Scirocco
'70 Beetle
'82 Kawasaki GPz550

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-bmw@domain.elided [mailto:owner-bmw@domain.elided]On Behalf Of
> steve.weighell
> Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 1:26 AM
> To: bmw-digest@domain.elided
> Subject: Viscous Fan diagnosis?
>
>
> How do you check the viscous fan coupling (on a 87 520i).  It is the
> ordinary, mechanical type.  I had read somewhere that you
> need to get the
> engine hotter than normal, stop the engine and see if you can
> spin the fan
> by hand.  If you can, then the coupling is no good.  Is this right?
>
> I thought I had found the reason for my overheating engine
> (see earlier post
> a few days ago), but I have changed the viscous fan with one
> I found in a
> scrap yard, and this doesn't seem to have worked.   When hot,
> this fan also
> spins freely.  Are they both u/s?  Or is this not a valid way
> of checking
> the coupling?
>
> Steve,
> Darlington, UK
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