Had an incident on the highway last week during a trip. Fan clutch locked up, vibrated itself off the pulley shaft, belt slipped off. WTF.

So I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, aquired some tools, pulled the radiator, beat pulley back on, removed the fan, rigged up some wire to run the electric fan full time (thermal switch was broken, never fixed). Ran the car for 14 hrs. Never got above 186* (scan tool) in 92* weather.

How bad do I need to buy a belt fan? lol.

 

You're talking about a $30 belt?

 

Nope belt's new. The belt-driven fan. I'm running the electric secondary all the time. Confused?

 

Oh, right. Well, I don't know how quickly you need to try and get it replaced, but I certainly would replace it. I bought one at a junkyard for $80. Some people replace that viscous fan with an electric one. I haven't priced them, but you might check around (PureMS, SpeedLife, eBay) in case those kits are cheaper than direct replacement.

 

I may look into getting another electric fan. The engine spun up better, and I got 2 mpg better on my last trip. I usually got 29mpg on the highway, and I got 31. That was also with the engine running cooler than normal, which also hurts mileage.

 

If you get an ebay one, make sure it is a 15"

 

TheBat....you meen you actually felt the engine pick up better running a secondary fan? Im guessing you eliminated some lag from the belt?

 

I completely removed the belt fan on the side of the highway, it was vibrating too bad and wasnt sure how long it would stay together again. I ran the secondary (A/C fan) full time. The engine definitely spun up quicker, I also short shift my car and don't rev it high with 145,000 miles. It sure made more power.

 

what drives the water pump? since you removed the belts[:-]

 

The belt is still on, I just removed the fan. Left the pulley there.