Fan Clutch - Function

Function

When the engine is cool or even at normal operating temperature, the fan clutch partially disengages the engine's mechanically-driven radiator cooling fan, generally located at the front of the water pump and driven by a belt and pulley connected to the engine's crankshaft. This saves power, since the engine does not have to fully drive the fan.

However, if engine temperature rises above the clutch's engagement temperature setting, the fan becomes fully engaged, thus drawing a higher volume of ambient air through the vehicle's radiator, which in turn serves to maintain or lower the engine coolant temperature to an acceptable level.

Mechanical fans are most common in trucks and SUVs, and some RWD cars. This is easier to accomplish because the engine is mounted longitudinally, with the belt accessory components mounted facing the radiator. The fan will spin in between the radiator and the engine to help with cooling.

Read more about this topic:  Fan Clutch

Famous quotes containing the word function:

    We are thus able to distinguish thinking as the function which is to a large extent linguistic.
    Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)

    As a medium of exchange,... worrying regulates intimacy, and it is often an appropriate response to ordinary demands that begin to feel excessive. But from a modernized Freudian view, worrying—as a reflex response to demand—never puts the self or the objects of its interest into question, and that is precisely its function in psychic life. It domesticates self-doubt.
    Adam Phillips, British child psychoanalyst. “Worrying and Its Discontents,” in On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored, p. 58, Harvard University Press (1993)

    For me being a poet is a job rather than an activity. I feel I have a function in society, neither more nor less meaningful than any other simple job. I feel it is part of my work to make poetry more accessible to people who have had their rights withdrawn from them.
    Jeni Couzyn (b. 1942)