Anyone experience their fan hitting their power steering belt? It happens to me at 5k rpm and up in gear or not. I swapped out the whole fan unit to another one that I got from someone, but I still have the problem. Maybe that fan clutch is bunk too, but I just wanna make sure.

Fan on
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Fan off
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Rev from the inside
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The vibrations could be felt through the shifter and even rattles the cat heat shields pretty good.

 

From the video, it doesn't look like the fan is hitting the belt, it just looks like the belt is a little loose.

With the car off, does spinning the fan by hand make it hit the belt at any time?

It could be that the air coming off the fan is making the belt flex. Try tightening up the belt a little bit.

Are there physical marking on the belt? Like, cuts in it where the fan is hitting? With the speed that the fan is going, if it hit the belt, it would probably snap it.

 

The fan only hits the belt when it is rotating fast. So yeah, anotherway for the fan to hit the belt could be the air making it flex. I made sure that the power steering belt wasn't loose, but it wasn't loose at all. I don't see any marks on the belt from the fan, just small cracks in some of the grooves. Do you know if an s4 power steering belt is fine for use on an s5?

 

So you're guessing that the vibration is the fan hitting the belt? I didn't see that in the video either.

Strong vibration at about 5k can be caused by a bad water pump bearing. Since the fan is bolted to the water pump pulley, any imbalance in the bearing will cause the fan to vibrate the whole car. I had a new water pump that created this problem, and was fixed by returning it and buying another.

And to answer your question, the belts are the same on S4s and S5s.

 

Thanks rotaryrocket. I was thinking it might have been something to do with the water pump as well. I was thinking that the vibration was because of the fan hitting the belt because the problem didn't happen when I took the fan off.

 

Also, when I was having this vibration problem, it was worst at about 5k, but then it got better up to redline. It kind of sounds the same way from your in-car video. It seems noisier at 5k than 6-8k. 5k seems to create just the right harmonics.

 

I don't think the vibration gets better as I rev it up to redline, it actually gets worse. The vibrations just start at 5k.

 

Well, maybe the bearing is in worse shape than mine was. I'd still bet it's the problem.

 

So it's no chance that it's the fan clutch? I have to remove the waterpump anyway to take a look because of have coolant leaking from around that area. Thanks for your input man.

 

If you would have mentioned That in the first place.
It is sounding like a bad water pump.The bearing has gone and is letting your fan Run wild.
The first sign of a Bad water pump is a small seepage of Coolant from the little hole found around the Pump's shaft(that connects to the fan).If you see coolant there,you know the pump is going to fail,or is Gone.

 

hm, all my vibration problems seemed to have gone away after removing the air pump and putting it back in again... weird. but i have to double check that the coolant is coming out of the weep hole, the coolant is seen coming from underneath the water pump housing and leaks down the left side of the engine.

 

The air pump belt does go across the water pump pulley, so a difference in tension may be masking the problem.

If there's coolant leaking from the bottom of the water pump housing, I can almost guarantee it's coming from the weep hole on the pump. If the bearing is no longer sealing, then coolant can get past it and leak out.

Also, if you want to eliminate the fan clutch as a source of vibration, see if it has any play if you work it back and forth. It should be nice and solid.

 

True, I am probably replace the water pump soon. At first I thought it was the fan clutch so I replaced the one I was using with another used one. I think both had very minimal play, but less in the replacement one. I'd have to double check it though.

 

First of all the fan should be 100% inside the shroud...
You are missing some parts man!!!
Look at that fan!!! Where is the extention? Should not be sitting that close to the engine anyways.
Also looking at the fan when its runing im guessing the clutch is loose. that is Harmonic Vibration. the fan is pulling air not pushing it... the blades should not be going tward the engine at high load...

 

It's not missing anything. Go pop your hood and take a look. And no, the fan doesn't stick all the way inside the shroud. It only bolts on one way; it's not complicated.

 

I dunno .. the Fan looks right to me. It's how my FC has always looked, new and old clutch fan alike, and matches up with the Haynes manual too. About 10-20% of the fan sits behind the extent of the shroud cover, based on the pictures in that manual.

 

OK well looking at mine. My fan isnt 100% inside.. so i take that back... Now i do have an S4 his is an S5 Not sure if they are the same...
But what i do see for sure is Harmonic vibration...
Looks like the fan clutch is Loose to me at high rpms the vibration would get strong Enough to make the blades Bounce forward and backwards...
And if the fan is pulling air like it is the blades should not go twards the engine

 

Alright, I am picking up my water pump tomorrow, but I have a problem removing my water pump housing because the omp lines are in the way. What should I be removing and what are the precautions of doing so? Thanks.

Here is a picture for us to work with to aid in explaining the solution.

 

You needn't remove the whole housing, just the waterpump itself.

 

i do realize that, but there is also a coolant leak, seemingly from behind the housing on the driver side.

 

Oh.

IIRC (it's been two years), you don't have to do anything with the OMP, just be careful with the lines.

 

sorry, but what is "IIRC"? Yeah, I was trying to carefully pull out the water pump housing, but i only got it about 1/4 of the way out before the lines were too taut.

 

"IIRC"= "if I recall correctly".

 

ahh. so it's possible to remove the water pump housing without doing anything about the omp/omp lines? if you look at the picture i uploaded, you could already see that there isn't much slack in the omp lines.

 

The OMP lines do have to get disconnected from the OMP before the housing can clear them. The studs that go through the housing are very long. And even then, it's a bit sketchy bending the lines out of the way.

All I have to say about undoing the 4 bolts on the OMP lines, is soak them with a penetrant for awhile, then be very careful. The lines almost always snap off when the bolts are broken loose. You can try to brace them, but it may not help.