Last Friday, when house hunting in Lakewood, my 96 XJ got w/in about 5 degrees of overheating (well, going into the "red" zone on the guage) and I pulled into a gas station, shut the engine off and took a look around. I noticed that even though my engine was up around 140 degrees I could easily spin my mechanical fan.

I thought that clutch fans were supposed to "LOCK-UP" when the temp went up :confused: I had it looked at and the mechanic said the fan looked fine to him. BUT he said that there is some oil "leaking" from the front of the clutch part of the fan which may be an indication that it is going bad.

....NOW, I'm no GENIUS (sp) but OIL from the clutch on a fan :rolleyes: Don't those function VIA a spring that responds to heat. Is this guy a scam or am I and idiot. He also said that he'd put a new clutch on it, but it'd be about $80.00 (I'M sure I could install one cheaper myself) and then he said I'd get better results if I put a new thermostat in.

Anyway, what I'm asking is, How do these clutch fans work? I've always ran Fixed mechanical fans so I'm a bit clueless on this one. but I always thought they locked up?

Will on of these: Flex-a-lite (http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/Race.htm) fit on my XJ??

If the clutch is leaking, there is a good chance the clutch is going bad.
A new one costs about $30, and takes about 15 minutes to change.

So there IS oil in the fan clutch?? This sounds bizzarre to me :confused:

Originally posted by Cliffhanger
So there IS oil in the fan clutch?? This sounds bizzarre to me :confused:


Yes they have a silicone based oil inside.
As a general rule, an 1800 rpm clutch, will lose about 100 rpms a year, of normal use.
My motorhome used to run a little hot on hills, when I was towing the Jeep. I tried everything to get the heat down a bit, ie, rodded the radiator, cooling vents, lower T stat, removing other coolers from in front of the radiator, higher temp cap, Water wetter, etc.
Then one day I changed the (20 year old) clutch, and wala... it cooled down about 20 degrees.

You can usually get either a non thermostat(speed controled) clutch or themostat clutch. I think that the T stat clutches work better than speed controled clutches.

Thanks for the info. When you said it was a silicone based, that made more sense.

Yeah. If a fan clutch is ever out of the vehicle and stored for a long period, you have to make sure you store it the right way (with the "forward" facing side of the clutch facing up I think--it's usually marked right on the clutch, "this side up") or the oil will leak out over time.

Jake

same problem with my 96 XJ..............

should i replace the clutch or put a clutchless fan on ???