As the tilte says, what does the engine fan clutch sound like when it is going bad?

I bought this truck with 24k miles on it about 5 months ago and it is the only thing that concerns me (though I am not loosing any sleep over this). It has always made this kind of whooshing/dragging/engine 'bogging down' sound (although the engine does not bog down) when I start the engine after after an overnight's rest...and it only happens on about 1/3 of the starts. This sound always goes away in about 30 seconds as I drive away. It hasn't gotten any worse nor any better snce I bought the truck. So do you guys think this maybe a clutch going out?

See my signature below for truck stats. Also, how hard is it to replace doing it yourself and how much is a new clutch?

...Other than this minor noise ( maybe it's normal or not, don't know) this has been a fantastic truck so far, 100% satisfied with it.

thanks

 

sounds normal to me. I've got 60k on mine and it does the same thing, only when it happens I think: sounds like a damned chevy

fan clutch is an easy replacement, but I wouldn't worry about it unless you're also having low speed cooling issues.

 

Mine does the same thing too. I don't loose sleep either.

 

From what has been posted and from asking others, this may be an extremly minor issue that causes no imediate crises, so I might just ignore this for the time being.

Man, this is really a nice truck. I just wish I could find some long tube headers for this thing.

Matt

 

Usually a bad fan clutch will sound like the fan blades rubbing against the radiator type noise. Or a rattle. An easy way to check a fan clutch, with the vehicle OFF, grab the fan blade and try to move it from front to rear of vehicle. It shouldn't have ANY play. If it does, then the clutch is failing out.

The sound you describe above sounds the the clutch fan doing its job. Where do you live? What type of weather is it? Sounds like a hot area where the A/C might be left on from the day before and the fan automatically enguages when the vehicle is started because of this.

 

Ive noticed a rattle, plus a very loud "whir" which is very annoying and i cant stand anymore. I think its the fan clutch so i just ordered a new one from napa and im going to put it in tonight after work. I really hope thats the problem and not the water pump pulley. Ill post back tomorow.

 

Well last night i took the belt off, then took a strap wrench and placed it around the water pump pulley, then took a very large wrench and put it around the nut. I hit the wrench counter clockwise with a 5lb hamer and freed the nut. I took the fan and fan shroud off. The fan clutch seemed fine, when i turned the nut with my hand it seemed to have the same resistance as the new one. While that was out of the way and the belt was off i inspected the pulleys. I spun the idler pulley and it sounded like crap. Bearings were shot. That would be the really bad noise ive been hearing for a while. Lucky for me its the easiest job in the world to replace one. I put the fan and shroud back on and started it up. The fan clutch actually works like it should and one of the really annoying noises is gone. After i replace the idler pulley it should be nice and quiet. Deffinitly a pain though, now that ive done it i could do it again in half the time. I think thats the case with everything.