DIY: Aux/mechanical fan to electric fan swap

Originally Posted by Danoff

Has anyone who has done this swap tracked their transmission operating temperature before and after the swap? It has only recently come to my attention that we could even get the transmission temperature via the computer.

I haven't but I didn't notice any bogging down or lag in the transmission in the summertime.

Has anyone else experienced fan failure? I'm on behr fan #2 after the first one failed around the 6mo mark. My new one seems to be getting louder upon shut down, I'm about 3mos in, and scared!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Bimmer App

For the electric fan? I haven't and I did the swap a while ago. I know E46mango just replaced his and it's at 130k or so

I'm thinking about doing this mod on my X5 with the 3.0. My only concern is that the E53 weighs about 1,000 lbs more than the E46 and I don't know if that would have any added stress to the cooling system. Although the cooling system for both vehicles is identical. Any thoughts?

Newparts has the BEHR fan right now for $183.66 with FREE SHIPPING!!

http://www.new-part.com/product/bmw-...7-11-7-561-757

Enjoy

Originally Posted by Patton323I

I'm thinking about doing this mod on my X5 with the 3.0. My only concern is that the E53 weighs about 1,000 lbs more than the E46 and I don't know if that would have any added stress to the cooling system. Although the cooling system for both vehicles is identical. Any thoughts?

I think they're the same

Originally Posted by ZenJelly

Newparts has the BEHR fan right now for $183.66 with FREE SHIPPING!!

http://www.new-part.com/product/bmw-...7-11-7-561-757

Enjoy

Nice!!!

Originally Posted by Solidjake

For the electric fan? I haven't and I did the swap a while ago. I know E46mango just replaced his and it's at 130k or so

yeah, the electric fan. hopefully my first one was defective.

Originally Posted by Nervous

Let me add some pictures.
Got BEHR fan for $199 shipped from here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...=STRK:MEWNX:IT


Work in progress:



Yuck!


I am so glad I had to mess with mech fan removal for LAST time!



Now, need to cleanup the crap off the condenser and begin to assemble back.

Ok, job's done!




I tested it by idling and monitoring coolant temp (func 7.0). Fan engages at 90C at slow speed (no A/C) and if I turn on A/C and temp rises up to 92C the fan starts to work faster and temp quickly goes down back to 90C. But even at high speed its noise is a whisper in comparison with aux/mech fans' noise. Later will do a test drive.

what model to search for on the bay for this behr?

Part numbers are in the first post

Originally Posted by Solidjake

Part numbers are in the first post

for oem, not the behr no?

found one for e46 on bay for $214

not much cheaper than pelican anyhow

Behr IS oem. Should cost $180-210 or so

Originally Posted by Solidjake

Behr IS oem. Should cost $180-210 or so

ahh, found a bosch for $213 thought that was oem

I was searching a bit just now. Bosch is OEM too. Go for it. It's honestly the best mod you can do for your car mechanically.

Originally Posted by Solidjake

I was searching a bit just now. Bosch is OEM too. Go for it. It's honestly the best mod you can do for your car mechanically.

yeah, not much to do to these cars, i missed this for some reason, would have done it when i did water pump and evosport pulleys

You will love it when you get it done.

Originally Posted by Solidjake

You will love it when you get it done.

cool, ty for info

think i'll put 16533 on at same time

Wasp, I was just coming on here to check into wether Bosch is OEM or not. BMAParts.com has bosch for $185.

Originally Posted by FenderGuy05

Wasp, I was just coming on here to check into wether Bosch is OEM or not. BMAParts.com has bosch for $185.

yeah was gonna check there next

ty


yeah, that part number comes up as another part number but showing fan in pic

spece30 code gets it down to $175

Originally Posted by ZenJelly

Newparts has the BEHR fan right now for $183.66 with FREE SHIPPING!!

http://www.new-part.com/product/bmw-...7-11-7-561-757

Enjoy

It's $192 now...

I'm gonna pull the trigger on this Mod, Thanks everyone!

Originally Posted by samson

Has anyone else experienced fan failure? I'm on behr fan #2 after the first one failed around the 6mo mark. My new one seems to be getting louder upon shut down, I'm about 3mos in, and scared!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Bimmer App

You may want to check closely to make sure the (three I think) little bolts holding the fan onto the unit are still all tight. A week or so after I installed mine (about 6 months ago), the fan was wobbly and noisy. I pulled it to find one of the bolts missing. Some loctite might be in order too.

Other than that initial problem, I've not had any issues.