Fan fell off? 2006

[CharlieFoxtrot]

Hey y'all--

I ran into a guy yesterday with an 06 2500 that the fan had just fallen off of. It had already been towed so I didn't get to see it, but he said miraculously there appeared to be no other damage. So this made me really curious.

Is it true that these fans are not threaded so as to be self-tightening?

I see this was a problem in 03, but my search didn't turn up any mention of current problems. Does it still happen?

I was thinking about the possibility of a fan bearing failure with the whole pulley & fan coming off, but then I remembered his belt was still in place, so it must have just unscrewed!

I recommended he join TDR ASAP. Meanwhile, just for my own info, what's the deal?

thanks
kevin

 

[Prairie Dog]

I've never heard of an issue with them falling off 03's.

 

[AEdelheit]

So if there was no other damage why was it towed????

 

[CharlieFoxtrot]

I did a search here on "fan", and looked at any post that seemed relevant. One mentioned that some 03 fans fell off due to not being tightened properly from the factory. As far as details or proof of the supposed 03 problem, I don't have any.

The guy I met isn't an experienced do-it-yourselfer, so he probably wanted an expert opinion. He said the belt had cut into a fan blade, so at minimum he'd probably want to know why it fell off, and to get a new fan, and to have expert assurance that it was fixed properly and there really was no other damage. But what I meant by "no other damage" was there was no puddle of coolant under the truck and no apparent broken parts flung around. I came along afterwards, so I don't know much more than that.

thanks
kevin

 

[Prairie Dog]

I do remember the recall to get the fan tightened but had not heard of any actually falling off. They should have had the tightening issued solved by 06!

 

[CharlieFoxtrot]

I don't know why I didn't find these posts in my search:

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/threads/157766-Cooling-fan-assy-fell-off-!!!!

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/threads/101846-My-Fan-Fell-Off!

 

[cerberusiam]

The fans are self tightening with fine threads. If it came off something failed and caused it to loosen. If the fan clutch fails locked and it isn't really tight it is possible shutdown could spin it off. Fan pretty good sized and engine stop is rather abrupt.