Grand Cherokee Fan Spinning Too Fast After Off-Roading!

goofystitch

New member
I took my 2002 Grand Cherokee off-roading about 2 months ago. On my way home, my fan was spinning so fast that my whole Jeep was shaking. I stoped at a car wash and pressure washed my fan and engine. There was mud caked on the fan and it seemed to stop for the night. But the next day, my fan was spinning faster and louder than usual and my Jeep began overheating. When it finally reached 260, I had the thermostat replaced. Since then, my Jeep hasn't acheived a temperature higher than 235. However, the fan still spins to fast. My mechanic told me to wash the mud out of my A/C unit and I discovered that muddy water had dried inside my radiator. I washed it for 45 minutes and used dawn dish soap until I stoped seeing mud coming out. It runs much better, but still isn't perfect. The fan only spins to fast and to loud when the temperature is over 210, but it is usually over 210 due to the heat we've been having. Also, when I turn my wheel to the left or right as far as it will go, it stops as long as I'm holding it. I'm still washing mud out of my radiator. Could this be as simple as replacing a sensor? Could it be electrical? Could my radiator have so much mud in it that I need a new one?
 

Hmm... Okay. Are we talking electric fan, or belt-driven (not too familiar on the grands...)

If electric... I don't think it's a variable drive fan, should only be two speeds: on or off. To the best of my knowledge, that is. My Jeep was vibrating and making a hell of an awful noise until I realized that the electric fan had mud caked on it. See, this fan does not run all the time, only when it needs to to help cool the engine, so the mud has a chance to dry on only one side, causing a vibration... Make sure this fan is clean inside and out, any little amount of mud on a single blade will throw it off balance causing a noise and vibration...

If it's your mechanical, belt-driven fan that's the problem, it sounds like your fan clutch. This is a creature that basically disconnects the fan from the belt drive as needed... See, when the engine is cold, the fan doesn't need to be spinning like crazy. The engine spinning the fan just happens to put more load on it, causing slightly lower gas mileage, not to mention that if the fan was constantly spinning hard and fast, the engine would not get up to operating temperature in a timely manner, again, fuel economy issues... There is a little bi-metallic spring inside, just like a coil thermometer. As the fan clutch gets hotter, the spring expands, tightening up the grip between the drive, and the fan itself, causing the fan to spin faster with the engine... With the engine OFF, and the keys OUT of the igntion, spin the fan by hand, think Price is Right. If it just spins really freely, little to no resistance, your fan clutch is shot. If it is difficult to spin, or feels rough, like there's sand or something in the drive, your clutch is seizing/seized, either way, needs to be replaced... The fan should turn a little and come to a halt, tangible tension on the drive, it's pretty easy to tell the difference between a free spin and what it should do...

Regarding the mud... Up here, we have nice fine sandy mud in the place I go wheeling... I put the hose to the radiator every day, and still got mud out of it... Chances are, you have not gotten it all out yet, keep on rinsing it every now and again, front and back... Powerwashing is, unfortunately, not the best idea, though it makes things SO much easier, it can also bend up the fins in the radiator, making things worse... As I understand it, holding a hose, no nozzle, to the radiator surface and letting the water come out the other end, and working it that way, top to bottom, is the preferred method... Mud is a pain in the radiator, there are a lot of very small holes in it that like mud very much. It was about a year before I was finally confident that the temperature issue was gone, a thermostat, a radiator flush, and who knows how many gallons of water later...

Best of luck, hope some of this helps.
 
is it electric is or is it hydraulic? this is what I found
Cooling fan, industry-first hydraulically driven engine cooling fan on 4.7-liter engine for increased fuel economy and efficiency. Attached to radiator assembly and powered by power steering system for more efficient and quieter operation
http://www.wjjeeps.com/newoptions.htm

if it is hydaulic you could have a bad bearing in the fan making it shake like that.
 

Oooh, didn't even think of the hydraulic, but I didn't think the 02s had them...
 
Thanks everyone for replying. It is an electric fan. After washing more mud out of my radiator, my Jeep only overheats when the A/C is on. When this happens, the fan is still louder than it should be, but there is no shaking. I'm going to wash the radiator out again one of these days and see if I can get all of the mud out of the back side. It is a 4.7 engine. If anyone knows anything else I can do, please let me know. Thanks alot.
 
I didn't think it was possible for an electric fan to spin faster than what it was originally designed for. If it's making more noise, it's an air obstruction or coming from elsewhere.

What makes you think the fan is spinning any faster?
 

Laph said:
is it electric is or is it hydraulic? this is what I found
Cooling fan, industry-first hydraulically driven engine cooling fan on 4.7-liter engine for increased fuel economy and efficiency. Attached to radiator assembly and powered by power steering system for more efficient and quieter operation
http://www.wjjeeps.com/newoptions.htm

if it is hydaulic you could have a bad bearing in the fan making it shake like that.

Ya know, that would make sense, as the hydraulic fan is run by the power steering system, and he said it quits when he turns the wheel all the way to the left or right.:?: :shock:
 
The fan is probably louder than you're used to because the engine is getting so hot...and you've probably never heard the fan go like that because it's never reached those temps in the past.


I know on my daily driver (Yukon Denali), it has the mechanical fan that is always on, and then steps up to a higher speed when it reaches 225*...which it's only gotten to once when I was pulling a 22' enclosed trailer over the Grapevine with the a/c cranked up and the outside temp around 110*. And, It also has 2 electric fans that don't even come on until 240*...which has never happened.

It could be that your radiator still has mud in it that you're just not getting out, and as a result the engine is getting too hot and the fan is at it's max speed trying to get it to cool down. To me, the fan sounds to be working properly.
 
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