fan clutch

[King Luis]

how do i tell if my fan clutch is a f&s or behr without taking it off?
the price difference is about $100cdn and i need a replacement.
i have a 325is and the production date is 08/1990.
so what do i have?

[King Luis]

also is it hard and or expensive to put in an electric fan? would it last longer?
what size should i look for and how much cfm?

[Sean]

Electric fans are nice, you have more control and the fan clutch it just a pain.

That, and they are almost equal in price.

[PeaveyBassist]

Fan Clutch from eap4parts.com was $65 shipped to me. ($59 + shipping). It isnt a pain. I just switched mine today in less than an hour. And most of the time was spent at the beginning figuring out how to get the fan loose first without moving anything out of the way. It should only take around 30 minutes for a novice mechanic to do it. Way easy.

Will

[Sean]

True, he's right, it's not a pain if you have the right tools. If you don't know how to go about wiring in an electric fan, don't mess with it.

[PeaveyBassist]

Changing fan clutch all you need is a long flat head screwdriver and a thin 32mm wrench. Bike shops have them and sometimes for cheap. You can use a headset wrench. My wrench is short, so to break it loose and tighten it back up I put a pipe over the end of it to get the extra leverage. To get the fan off the fan clutch you need a 6mm hex wrench, and thats all the tools you need.

Will

[King Luis]

do you guys know anything about the behr and f&s version???

[PeaveyBassist]

https://www.realoem.com

Number 2 ^^^
It looks like the Behr ones were used post 09/1987 and I am guessing F&S before 09/1987 but I dont know for sure... Just an assumption. My fan clutch was made by Sachs bought from www.eap4parts.com Its the only fan clutch they have available.

Will

[King Luis]

so a sachs and f&s are the ones to get?
thanks for the help guys

[PeaveyBassist]

Sachs or Behr I am guessing. Behr on realoem says its post 09/1987.

Will

[AdamF 88iS]

Behr is the higher quality one.

[RobertK]

Just bought a new Behr fan clutch off ebay for $74 shipped. All shiny and purdy.

[325iCabrio]

I'm going to have to replace my fan clutch here soon. I called the dealer and they had two fan clutchs, one for $175 and the other for $75; I neglected to ask the brands. I'm assuming that the $175 one if the Behr clutch and the Sachs is the $75 one. BavAuto has the Sachs for $65, so I'd think that's right.

But my real question is this--are the two brands interchangable? From what I've read it sounds like it, but I want to make sure. I don't have a ton of money right now, so I'd rather go with the cheaper one--Sachs isn't a crappy brand anyway.

And the n00bie used the search tool! :up:

[DJB]

Yes, they are all compatible. Just note the orientation of the fan before removing it.

Older fans used used 10mm head screws, later ones used hex head screws.. no big deal.

An alternative is filling your current clutch with about 10-15ml of 3000 weight silicone fluid, available from a R/C car hobby store as "diff fluid".

Don't bother buying used... they will be empty or marginal. I have experience with the different brands, and practice refilling because I tried to find a good used one. But now I have a "summer" clutch that is overfilled, giving excellent cooling.:roll:

[ptownTSI]

so the silicone fluid trick really works??