Kia Sorento Fan Clutch

The radiator fan is an important component of your cooling system. The radiator fan is a rotating device designed to draw air through the radiator helping it in its function of dissipating heat. The radiator fan is connected to the engine and would stop from time to time even if the engine continuously works. It is made up of several components such as the fan blade, fan motor, and a fan shroud. For more efficiency, the radiator fan is outfitted with a fan clutch which is a small fluid mixture and is thermally operated. Meaning it will disengage the fan from the engine only when the certain temperature is reached.

The fan clutch is responsible for engaging the radiator fan to the engine once the temperature rises to a critical level again. What happens is that when the temperature that passes the radiator gets very high, a bimetal coil spring uncoils or expands. As it expands more oil comes into the fluid coupling before it will start or rotate the fan. And once the radiator fan is engaged to the engine it will restore the fans spinning drawing more air through the radiator cooling fins and aiding the faster and more efficient cooling of the coolant. The fluid mixture in the fan clutch is partly made of silicon oil.

When the air reaches the desired temperature, meaning cool air passes through the radiator, the bimetal coil spring contracts and the oil leaves the fluid coupling and the operation of the fan slows down because it is disengaged from the engine. This is very critical because disengaging the fan or slowing it down when it's not needed results to fuel economy, saves engine power and produces less noise. In some vehicles, instead of a bimetal coil spring, a flat bimetal strip is used. This type tends to bow out and in as the temperature changes to allow the silicon oil from going in and out of the fluid coupling.

Fan clutches are fairly reliable but like all auto components they also fail. One of the common symptoms that you have a fan clutch failure is overheating at idle or in heavy traffic. It can also cause poor performance of the air conditioning system of your vehicle. On a cold weather climate, you will notice if you have a failing fan clutch if the heating system is delivering only lukewarm air and never hot air. When these starts happening, then you must change your fan clutch right away. Get your Kia Sorento Fan Clutch from Parts Train. You can order online or over the phone.