auxillery fan question

[shadrack]

i take it an auxillery fan should spin freely when the car is parked up and cut in when the aircon is turned on, anyway mine (m3) is so stiff i can bearly turn it for say 1/4 turn, then its turnable (if thats a word lol) for the other 3/4 trun then reaches the sticking point and jams again!  when the aircon is turned on it does not spin

[Colin]

Sound like fan is out of line , buckled or bent , has it had a knock , if motor is switched on but not turning it will burn out . Colin

[shadrack]

[quote="COLIN"]
Sound like fan is out of line , buckled or bent , has it had a knock , if motor is switched on but not turning it will burn out . Colin
[/quote]

no idea only had it 10 days, i thaught a fuse might be blown if motor burnt out, i will have a look tommorrow night and try and free it off, does this fan assist with cooling and explain why the temp is rising in stop start traffic

[Horizon]

The auxiliary fan on my 8 series was the same, the air c on worked ok, it's for when the car is stood still, as it needs airflow across the condenser radiator to turn the refrigerant gas into a liquid for it to do its stuff in the evaporator.
A knack erred fan can cause hot gas to return to the refrigerant compressor and will eventually cook its self.
But when the car is moving the airflow across the condenser, causing the hot gas to turn to a liquid before the expansion valve.
The auxiliary fan is not there to help cool the engine

[Colin]

You got to get that fan freed up asap , then your problems might evaporate .

[Rusty]

Def shouldn't be tight mate.
Is it easy enough to get out to look at?


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[shadrack]

So the electric fan doesn't assit in engine cooling, just my x5 one in summer used to cut in time to time as you could hear it when stationary, so I presumed it was assisting as I never used the aircon as it didn't blow cold air and I never got round to having it gassed

[Colin]

Im sure the big electric fan does assist with engine cooling, as you say you hear it starting up on warm day when stationary , so make sure it can spin freely ,

[Rusty]

I imagine the M3 electric fan is a standard E46 one, so will come in slowly at first and then speed up as the coolant temperature increases.


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[lezmtaylor]

AW8/Kevin is the Guru on this, he had me dead worried at the Bristol meet, had me running my car at tickover for about 5mins and then it cut in, I think it is form the aircon , but he will advise.

Lez

[shadrack]

Local indy says the electric fan is purely for air con, will free it off, he recons my problem is stat so putting an oem one in at weekend, wonder if the x5 runs electric fan to assist auto trans cooling as well, m3s a manual

[storminmike]

I often wonder if you'd get better fuel economy by throwing the clutch fan away and putting an electric kenlowe in.  The clutch fan never actually seems to not spin even at it's loosest/cold setting, perhaps not as much as when its warm but the drag must be there