Hello from the beautiful Pacific Northwest!

My car has been running a bit hot lately and normally stays in the 80-85 temp range. Classic scenario of running cool on the highway but running hot on hills and in traffic (near the 95 – 100 temp range)

I tried all the easy fixes first, coolant flush/change (zerex G05), new Behr thermostat, new expansion tank cap, ran the car with the cap off to try to get any air out of the system, etc.

Next step I get a new fan clutch installed. Went with the German made aftermarket APA version. It fixed the problem. Temp dropped back to normal, car was running cool again (highway/city/hills) and the slight flutter on the oil guage (due to the heat) stopped and the oil pressure increased back to normal. All seemed OK.

Driving home 2 days after the repair, I hear a metallic ping sound coming from the engine compartment. Apparently the cover on the small rectangular piece (see pic link at bottom of page) on the front of the APA fan clutch came loose and was thrust into the radiator at such velocity from the fan that it punctured a large hole in the radiator, tore a small piece off one of the fan blades and I lost virtually all of the coolant.

Surely this is a freak occurence and rarely happens …. But it happened.

The repair shop (a very good and honest independent) accepted responsibility for the part failure and replaced the APA with the OEM Sachs fan clutch, new Behr radiator and fan. They covered the cost of the new radiator and fan, flat-bed towing, etc., I had to pay the difference for the Sachs fan clutch (approx $300.00 more than the APA).

Now….. the temps are back up to 95-100 range on hills, 90-95 range in city driving and don’t drop down very quickly once I get back on the highway, but sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. In addition, I can get the temps to drop a little bit by turning on the defrost to get rid of some heat (??).

Some observations:

The old Sachs fan clutch that was replaced with the APA had low resistance when doing the spin blade test (turning the blade by hand at cold and hot operation). It would move fairly freely (5-6 blades). In addition you could easily stop it with a towel with the car running (another test I read about on this site).

The “new” Sachs fan clutch acts exactly the same as the old one! Low resistance and stops easily! (Was my fan clutch even the problem??)

The aftermarket APA fan clutch had very high resistance when doing the spin blade test, maybe a half a blade movement and I would not attempt to stop the blade by towel while running (test).

So, final analysis… New Behr radiator, Sachs fan clutch, fan, Behr thermostat, radiator cap, coolant (zerex G05), air bubble removal.

My line of thinking it to get the Sachs fan clutch out and go with another APA aftermarket version, in my eyes APA appears to operate better! The rectangular cover came off by a freak accident, and a pair of needle nose pliers prior to installation could simply tighten down the small rectangular housing that holds the cover. See this link for pictures:

http://www.thebenzbin.com/parts/?N=11172+4294963907+1668+9363

Any advise or recommendations greatly appreciated!


Brian
Portland, OR