I had to replace my fan clutch in January 2010. I bought a new aftermarket one at Autozone, it was OK until the weather got warm, then it locked up all the time if I sat at red light or drive-thru window. It was really loud and took away some power too. Autozone refunded me the price of their fan clutch and I installed a used fan clutch from a wrecked Dakota. It was OK, worked fine until last night. I left my house to run to the grocery store and the fan clutch was engaged and stayed engaged a lot longer than normal. It finally let go but I could tell something was wrong. It did that again coming home. I had also recently been hearing a very faint squeal like a bearing going bad. I checked my fan today, the fan clutch was not loose or leaking any oil or anything but it was wobbling real bad, probably 2 inches in either direction when I moved the fan back and forth, side to side. So, following my own bad experience with an aftermarket fan clutch I called the Dodge dealer. $150.00 list price, they sold it to me for $120.00. I took my old fan clutch to the dealer with me and the new part did not look the same. The new fan clutch is about an inch and a half smaller in diameter but wider when viewed from the side.

I thought about buying another brand of aftermarket fan clutch, but I read too many complaints about them, noisy, robbing power, etc, same problems I had last year. So I bit the bullet and bought the OEM clutch. I was worried that there would be problems because it is not identical to my other clutch, and also because the dealer parts guy had no explanation of the difference. The only thing he thought was there had to have been an unannounced redesign at Dodge. I even called another Dodge dealer to confirm the part numbers. That parts guy had the same part number and he told me there was a new part to supercede the old part but that was all he knew about it. I could not find any info on that online either. Here's a couple of pics to show what I am talking about. My old fan clutch is on the left in these pics:





The reason I put this long winded post on here is just so that in case any of us here have to buy a new fan clutch at the dealer, do not worry that it looks different. My new one works just fine, in fact it is even quieter and smoother running than my old one was. My fan is nice and tight, no more wobble. The bearing squeal is gone too. There is no difference in power or engine performance either, not that I can tell. I was skeptical of it because the dealer knew nothing about it and I could find nothing about it online either. The new fan clutch might look different but it works just fine.

Just wanted to put this on here in case anyone else has the same problem.

Jimmy

 

Good info, plan on doing mine next weekend.

 

Yeah, I bought from Advanced their $55 imperial branded Clutch.. looks much like the new one you got..

It does the same thing.. but also the engine temp rises a few degrees while sitting still.. and right were the coil is on the front of the clutch, there is no air flow through there.. its right behind your bumper.. so it causes it to be warmer there too even after moving.. tends to pop on and off.. I really just want to put e-fan on this things with an on/off switch.. Dodge did not leave enough air flow through... Idiots.

 

This new one from Mopar works great so far. My temp gauge stays where it should even on a hot idle and the new fan clutch is not robbing any power or engaging when it shouldn't. I think this new fin design actually increases air flow. I drove to the store again this morning after my truck sat overnight, it made the normal fan clutch roaring noise for about 100 yards then it settled down. It was quiet when I left the store to come home too. I guess I will have to wait and see how it does when we get cooler weather but so far so good on this one.

Jimmy

 

Mine does that too... but it does not do it every single time though.. I mean its temperature dependent. and its doing its job according to its design.

The only thing that really pisses me off is that it really does not keep it cool at idle.. and that was the ONLY reason i replaced the fan clutch i had..

and two, sometimes it does kick on just because it, it self is at a certain temp that it kicks on but the engine is actually at 180-185ish.. and it still kicks it self on..

Personally I'm considering putting my OEM from factory clutch that doesnt work back on..

 

I have learned sometimes there are just some parts you have to use OEM. Fan clutch is definitely one of those must-have OEM parts. If you Google "aftermarket fan clutch problems" you will find a bunch of complaints on just about all brands of aftermarket fan clutches, Napa, Auto Zone, Advance, the brand does not matter, it seems like a lot of people with all different kinds of vehicles say they all suck.

Jimmy

 

Mine is smaller like you the new one you have. Not sure if the previous owned had ever replaced it or if that is how it came. Maybe they changed them between 01 and 02..? Not sure but mine is just like the one you have now.

 

I spoke too soon. New fan clutch has been fine until today. It is very hot down here right now. The tv news said the heat index today would be 107 degrees. The actual heat index was probably higher than that and probably 130 degrees coming off the pavement. I went on a trip to the mall with my gf, about 25 miles from here, there was a lot of stop and go traffic till I got to the interstate. I sat at the red light at the on-ramp for about 2 minutes, headed onto the highway and the fan clutch was locked up, took a mile or so to disengage. We got up to the area at the mall, again, a lot of traffic, lots of cars and red lights every 100 yards, and I got caught by every single red light. The fan clutch kept locking up, roaring like a jet plane taking off and my temp gauge was moving up, not down. It was just below the middle on the gauge. When I pulled into a parking space at the mall the gauge was pointing straight up. I have a 180 degree thermostat and the gauge never does that, it always stays about 1/3 of the way up the gauge, even in summer. Also my AC was not cooling as well as it should at idle. Going down the road at 65 mph and it was cold like normal, at slower speeds and stopped it was not as cold as it used to be. This all tells me that new design Dodge fan clutch is not moving enough air to cool the engine or the AC condenser. I had a funny feeling about the amount air flow from the new fan clutch, just from looking at it at the dealer last week.

So now I don't know what to do. I can take my chances and buy another old design fan clutch off another wrecked Dakota, or I can take my chances with an aftermarket fan clutch and hope it works better than the last aftermarket one I tried. I can't leave the Dodge one on, it won't cool off here for a long time and this is the hottest summer I have ever seen here in Florida. I do not want my engine to overheat. I also do not want to spend $120.00 on the Dodge fan clutch that does not move enough air to keep the engine cool and the AC cold like it should either. When the fan clutch engages the engine temp is supposed to go down. Mine went up and stayed up so there has to be some problem with that fan clutch. My truck never overheated, the temp gauge never went higher than half way and only did that once in the mall parking lot. Coming home at 65 mph the temp gauge stayed right where it normally does. It also stayed on its normal spot at 30-40 mph on 5 or 6 miles worth of city streets coming to my house from the interstate. The only other thing I can think of is maybe my electric fan was not working, but it seems to me if that was what it was, my temp gauge would have gone a lot hotter and the truck would probably have overheated. I will check the e-fan tomorrow but I am pretty sure it is working OK.

The Dodge fan clutch works OK in normal temperatures but it looks like it does not handle high heat very well. The dealer parts guy said I could get a refund if it didn't work. I may have to do that and try another aftermarket fan clutch. If it's noisy that's one thing. I will accept noise as long as it keeps my engine and AC at the right temperature. I am not spending 120 bucks on the OEM fan clutch when I can buy one for 40 bucks at Advance that will work better in the heat, even if it is noisy. Either way I guess I lose out.

Jimmy

 

I know that flex-a-lite has aftermarket clutch fans. But why do you keep messing around with them, why not upgrade to a good efan. The chevy HHR efan puts out minimum 3000cfm, it managed to keep blown287's boosted truck cool even at the track.

 

After a lot of online research today I think what I will do is hold off until tomorrow. There is a decent junk yard not far from here, if they have an early style fan clutch like my old one without too many miles on it I might buy it there, provided they can prove the mileage to me. Otherwise, I will buy the Napa fan clutch. The fan clutches they sell at Advance and Auto Zone are all heavy duty clutches. Napa has 3 different parts listed: a Severe Suty, Heavy Duty and one with no duty rating, so the no duty rating one must be more equivalent to my OEM clutch. I think that is why there are a lot of complaints, including my own about aftermarket fan clutches. Parts stores all sell a heavy duty clutch when you don't really need a heavy duty one. I think that is what happened last year with my Auto Zone clutch. Plus after looking at all the pictures online of all the different fan clutches the one at Napa looks the most like my original clutch.

Even if the Napa part has fan noise, I will have to trade noise for good cooling. Plus the Napa part is only $52.00. I am not about to pay the dealer price for a fan clutch that can't keep my engine cool. Everything else under the hood looks to be OK, and I have no e-fan codes showing. I just hope the dealer guy keeps his word and I can really get a refund on their Mopar clutch. One day later on when I can better afford it maybe I will look into an e-fan swap. Right now I just need to get my truck fixed for the best price possible. I am taking about a 1200 mile road trip next week.

Jimmy