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Hey everyone.

On the way home last night after having a weekend of driving with no problems my car overheated.

This morning i got to have a better look at it, theres bubbles in my radiator while the car is running so I guess I have blown a gasket.

Asides from that however, the belt driven fan seems completely off balance, I can move it with my hand. I would have thought that this was meant to be reasonably solid?

Just wondering what I should do.

Thanks.

It's a clutch fan, it's supposed to move when you turn it by hand. As the motor revs up the clutch tightens abit by centrifugal force and the fan goes faster (Pretty sure that's how it works anyway!).
Bugger about blowing the gead gasket, shoulda just turned her off when the temperature crept up, unlucky to miss it

Yeah im new to it all so wasnt quite sure what to do. The clutch fan yeah it moves but the actual part that is on the motor seems to have a lot of movement in it - seems completely off balance when the car is on and it seems like the belts are going to be thrown off the pulley.

Just wondering as well, how hard is it to replace the head gaskets on an EA82?

the clutch fan has fluid in it,the viscosity changes and drive,s the fan..or not,depending on its mode..a bit like the valves in a shock absordber...\\You need to change your water pump..its rooted.

Thanks scoobidoo. The clutch fan, is it actuall attached to the water pump? It kind of looked that way to me but im not too sure I dont have a service manual for this car yet

AndrewT - yeah, i thought that was normal but for the piece that it bolts onto to be able to rock pretty freely did not seem right to me. (sorry about not being so technical, in time i will learn

Steptoe PM'd me earlier to let me know that the belt driven fan is actually the water pump. So looks like thats what i'll be doing on the weekend.

its not actually 'the water pump'

The fan is attached to the viscous clutch (the aluminium thing with all the little fins)
The viscous clutch is attached to the waterpump.

The viscous clutch has a silicone fluid in it that changes in viscosity with temperature.
When the engine is cold, the air flowing through the radiator and past the fins on the viscous clutch is also cold and the fan practically freespins.

When the engine heats up, so does the radiator and the air flowing through it and thus over the clutch. This increase in temperature thickens the fluid inside it, and makes the fan turn at the same speed as the water pump.

Of course when the radiator cools down, the clutch will loosen and the fan speed will drop.

As for the wobbles....

There are 3 nuts that hold the fan to the front of the clutch, and 4 that hold the clutch to teh water pump pulley, grab yourself a 10mm open ender and check that they are tight

Yeah, bugger! If the whole shaft moves as you say - the pulley wobbles as well and the bolts/nuts are tight then your water pump is shot as already said. If you're going that far to replace the water pump you might as well put in the extra time to do the head gaskets. I'm sure others will be divided on this opinion but this is my point of view - why only do the water pump when you suspect the head gasket as you're already half way there to the head gaskets?

Good luck

Bennie

Well at this stage, i guess i know the pumps stuffed so will replace that and see what happens. Dont really have a lot of time at the moment usually only have sundays off.

So at this stage, me and my house mate have got to the point of taking the radiator out and the fan off. The water pump was completely shot, bearings were absolutely smashed to pieces.

Just wondering, do I have to take the pulley off to get at the bolts that seem to be behind the timing belt cover?

Also - will I have to take my aircon compressor off to replace the water pump? As far as i can tell I have to.

openflame06 wrote:So at this stage, me and my house mate have got to the point of taking the radiator out and the fan off. The water pump was completely shot, bearings were absolutely smashed to pieces.

Just wondering, do I have to take the pulley off to get at the bolts that seem to be behind the timing belt cover?

Also - will I have to take my aircon compressor off to replace the water pump? As far as i can tell I have to.

Yes the pulley and cover will have to be removed to do a good job of fitting the new gasket and pump etc......just unbolt the aircond enough so you can lift it out of the way a little..dont degas it by removing the hoses...just go slow...it is all straight forward,and were all here ...there is an online manual on this site which will help you heaps..cheers

I just got a workshop manual, turns out it got sent to my old address so that will help a lot.

Any suggestions as to what sealant to use for the gasket? Also - best way to take that pulley off?

Thanks.

Update - water pump replaced and everything is sweet. So it seems i havent blown a head gasket at all.

The water pump that was in the car was completely stuffed the new one works perfectly well and i've got a lot less noise coming from the engine bay.

Congratulations

Good to see it worked out and didnt end up being a headgasket

Picture attached, new pump in.