300tdi viscous fan fell off!!!

Hi all, this is my first post so thought i'd make it a good one.

i bought a disco last week and it has been running like a dream but today i got into it, fired up and pulled away a funny noise started then the battery light came on and i lost the power steering,
i pulled up expecting to see a broken belt only to find that my viscous fan unit was lying at the bottom of the radiator complete with the drive belt pulley to my horror!
the shaft that the pulley sits on has sheared at the timing cover
can anyone give me any advice please

Hi

Sorry to hear about your bad luck
Was it not making a din before this happened?
Sounds like the Viscous fan bearings have gone fine style,normaly this is a LR sealed unit in the whole timing cover but you can get replacement bearings but you will have to take the timing cover off!

Good luck

Jason

if the bearings failed would that cause the shaft to shear? it broke off flush with the cover. the only warning i had was a strange rubbing noise for about 30 seconds then it was gone

kmg said:

if the bearings failed would that cause the shaft to shear? it broke off flush with the cover. the only warning i had was a strange rubbing noise for about 30 seconds then it was gone

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Dont know!There's nothing behind it and the bearing going is a common problem, normaly to fix it you will have to get a whole new caseing from LR with the shaft and bearing or find a scrapper!

Probably a good time to put a kenlowe electric fan in!

revjames said:

Probably a good time to put a kenlowe electric fan in!

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Well that's another debate!

Some people swear by them & others say that they are a waste of money.Personally I would stick with the viscous fan but in matey's case it could be an easy fix-He will have to weigh up the pro's & con's for him self

Ive heard of claims of 8% more fuel efficiency by fitting a kenlowe. I am struggling to get 24mpg at the moment so even that would only make it 26mpg if the claims were true.

Hi, i was thinking of fitting a kenlowe fan but I would still need to repair the pulley for the belt.
if only someone would make a shorter drive belt to bypass that pulley lol

They probly do if you ring Fenners in Hull with the pully sizes and distance between centres. Any old how I don't know a great deal about 300Tdi's, But int the pulley fastened to your water pump as well?

the pulley is just like an idler attached to the timing cover so if you had the correct length belt i don't see any reason you couldn't lose it?

At 24 miles to a gallon you need to fit an EGR blanking plate SOON!

CharlesY

Had a go at getting it off today. 6mm allen key, no chance of it moving. I will persevere.

Woo Hoo! Got it off and made up a plate out of a bit of 1/8" plate I found. Blanked off the vacuum pipe and removed the electrics from the valve. I just need a scaffolding pipe to replace the intake pipe and it will be complete.

Charlesy, I hope it will make a difference to the economy. I might put a K&N in and get the pump tweaked.

Don't bother taking the rest of it off in a hurry.
With the plate in, the exhaust gas can't get through anyway.

However, when you do decide to throw it in the bin, take the whole inlet manifold off, and spend a couple of hours chipping out the caked in carbon from the exhaust.

EGR ??

Crap.

Serves NO useful purpose. The theory was to reduce oxides of nitrogen.
Who gives a toss? Humans just spent 100 years working out ways to get MORE oxides of nitrogen onto the ground to make things grow!

The dilution of the inlet air by exhaust gas lowers the percentage of oxygen in the cylinder, thus also lowers the temperature of the combustion, and thus by Boyle's law and Charles's Law (really!) means that the PRESSURE resulting from any given amount of fuel burned will be LESS. More heat means more pressure, means more power. So EGR equals LESS POWER and less MPG - full stop.

People with EGR blanking plates should take extra care on long hot runs with a big load (trailer / caravan etc) to drive gently fore the last mile or so before parking, and to let the engine idle for a minute or two before switching off.

This will help to cool the turbo bearings down so they don't melt on you.

Worth doing, anytime the car is worked HARD and HOT.

CharlesY

Thanks. When I lived in NZ, most people who ran diesels installed a 'turbo timer' which kept the engine idling for a couple of minutes before shutting down. Good idea? You have me slightly worried about having to take 'extra care'. I am going on a 350 mile trip next week, no trailer though so should be OK.

The egr is hanging on to the intake pipe at the moment. I heard somewhere (on here I think) that a piece of scaffold tube is the right size to substitute for the piece with the EGR on it.

don't mention the EGR. I had just blanked mine off and was taking it out for a test when the fan disaster happened lol so I still don't know how much difference it makes

I havent noticed a dramatic increase in performance. Fuel economy? time will tell...

revjames said:

I havent noticed a dramatic increase in performance. Fuel economy? time will tell...

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Then I suggest you think about cleaning out the whole inlet tract, including the inlet manifold.

After lots of miles with an EGR working, there's so much crap comes back that the inside of the inlet manifold gets all gunged up and more or less blocked!

You should have noticed the engine pulling better right away.

CharlesY

Actually, I just went to the local tip (sorry recycling station) with the back full to the roof with junk and a trailer full on the back. There is a steep hill on the way and I noticed it steamed up in 5th and had plenty more to give! When I get a bit of time I would like to take the inlet off and clean it out as CharlesY suggested. Is it then also worth taking the intercooler off too and giving that a clean? I think the intercooler is before the exhaust gets injected in though. I did notice that when I revved it, the EGR emitted a cloud of soot at one point. I think that because its not on the exhaust anymore, the boost pressure on the inlet is a lot more than atmospheric so it opened under pressure? The vacuum pipe and electric plug are disconnected. I am off on a 700 mile round trip at the end of the week so we'll see how she goes!