Let me just start off by saying I know this has been covered before, but no one has given a definitive answer, so I figured I'd make a thread for future reference.
I have an auto, and our cars come with a mechanical fan (engine driven) as well as an auxiliary fan to help with A/C and extra cooling power.
However, when I installed my supercharger, I had to remove the Aux fan to fit the intercooler. Because of that, the car would overheat when sitting at idle for too long, or if I ran the A/C (which wasn't even cold). I had to find a solution. I started looking at aftermarket fans, while also researching if I could swap an electric fan from a manual transmission E46.
I found a couple threads, but no real answers. I finally decided to PM the almighty and infinitely knowledgeable Mr. Nick G @ Technique Tuning, who informed me that it is a direct swap, and he performs this swap on his steptronic cars with no problems.
The mechanical fan and the aux fan have both been removed on my car, and replaced with a single OEM electric fan. So far so good. No wiring, no fitment issues, nada. Plops right in, plugs right in, and works.
Part # 17-11-7-561-757-M14
Cheapest place to buy: Pelican Parts - Click for direct link
Price: $253.00
Why?: Because a good aftermarket electric fan costs $150+. This is $100 more, and it's a direct plug-n-play.
Having completed my first aussie summer since the install I can say that removing the AUX fan is of no concern. I live just out of Brisbane and we experienced a week of days over 40C and a coupe as high as 44. Add to that humidity in the range of 85percent with a temp of 35 for a week either side of it and I say that's pretty good
even with x5 e53 19s on the old girl and 265oookm on the clock she is now down to just 8.9L per hundred predominantly highway driving. Prior to this the car had been 9.2 since I got it at 200oookm
do you happen to have ,the part number,for that mechanical fan deletion,I called Bavarian auto parts,and they said the manual transmission fan,will not fit into my 2000 328i steptronic car. thnaks
How's the reliability of the Behr Hella made in China electric fans? I'm considering swapping over to the electric fan but I've read that some people having problems with the Behr fan not lasting long.
Living down in AZ, few weeks ago it was 115F ambient, and the single Behr Hella fan kept my car at 96C idle, 99C cruising. I'd say it's doing its job just fine :thumbsup:
I am in the process of this swap as well as some other repairs. One question I have that I did not see a clear answer to in the 44 pages of this thread. Do I put this shroud back on or not? I don't know if airflow through the radiator would be better with or without it.
I was thinking out of balance as well.. Took the fan out today to check it and everything "looked" ok. Going to call ECS Tuning tomorrow.. Maybe they will help me out since it is only a couple months old..
Found a Bosch electric fan at pull-a-part for $15 off a manual. I inspected it thoroughly and theres no signs of cracking, fan spins easily, no fading, no corrosion. Looks in superb condition. Would it be worth swapping in?
Search is a useful function on this site. But off the top of my head, in no particular order ...
Removing the fan and fan clutch off the engine reduces weight that the engine has to spin around, and removes the fan clutch, which can fail
The engine mounted fan has been known to self destruct, sending blade(s) into the radiator, hood, sometimes due to bad engine mounts.
Removing the auxiliary front mounted fan opens up direct airflow to the radiator (recommend covering the front of the radiator with black aluminum screen door mesh, to keep bugs and crud from clogging the radiator fins)
Removal helps with access to the engine
The replacement electric fan uses the same connectors to the engine computer as the front mounted fan, so no other mods are needed for this to work
I have a Bosch fan, and another choice is Behr, also OEM. You don't have to buy BMW, however, I also wouldn't get the cheapest no-name I could find.
Thank you for all the info!!:thumbup: another quick question i have is does the electrical fan emit as much coolness(fan speed) and does it run right when you turn car on like the mechanical fan?(and stay on) is the aux fan the one closess to the bumper and when does that run? and its purpose?
"NOTE ABOUT THE FAN DELETE MOD: This should really be called the one for two fan replacement mod because at the end of the mod your steptronic/automatic E46 car will have the exact one electric fan set up that the manual cars all have.
When done correctly the electric fan has been successfully transplanted to replace both the original mechanical and auxiliary fans on steptronic/automatic E46 vehicles.
It is important to understand that for the electrical fan to work properly both the original mechanical and auxiliary fans MUST first be removed, or deleted, from the car."
There is only one ECU controlled fan in the e46. Either the one in front of the bumper on auto transmission or the one next to the engine with manual transmission. There are 4 inputs that determine when the electrical fan is turned on (I've posted those a few times). As solidjake said, this has been done many times, and I don't recall anyone, especially in Florida, Nevada, and Southern California reporting any issues due to the conversion.
Thank you, im not worried about swapping from mech to electrical fan, after taking out the mech fan and the fan shroud its just plugand play with the electric fan. I dont want to remove aux fan how do i do the delete?
When you replace the mechanical fan with the electric fan, you unplug the aux fan in front of the bumper, in order to plug in the new electric fan behind the radiator. If you don't want to remove the aux fan, it will just stay there, blocking direct flow air to the radiator.
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