Hi,

I own a 1998 E300TD. I've had it from new and done 161k miles in it. It's been well looked after but is now showing some signs of age.

The other day, I heard a clunking noise when I started her up. I've got one glow plug down at present so I thought it was just associated with that as the noise disappeared when I revved the engine.

However, after 10 minutes, my low coolant light came on. When I got home, I looked under the bonnet only to find that some of the fan blades (the fan attached to the engine block - not the electric fan) had completely sheared off . Further investigation showed that the fan blades had somehow 'moved' so that it was now hitting the radiator - this caused the fan shear as well as damage to the radiator (see attached photos). I've pulled (what's left of) the fan and whilst it moves slightly it's difficult to tell whether the bearing (or is it a clutch on the fan?) has gone as it is being held tightly by the belt. I've cheked that the radiator and the plastic housing (that the fan rotates inside of) hasn't 'slipped' (the housing is fixed to the car body but the fan is mounted on the engine block) but it is rock solid so have eliminated that.

I believe it will be just a matter of replacing the radiator and the fan (clutch fan?) but am reluctant to do it until I know that doing so will fix the problem. SO....

1) Can anyone shed any light as to what has caused the fan to shear and how I can check it?

2) Is it easy to fix? ie any special tools needed etc (I am a competent DIY car person). If you can point me to a step by step guide that would be most helpful (even if it's just to do part of the job eg remove radiator)

Any help wpuld be gratefully received

Regards

Keith

 

Is the fan shroud damaged at all? Is it possible your engine mounts have failed, alowing the engine to torque over enough for the fan to hit the shroud? I'm just guessing.
Remember to use the correct Mercedes antifreeze - the yellowish stuff.

 

you could have pushed your lower radiator support backward....probably from a parking block. if you did push the rad support back then the fan blades can hit the radiator and you could also crack the radiator itself. you also are pressing the coolant hoses and trans cooler lines into the frame of the car. very common issue. if you remove the front lower belly pan...easy to do 6 or 8 screws 8mm. remove the bellpan and you can grab the bottom of the rad support and pull it forward fairly hard to bend it somewhat back into place. the lower rad support hangs down pretty low and get damaged frequently. also could be what waybomb stated too.