tempermental fan clutch

nukegm · Jun 29, 2017

hey comrades

im on my 3rd mechanical fan clutch. the fan sticks on 100% of the time in all gears. truck sounds like a dumptruck trying to go up a 20 % hill in granny gear with its fan locked on...changed all myself in driveway. dealer sais if it does not do it for them, they wont replace it. no evidence of any fluid leaking from fan clutch...no grease trail...etc

anyone know of a revised / newer unit that does not get stuck on?

currently, 2 days out of 5 its on for most of my drive to work ( 20 plus miles )

its insane noisy and irritating.

have 16k on truck.

thanks in advance for any advice

cheers!

HvyDuty · Jun 29, 2017

Sorry to hear about your trouble.

Other than the obvious loud noise, are there any other symptoms?

Is the fan hard to turn with your hand when the truck is cold? Any change when its hot? (should be easy to turn when cold and harder when hot)

Mine is always noisy at startup, but I always figured its the nature of the beast, have owned vehicles with mechanical fans in the past. Makes me wonder if it is sticking too.

Have you always used Mopar replacement fan clutches? Are there any aftermarket ones out yet?

nukegm · Jun 29, 2017

HvyDuty said:
Sorry to hear about your trouble.

Other than the obvious loud noise, are there any other symptoms?

Is the fan hard to turn with your hand when the truck is cold? Any change when its hot? (should be easy to turn when cold and harder when hot)

Mine is always noisy at startup, but I always figured its the nature of the beast, have owned vehicles with mechanical fans in the past. Makes me wonder if it is sticking too.

Have you always used Mopar replacement fan clutches? Are there any aftermarket ones out yet?

yes sir, the fan is easy to turn when cold - my pinkie can do it...

in the winter , when it is mostly stuck, i cannot even converse on the cell phone because its so loud ( inside the truck with the windows up )

to correct the problem, usually if i hammer the crap out of the truck, and it gets to very high rpms in multiple gears, the fan corrects itself.

also, yes on the mopar parts....

cheers!

PatinAZ · Jun 29, 2017

I had mine replaced under warranty at around 18k. It acted up once then went back to normal after a few days. It came back on and was stuck on for a week before I got it in to dealership.

HvyDuty · Jun 29, 2017

The dealer should be replacing yours if you are still under warranty(dealer cannot replicate symptom?). Would it be possible to try a different dealer?

In the meantime, I found two aftermarket replacements:

2016 RAM 2500 6.4L V8 Radiator Fan Clutch | RockAuto

I currently have 26,7xx miles and have never had the fan be so loud that I could not have a phone conversation with the windows up.

This includes operating with temperatures in the low teens this past winter to now 95F this summer. Mine has only been noisy the first couple minutes after cold startup. The odds would seem astronomical that you got two bad replacements. Maybe Mopar had a large run of bad ones?

Hope you can get it figured out!

Ratket · Jun 30, 2017

It could be the blades- I know they had a bad batch of blades early on and the pitch was off and it cause the clutches to seize up. This could bE what you're problem is.

zeddy · Jun 30, 2017

Ratket said:
It could be the blades- I know they had a bad batch of blades early on and the pitch was off and it cause the clutches to seize up. This could bE what you're problem is.

^^^^Makes since then.

My 2015 Ram's fan clutch was replaced when I had couple thousand miles on it. After that, it would sometimes come on in the mornings/cold starts. Sometimes it would it would disengage right away, sometimes a few miles and sometimes, i had to stomp on the gas pedal for it to disengage.

My new 2017 Ram's clutch fan hasn't come on at all.

jaflowers · Jun 30, 2017

Mine does this frequently enough too. It usually happens when I haven't driven it in a few days, motorcycle is more fun. I've "cured" it before by spraying WD-40 into it and then restarting the truck. It's annoying but not as much as taking it in to the dealer.

crazy jerry · Jun 30, 2017

bad fan clutch is a known problem. my '16 didnt work right from day 1. had it replaced and still didnt work quit right. bought a '17 truck and the fan clutch has worked perfect so far. not sure if they changed designs on '17 or i just got lucky so far. i would see if they updated the design

tempermental fan clutch

nukegm

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HvyDuty

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nukegm

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PatinAZ

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HvyDuty

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Ratket

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zeddy

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jaflowers

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crazy jerry

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