My Toy is a 1990 Extended Cab SR5 V6 4x4 with 104,000 miles on the chassis and 40,000 miles on the dealer-rebuilt 3VZE.

While poking around looking for a rattle in the engine bay yesterday, I discovered that the fan was the cause of the noise. There was about 1/4 inch of play where it mounts to the fan clutch, and the nuts are behind the shroud, so I parked it. As soon as it was warm enough this morning, I started digging to figure out why.

The photos tell the story. I caught it just in time to prevent much more serious damage to radiator, hoses, belts, etc. From close examination of the metal parts, it appeared that the only thing holding the fan to the clutch was the rough edges of the metal breaks. Very soon, the vibration would have enlarged the gap and the fan would have broken loose from the clutch.

Lucky for me, the local Toyota dealer had a fan in stock for $131.48. I got there 10 minutes before the parts department closed, or I would have had to wait until Monday.

The upper radiator hose has to be removed to get the fan shroud out. The fan shroud is in two pieces, held together by tenacious metal clips, and just barely comes out without radiator damage.

The fan itself also just barely slides between the radiator and the fan clutch without damage. I can see where this could be a serious problem if the production tolerances on your truck make the space smaller than on mine. If the gap between the fan clutch and the radiator were just a little smaller, I would have had to remove the radiator to prevent damage.

 

Wow! Nice catch.

 

wow good thing you found that before it would if cost you some real money ive seen pics of what a fan does when it breaks

 

Thank you sir. I have darn near shaken the whole radiator of my truck, wheelin' hard. Bet I have a fan issue, if not now, in near future. Really appreciate the heads-up.

 

:bigclap: nice save!

 

nice =)

 

Good save, thanks for posting. I have seen pics of the fan breaking destroying all sorts of stuff. Probably about time to check how mine is doing.

 

Use medium loctite on the studs when reattaching.

The nuts vibrate loose over time. The fan then gets sloppy and breaks the metal retainer as in your photo.

If the nuts never get loose, this won't happen.

Crazy that a new fan costs 130 bones, huh?

 

On my truck, all four nuts were still tight when I removed the broken fan. I purchased the truck from a friend, so I know they have not been tightened in at least two years. Based on this, I have to say that your assumption that tight fasteners will prevent this type of damage is incorrect. There must be another cause.

From looking at the broken parts, I think that the head of the nut is too small and is not spreading the load over a large enough surface area. A washer will not fix the problem, because the nut has a serrated bottom side that grips the fan to help prevent loosening from vibration. A similar nut with a larger surface area may make the parts last longer.

 

word of advice for all of you on that fan:

The 88-93 use a fan with a ring on the outside. These fans are prone the exploding. Buy a fan from a 94-95 4runner, or even from a 5VZ and you wont experience the "exloding fan" issue. The removed the ring from the outside of the later model fans, because they were prone to failure.