Viscous Fan

[darthweasel]

Hi

I've been told by my local Audi dealer that my viscous fan is jammed. I'm not sure if it is jammed on, or jammed off, but hope to find out more when I collect the car in the morning.

Anyway, they are quoting over £600 for a new one. Does this price sound right? Are these units repairable? Any suggestions as to what I should do?

Thanks.

[Crasher]

If they jam on they make one hell of a racket when you rev the engine up and move a lot of air...if jammed off (!) they do not work and the engine gets hot...The viscous coupling itself is £207.10 inc. VAT from an Audi dealer but is available for £59.40 inc. VAT from German Swedish and French, I get the VAG part number as being 059 121 350 H and the GSF equivalent is 172VG0040. There are various manufacturers of this part but I would be very comfortable using one from BEHR, BERU, FEBI, HELLA, SACHS, MEYLE, or VEMO. The part is quite involved to change requiring the front bumper to be removed and the whole of the front of the car pulled forward into what is called the service position so that the viscous coupling can be changed.

[darthweasel]

I'm off to pick up the car this morning, so I'll see what they say.

I don't recall the car being particularly noisy, but then it's not running hot either according to the temp guage - bang on 90, but then I know these are not necessarily too accurate.

[darthweasel]

It turns out that the viscous fan is not jammed or seized, it is "sticking". The technician was not working this morning so no further information was available. I'll leave it for now but will get a second opinion in a couple of weeks.