Greasing Viscous Fan Clutch

[GreenFields1]

My viscous fan clutch/pulley just started to making squeaking noise on a cold start up. This is the roller where the serp belt attaches. This is on an AWM motor. Can I simply spray the shit out of the bolt and inside of the pulley with wd40 without getting any on the belt? Or will it dry things out and should I just completely remove the pulley and grease it over? Just seems like a lot of work to have to pull everything...

[Nollywood]

I believe the fan clutch assembly is a sealed unit, and can't be greased. If it gets noisy, the only option is replacement. I've seen those things lock up, and explode. And I mean literally, often tearing the shit out of coolant hoses, radiator, wiring and sometimes messing up the hood.

I don't like them, and tend to go with an electric fan conversion.

[GreenFields1]

I believe the fan clutch assembly is a sealed unit, and can't be greased. If it gets noisy, the only option is replacement. I've seen those things lock up, and explode. And I mean literally, often tearing the shit out of coolant hoses, radiator, wiring and sometimes messing up the hood.

I don't like them, and tend to go with an electric fan conversion.

Yea....Seems like a very bad design and a new bearing requires a 20 ton press....I could only imagine what would happen if that bearing seized up. Seems the noise is coming from inside the coupling and possibly the 8mm bolt on the back. Would using wd40 hurt anything? or can I run a bead of grease where the metal portion of the coupling/pulley meets the bracket?

[Nollywood]

^^^ Try WD40 by all means. It's a temporary cure. Grease? No. A siezed bearing will generate heat, combining that with grease is a bad move, as I found out to my cost. The hard way.

[GreenFields1]

^^^ Try WD40 by all means. It's a temporary cure. Grease? No. A siezed bearing will generate heat, combining that with grease is a bad move, as I found out to my cost. The hard way.

Wow never really thought about that....Good thing I asked first, that would have been a recipe for disaster. But will wd40 dry things out when its drying? Maybe even making it worse in the long run. Only reason im asking is because im new to German cars and been having a pretty bad experience fixing stuff, its like stabbing myself in the foot every time I try and do something. But...in the end I wind up getting the job done one way or another

[GreenFields1]

Well for those referencing this thread. Im going to be using wd40 as a short term fix and going to be replacing the bearing come Friday. Seems that its easier to just splice in an electric viscous fan but I'm keeping the car stock for DD usage. Apparently if the bearing were to fail it would cause some catastrophic damage as I've seen in other posts. If your BT and still have your belt run viscous fan make sure to check this out and possibly delete it if you havnt

[steven4264]

My bearing is shot and have the replacement but haven't put it in yet, did you have to remove the whole bracket from the car to get the bearing out? Did it require a 20 ton press?

[Corrado_Guy]

It is a sealed bearing, you can spray whatever you want around there and it is not going to do much other than make a mess. You would need to pop the outer seals out to make any difference and that is going to be hard to do considering how it is mounted. You really need to replace the bearing or use an electric fan to bypass the whole thing. I don't know if a 20 ton press is needed but you would need to have the bracket out to get enough room to press the hearing in and out.

[Steve Chicago]

WD-40 gets used for all sorts of things it shouldn't get used for. Yes it does have some lubricating properties at first but it's too light of a distillate and will evaporate too quickly (especially in a hot engine bay). Another thing it does is act like a solvent. It can flush away actual lubricant out of the bearing then when it dries up you're left with nothing in there.

[ianwpb]

WD-40 gets used for all sorts of things it shouldn't get used for. Yes it does have some lubricating properties at first but it's too light of a distillate and will evaporate too quickly (especially in a hot engine bay). Another thing it does is act like a solvent. It can flush away actual lubricant out of the bearing then when it dries up you're left with nothing in there.

I agree.. It also seems to attract dirt, or at least dirt sticks to it. I learned that from my old skateboarding days.

I would definitely just bite the bullet and go for an Electric Fan Kit in this situation.

I've seen those things lock up, and explode. And I mean literally, often tearing the shit out of coolant hoses, radiator, wiring and sometimes messing up the hood.

I don't like them, and tend to go with an electric fan conversion.

My accessory belt broke a couple years ago. It did a good amount of damage do my oil cooler hoses. I can just imagine what a fan could do in that little space.

[Artiemas]

Mom's VF is new, as it was bought that way.

With it is also a new hood, a bunch of Rad hoses and such. PO explained and showed pictures of when it locked up and exploded. It cut a pretty big gash into the hood. Broke all the way through, but only a bit. Was like an inch or so gash.

But the hoses - those hoses were like cut into twenty or so pieces each.

If I'm doing work on that car, I still find small pieces of plastic that may or may not be that old fan.

[ianwpb]

Mom's VF is new, as it was bought that way.

With it is also a new hood, a bunch of Rad hoses and such. PO explained and showed pictures of when it locked up and exploded. It cut a pretty big gash into the hood. Broke all the way through, but only a bit. Was like an inch or so gash.

But the hoses - those hoses were like cut into twenty or so pieces each.

If I'm doing work on that car, I still find small pieces of plastic that may or may not be that old fan.

Same here, anytime I do a oil change I find pieces of shredded accessory belt.

[ElliottG]

Yea....Seems like a very bad design and a new bearing requires a 20 ton press....I could only imagine what would happen if that bearing seized up. Seems the noise is coming from inside the coupling and possibly the 8mm bolt on the back. Would using wd40 hurt anything? or can I run a bead of grease where the metal portion of the coupling/pulley meets the bracket?

I bought a brand new fan clutch for I think around $40 a couple years ago on ECS...