Radiator Woes

[matt79]

On saturday took my D22 2.5cr through a shallow creek crossing and unfortunatley the fan blade flexed forward and hit the radiator breaking three of the coolant lines in the bottom of the radiator. I removed the radiator no worries and am chasing up today if its fixable or a replacement job. Anyone got any ideas what a radiator costs also?

What i have noticed is that the fan blade shape has a lobe at the end of each blade that can flex forward easily, has anyone had the same problem? as i'm considering cutting these lobes of as the rest of the blade is fairly rigid.

The worst part is my Prado has gone through this same water crossing heaps of times.

 

[tweak'e]

fan flexed forward or radiator moved back ?

 

[matt79]

i reckon the fan flexed forward as the radiator mounts were all good. definatley looks like the fan flexed to me. just worries me cause it wasnt very deep at all.

 

[Al]

i've read that some d40 owners have had the fan go into the radiator. maybe its a issue with the 2.5lt motors. never had a problem with my 3.0lt and i've been through water from above bonnet to just hub levels, only ever had the front number plate rip off completely once (i've put washers on it now)

 

[roundy]

If it helps i got the d22 2.5cr (08) been through water heaps of times from hub deep to over the bonnet and never had a problem...

 

[maddogrc]

ditto, i've had my d22 2.5cr 2008 with water over the bonnet and no water-bra and nothing happened?

it shouldnt flex if the fan clutch is working properly...

 

[roundy]

Yeah thats what i was thinking, hasn't the nav got a viscous coupling fan so the clutch shoulda saved it

 

[Dave]

Same as the other guys, had water over the bonnet in my ZD30 powered D22 and never a issue.

Dave.

 

[matt79]

Yeah cheers guys for the responses, the radiator cant be fixed so i'm gonna get a genuine one from Nissan for $550 as the cars fairly new, a second hand one was $480 from a local 4x4 spares place. Think i will end up slightly modifying the fan blades and see how that goes.

 

[Jon]

I would be looking further into this as you don't want it happening again. Some viscous fan hubs are serviceable. Don't know if the Navara one is. If you can take the hub apart their should be no reason why you can't drain the old fluid and try some new stuff. Mind you if the fluid had lost its properties I would imagine the opposite would occur and the fan blade would constantly be slipping so maybe there is just something stopping it from slipping inside the hub. Try grabbing the viscous hub and spin the plastic fan blade it should move but under resistance, the resistance should vary depending if you have had the car running or not. Try that and let us know what happens. If you can't spin the blade and everything wants to turn I'd be replacing the viscous hub aswell.

 

[matt79]

yeah i have tried the viscous fan coupling and it seems ok, has a firm resistance when you turn it, should be good because they car has only done 32000km's, guess it must of just been one of those unlucky things, doesnt stop all my mates hassling me about buying a navara and breaking it within 2months though. the budget wouldn't stretch to a toyota, so im gonna have to build a tuff as nissan.

 

[maddogrc]

contact nizzbits for a price on a genuine nissan radiator.

[email protected] (i think, if i'm wrong someone correct me)

awesome guy! awesome prices!

 

[lzy364]

hi guys,
just back from a weekend at SRAP, i also have a few less cores in my radiator now. it was from nudging into a rock stepup on car wreck lane.
now up for a new one.