Mechanical Fan on 3.1TD

[muveaside]

Hi,
My Mu has the belt driven fan, which I am not familiar with as previous cars have had electric.
My question is: are these meant to run continuously or are they thermostat controlled with a electric clutch (or centrifugal as a friend suggested (doubtful)).
I am pretty sure it is the latter, as I don't remember it always turning when the engine is cold.
If this is the case, is the clutch inside the cast alloy heat sink style hub of the fan, or in the base on the engine block that it mounts to? If it has failed, is there a typical fault, and are they easy to service? Has been immersed in water several times! Thanks for any useful advice.

[MattMU]

The Clutch is thermo (heat actuated clutch) it will spin all the time, but will slip if it isnt needed. Submersing it in water will have no effect whatsoever as rfar as the operation is concerned, you do fun the risk of pulling the blades into the radiator without using a blind though.

The thermo clutch uses a viscous fluid that thickens when hot and increases the shear load making the fan hub (right behind the fan, not near the water pump at the engine) lock up (so to speak).

The only service you can do is change the fluid if it does not pull air when the engine is hot. If its hot and you open the bonnet and rev the engine and there is tonns of air blowing back then rest assured it is working well.

The vials of fluid cost about $20 each and you need a couple to replace the fluid in a hub, you get them from Toyota from the last person I knew did it or a radiator joint!

Hope that helped!

Matt.

[caffa]

Has anyone had any luck in mounting electric thermo's to a MU doing away with the factory item?