So, many moons ago when the Gen 3 D came out I remember a guy saying that the plastic clip holding his upper radiator hose was worn through from the fan, then the fan chewed through his upper hose and left him on the side of the road. A few weeks ago I noticed a tick tick tick noise on my 2011, did not last to long and it went away. I blew it off but I have heard it a couple times since then. I located the noise today. When the vehicle is first started the electric fan starts slow, then will build up speed. It seems that at the low speed the back of one of the fan blades hits the clip holding the upper radiator hose. As the fan speeds up it goes away. I am guessing it is from, what we in the prop plane world call thrust bending. The fan actually bending forward as it speeds up and is moving more air, when it speeds up it clears the clip. Over the years it has taken a toll on the plastic clip, glad I checked it out when I did! I have attached pics of what I am talking about and my reworking of said part, it might be worth 15 minutes of your time to check yours!

 

You must have a V8 because looking at my '11 Durango with a V6, my radiator hose placement does not look at all like the picture you posted. My hoses are clearly out of harm's way as I suspect every other V6 owner's radiator hoses are. Please clarify your post.

 

You just did.

 

Yea we have extra room where 2 cylinders are missing.

roog

 

On my 2012 R/T, have a different setup. I do not see any clearance issue with the hose clamp support and or fan blades. Is it possible the R/T has a slightly different frontend engine compartment configuration. If you look at my R/T photo album pics. You can see the hose clamp support, under the hose clamp support there is a support piece that is part of the fan housing that is attached to the hose clamp support at the bottom. That fan housing would have to break and allow the hose clamp support to fall into the fan.

I don't see that ever happening.

 

Mine is a 2011 R/T. It is the same clamp, I just do not have the part top that clips in to the bottom part of the clamp shown in the pictures. The issue may occur after the plastic "sags" over time. Mine did not fall down into the fan, it just looks like the weight of the hose over time caused the clamp to keep sagging down until it was rubbing against the blades.

 

I checked my 2012 Hemi. Clearance is very tight, but there's no wearing of the bracket.

 

Just hit 86,000 miles on my 2011 (meaning my 8/85 MaxCare is gone) and when I got home last night (thankfully), the coolant began to spray out from under the air intake baffle so without having the time nor light to tear into this yet, I assume that I just got hosed by this cheap plastic clip.

I will know more this afternoon, but any of you that have not inspected this area, please do so.

Not everyone will be lucky enough to have this rupture in their driveway with no chance for the engine to overheat.

I even verified that my coolant overflow was still half full which means not enough volume was lost for the radiator to draw it back in.

DodgeCares: I will confirm the diagnosis and take pictures, but this could turn into a bigger issue if this clip was not redesigned in later model years.

 

Hi ColdSteel,

I'm not currently aware of a problem, but please feel free to send pictures and let me know what you find.

Kori
Dodge Social Care Specialist

 

Maybe I found a new aftermarket sales opportunity! Coldsteel, glad it happened in your driveway at least. I am interested to see what you find. I did check with Mother Mopar a while back, it does not seem you can buy just the clip.. It appears it comes with the upper hose, even at that it was only around $28.00 IIRC.