Horrible rattle under the hood. Diagnosis? NOT water pump.

Postby **smj999smj** » Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:33 pm

I've heard of one or two with some play in the bearing. It's not difficult to change out. Remove the belt and fan/clutch assy. and the three bolts that attach the bracket to the front of the engine. I believe the fan shroud has to be removed, as well, IIRC.

oreogaborio · Postby **oreogaborio** » Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:45 pm

Yeah I'm guessing it's not much more work than doing the fan clutch which I've done more times that I care to count.

Awesome... gonna try & dig into it tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

oreogaborio · Postby **oreogaborio** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 11:22 am

Woot!

So as you guys said, the cooling fan is what was causing the noise and it is NOT connected to the water pump and driven by the same pulley as almost every other design out there. So the death rattle coming from my cooling fan is just due to the bearing housed in a 50 dollar bracket that bolts to the front of the engine. Booya.

Remove bracket (four bolts)

Postby **smj999smj** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 1:09 pm

Yup....another, quality "made in Mexico" part! The black cover plate you see behind that bracket is the cover for the water pump access.

oreogaborio · Postby **oreogaborio** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 1:41 pm

smj999smj wrote:Yup....another, quality "made in Mexico" part!

lol

smj999smj wrote:The black cover plate you see behind that bracket is the cover for the water pump access.

Yeah, that's what I figured.

Thank you very much for the help.

volvite · Postby **volvite** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:02 pm

Glad you were able to figure it out and that it was not too expensive to fix. thenissanpath.com pays off again.

FLiPMaRC · Postby **FLiPMaRC** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:50 am

Nice! Great job!

Postby **disallow** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:52 am

did you take a pic of the new part? Just wondering if there is a piece missing on the old one cuz you can see the rollers, I doubt those are supposed to be exposed to the elements... Maybe thats what caused the failure...

oreogaborio · Postby **oreogaborio** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:47 pm

Still waiting on the replacement. Should be here in a day or three.

The bearings most certainly are not supposed to be exposed like that. There's definitely a missing seal. Close-up pic of the new part online shows a washer type seal held in place by what looks like a press-on cap.

Here you go...
Purchased at http://www.ebay.com/itm/291044395139?_t ... .S2.M-1415

oreogaborio · Postby **oreogaborio** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 2:30 pm

Finally got around to installing and buttoning everything up.

Turns out the part I got off ebay wasn't quite 100% compatible with the fan clutch I have in there. Luckily the fix was easy.

Here was the issue... You can see that the axle protrudes further past the mounting surface on the new part due to the different design.

Untitled by Peter Gaboriault, on Flickr

When I looked at the fan clutch it looked like there was plenty of room

Untitled by Peter Gaboriault, on Flickr

Buuuut, there wasn't.

Untitled by Peter Gaboriault, on Flickr

So... was there an easy fix?

You betcha. Just add 4 small washers to space out the fan a tad.

Untitled by Peter Gaboriault, on Flickr

Now we're talkin.

Untitled by Peter Gaboriault, on Flickr

All buttoned up & good to go. Worrrrd.

oreogaborio · Postby **oreogaborio** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 2:36 pm

And here's another side-by-side shot of the back of the unit. You can see the old one is clearly missing a seal over the bearing. The new unit is also assembled/designed very differently.

Untitled by Peter Gaboriault, on Flickr

aadadams · Postby **aadadams** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:24 pm

What does this sound like... My engine bay is awfully noisy. I hope I have the same issue as you indicate on my truck. My mind was swirling with possible engine damage...

Postby **smj999smj** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:25 am

Usually of the fan bracket bearing fails, you can see the fan wobble when the engine is running and, when not running, you can feel the play with your hands if you grab the fan and move it side to side. Seized fan clutches are fairly common and cause a constant "roar." Another common noise is the whining the upper timing chains make when they wear through the upper tensioner "feet." To me it sounds like a bad P/S pump whine; you can hear it on videos at YouTube.

oreogaborio · Postby **oreogaborio** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:28 pm

aadadams wrote:What does this sound like... My engine bay is awfully noisy. I hope I have the same issue as you indicate on my truck. My mind was swirling with possible engine damage...

It sounds like horrible death... Squeaking, rattling, scraping.

As SMJ said above, you can grab the fan and feel/see significant play in it at the belt pulley if it goes.

UPDATE: after 100 miles the part I got off ebay failed... Just got a replacement covered under warranty... 40 miles and it's still okay.

oreogaborio · Postby **oreogaborio** » Mon Feb 10, 2014 4:35 am

oreogaborio wrote:UPDATE: after 100 miles the part I got off ebay failed... Just got a replacement covered under warranty... 40 miles and it's still okay.

Update #2: After another 1200 miles the SECOND part I got off ebay failed. Third is on the way

Anyone have any experience with this part failing? Any possible obscure causes that I'm overlooking? Looks to me like the seals just failed on the first replacement part. Haven't removed the second one but I'm sure it's the same case.

Horrible rattle under the hood. Diagnosis? NOT water pump.

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