emarknot

got my fingers crossed for ya

bornpeace

I have had bad experience with autozone fan clutch, i will say save some money and buy OEM or go to the junk yard. After some time your car will start to sound like a truck. Look at the size between OEM and autozone or any other part store brand(huge difference in size). OEM fan clutch is made by Aisin so if you can find that brand for cheap it will be good.

GKLCPA

I read that somewhere else as well after I installed unfortunately. I kept my receipt and I'm going to find out what exactly the warranty is. I didn't want to spring $ 160 for the one from Autohauz, so I may run by the junk yard for one as a pre-emptive measure.

Other than the sound, any other issues with the autozone clutch?

deanshark

For future reference, loosen all the bolts before removing any of them. For breaking them loose I usually hold a long screwdriver between two of the bolt heads so the whole thing doesn't spin when you put the torque on the bolt. Hopefully the thing works out for ya.

bornpeace

i dont know the correct word for it, but when the car start to make the sound, you will start to fill like the engine is losing power from a complete stop take off or sharp turn. No problem with cooling though.

GKLCPA

Thanks and the screwdriver thing would have worked better than two wrenches, although working with the wrenches wasn't bad either. The stripped bolt was my only complication, but was thorny. One of those "aw crap" moments.

GKLCPA

Ok. Well at least it cools. Hopefully, mine will stay quiet

cf3232

So did the new fan clutch fix it?

GKLCPA

Just tested and the answer is either no or inconclusive.

Here's what's happening: My car's temperature normally runs at the third bar above the "C" indicator. This is whether the car is in motion or at idle. At idle now, the gauge will now move to being slightly above the third bar from the "H" indicator. It holds steady there at idle whereas before I changed the clutch it was just outside the red area. So it doesn't necessarily overheat, but this is still not normal.

I figure I've got one of two issues to track down:

1) T-stat might be sticking. Although if that's the case, it seems like it ought to be sticking all the time. I've never changed it.

2) A blockage inside the radiator that might require a flush.

I got an order for radiator hoses in today from Autohaus and I was planning on putting on them on this weekend, so it will be a good time to address this stuff while I'm doing that.

Thoughts?

GKLCPA

Doing a little searching here and have a question: If I have a suspected clogged radiator, which is the best thing to do--a radiator flush or just a full coolant system flush? Seems to me that it might be better to just do the radiator flush to address the immediate problem and then do the coolant flush at some other point.

Also, upon filling the radiator back up, should I bleed the system?

GKLCPA

A followup here. My problem now seems to be resolved. I believe it was the T-Stat. After installing the fan clutch the problem still persisted, so I swapped out the T-Stat (I got a "fail safe" one from autozone for $ 18). Upon doing long drive and testing, temp gauge is now staying steady at idle. Since I got the fan clutch in, I'm going to go ahead and keep it. I figure that's a pre-emptive measure against failure later.

cf3232

So it was stuck open? Especially since you said if you drove or was moving it would actually cool down and stay cool.

GKLCPA

I think it was the reverse. Somehow it sticking maybe closed at idle. I believe "open" is the condition that keeps the car engine colder than it should be while closed is cutting off the coolant flow right?

I'm not experienced enough at this to know if this is common or not at idling. It just seemed logical that the fan clutch was the culprit as you suggested, but apparently not.

deanshark

No, it would have been stuck somewhat, not completely, closed and not allowing the coolant to flow freely. When ya drive, the RPMs go up and the waterpump is spinning harder which in turn would push the coolant harder through the system, which is why it would cool down. (And more air would be hitting the radiator) At idle, there probably wasn't enough pressure for the coolant to flow through a half stuck T-stat. If it was stuck open then the coolant would flow through freely and not overheat and also not get hot enough to give any heat.
Glad ya got it staying cool but, I had a "fail-safe" in mine which only lasted a couple months before I had to change it out again. Hope yours lasts longer.

GKLCPA

Dean, thanks for the explanation. After having bought the fail safe T-stat, I saw a few reviews with mixed results. I had read in some instances, these things were causing overheating conditions, when they were supposed to do the exact opposite. What was your situation?