Viscous fans & water

I have just read in two other posts of someone's viscous fan breaking while fording.
What I want to know is, is this a common problem, or just bad luck, and how can it be avoided if you do a lot of fording/wading?

Hody fella
Seems as though its a 2.5 fronty that suffers the breaking fan blades as a Fogger recently pm'd me asking if i still had a 2.5 fan to replace his snapped one due to water breaking his...Possibly other fronties also do this but i only know about this other Foggers 2.5 troubles.....Stick an electric fan on it instead if you can m8ty

Could it not be due to the underbonnet engine heat causing the plastic to weaken over time...I know some plastics do become more brittle if left in the sun so it could be the heat and the age of the fan blades that make them become more brittle??

I think you're talking about Huggy's 2.5 . I think there were two problems with his, the first was that there were so many blades (with a tiny gap between them) so that when the water hit it was like hitting a wall. I think drifty said he only had about 4/5 fins on his 2.8 but there was probably double that on Huggy's. The plastic did seem very brittle compared to driftys as well which obviously wouldn't have helped.

I fitted a VW fan and hub to Braveheart and the blades seem to be more flexible.
I still have my old ones if they are required for a 2.5.

ive heard of viscous fans getting sucked into the rad on other 4x4's so its not just the 2.5 fronty that suffers,i would agree that the fact there is 11 blades and there only about 2 inches away from the radiator and also has no flex could well be the problem with the 2.5,its not a heat problem because that was a new fan,i replaced it because the same thing happend in the same place(the carwash) not long ago

as soon as i can afford too i will be converting mine to electric,but need a quick fix at the moment because i need the truck on the road asap as i could be called upon at any moment due to a sick family member.

I reckon that using a higher gear hence cutting the viscous fan speed dramatically, and creating a substantial bow wave to keep a nice trough in the engine bay might help...
but it does sound like the fans might be a bit flimsy on the VM's... :oh yer:

maybe they are made by the same factory that make the tensioners! :lol:

If you go into water a lot, i wouldn't fit an electric one.

have you still got the shroud on the rad,

i also find that its down to entrance in to he water, i crawl in, under tick over speed, there for allowing the water to catch the fan at low speed, and stopping it, or in one case, stopping the engine, put a small rope on the fan, to stop it rotating, then when out the other side, just remove the rope,

ye shroud still there,a few holes in it though

tried to tie it up but its very tight and i couldnt get the rope on properley,but the viscous is stiff any way so the rope might of bust the blades anyway,i think even on tick over if these lame fans hit water they die,well thats 2 now so wont risk it again until ive done an electric conversion

Sounds like your hub is seizing up mate. You should be able to move the blades reasonably easy.
See the 2.5 section for the replacement hub part number. Comes with the blades already fitted.
The reason i said no to the electric fan in the water, is that the motor gets soaked.
Even if switched off, its not good to soak an electric motor by submerging it.

hmm i think your right mate,i have it in my hand and when i turn it its very stiff then goes loose,sometimes i can spin it but the next minute its stiff again,my have to look for a viscous too,or an electric fan what ever comes first

Mine did the same before the bearing collapsed completely and seized up.
Contact Euro car parts below and quote the following part number.
206440090
http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/s/Contact

The part number is for a VW but it the same as the Frontera 2.5 and at a much cheaper price than Vauxhall.

Retro fitting a fan unit can be a good plan....I have a double fan unit off a citroen zx diesel which is lovely size with cowell and twin electric fans...and there are loads of sh1troens in breakers so a supply for peanuts for the future when one gives up....
Dont need to worry about wrecking them taking them swimming then as cheap to replace...but can be turned off when wading....

you can also fit an astra fan as well that does work