First troubles from my CRD... may need help.

Roostre · **Joined:** Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:57 pm **Posts:** 195

Agreed Doc. This may end up being the answer. Just run it.

nickademus · **Joined:** Mon May 09, 2011 2:15 pm **Posts:** 54

hmm, find a coil yet?

Roostre · **Joined:** Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:57 pm **Posts:** 195

nickademus wrote:

hmm, find a coil yet?

Nope, never did. I have one from the junkyard that I may mill down and see if it will fit. Have to be careful not to nick a wire.

NickCRD · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:51 pm

Hi Folks,

I'm writing this because I've been recently hearing a chirp / sqeek noise coming from the right side of the engine compartment. Symptoms: Just past being warmed up ~ 1/4 on the temp gage and heading up a hill. Followed by the chirp / sqeek noise. Felt like turbo lag. My first thought was to pull the intake hose to the turbo.

Well... I did and thought, at the time, that the impeller radial play was excessive so I proceeded to rebuild the entire turbocharger. If you need help with this (anyone) please write back becasue I was successfull with the rebuild.

Well...after putting the newly rebuilt turbo back in, the sqeek came back again. :banghead:

Started to read the posts on the viscous heater. For the heck of it, I pulled the viscous heater relay. Well, the chirp and sqeeks went away and I've noticed an increase in MPGs.

My thermostat is bad - I'm running ~ 1/4 on the guage. I'm thinking of purchasing the Staat inline thermostat.

Now... why is this car so special that it even needs this viscous heater? Old diesels never had this? People just simply knew how to properly warm up a diesel and not womp on it when its cold. I'm thinking of just leaving the VH unhooked via relay and purchasing the inline Staat. Thoughts?

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:14 pm

Because your thermostat is bad, your VH runs continuously, costing at least 3 mpg. Getting the temp up to 195 with the in-hose thermostat will get it to turn off. Or, GDE can limit the VH in their tunes (see my sig). Or, pull the relay as you have.

DOC

papaindigo · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:41 am

X2 on Doc's comment. IMHO the viscous heater is a largely unnecessary semi-luxury item that really should have been offered only as an option if at all but many light desiel vehicles have one or something similar. The only purpose the viscous heater and other similar systems is to artificially provide some heat to the engine coolant going directly to the passenger compartment heater core during the engine warm up cycle. Since diesel engines warm up slower than gas engines this has the "benefit" of providing heat to passengers a bit earlier than it would otherwise be available. There may also be some incidential benefit to warming the engine block by circulating coolant warmed by the viscous but I cannot see how that would be much.

In warmer areas like mine I don't see any benefit and my viscous relay is unplugged year round. In colder northern areas there may be some comfort benefit from using the viscous during the winter. Regardless of location when temps are above say 50F I don't see any benefit from the viscous as the engine warms the coolant promptly.

All this assumes a functional thermostat. If the tstat fails open it's certainly possible that the engine will not heat the coolant enough to reach the viscous heater cutoff point which is controlled by coolant temp. GDE lowers that cutoff point but I don't recall what the OEM or GDE cutoff temps are.

taroo · **Joined:** Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:14 pm **Posts:** 271

Got the squeak in the VC pulley. Just bought the 35x52x22 on eBay for $12.99.

rescue.tech · **Joined:** Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:55 am **Posts:** 43

Thank you very much. I used this thread to get my jeep back on the road without having to spend the 600.00 for the heater and just replaced the bearing.

So the question I have is, has anyone found a replacement clutch yet? I want to get this back to normal but don't think I will spend that kind of money for something that can be fixed with a new clutch. :?:

Thanks
Clint

geordi · **Posted:** Wed Feb 12, 2014 2:41 pm

Unless the coil has been damaged by the failed bearing, the clutch itself should still be quite functional. It needs to be pressed down to almost contacting the inner face. The disc with all the slots in it "sucks down" when the magnet activates - but it can't move much. Work it in to where the pulley spins clean but is just half a sheet of paper from contact. The coil is just a bunch of wires, so it shouldn't ever go bad unless it is physically damaged.

AdrianD · **Joined:** Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:09 am **Posts:** 4

Hello everyone.
I know this is one year old but I found the coil

I live in Europe so it might not be of too much help, but the coil is: CARGO 250037. Over here it costs around $35 and can be delivered in 3 days.
My viscous heater bearing died and took out my coil. I opened up the rear of the heater and found zero gel in it. Just some clumps which looked like hardened gel. What kind of gel should I use? This might be an even more difficult question than what coil is on there.

On second thought, Renault diesels use 3/4 glow-plugs in an aluminum case which can be installed on a hose. If I don't find a heater for a good price or the gel, I'm thinking about leaving it without a coil (basically an idler) and using the signal for the coil to fire up the glow-plugs.

thermorex · **Posted:** Fri Feb 13, 2015 11:41 am

AdrianD wrote:

Hello everyone.
I know this is one year old but I found the coil

I live in Europe so it might not be of too much help, but the coil is: CARGO 250037. Over here it costs around $35 and can be delivered in 3 days.
My viscous heater bearing died and took out my coil. I opened up the rear of the heater and found zero gel in it. Just some clumps which looked like hardened gel. What kind of gel should I use? This might be an even more difficult question than what coil is on there.

On second thought, Renault diesels use 3/4 glow-plugs in an aluminum case which can be installed on a hose. If I don't find a heater for a good price or the gel, I'm thinking about leaving it without a coil (basically an idler) and using the signal for the coil to fire up the glow-plugs.

Just out of curiosity, do you find the viscous heater functionality very important? Many of us here took out the relay that turns on the viscous heater because we wanted to save fuel. I one see absolutely no disadvantage in doing this, few more minutes till the heat in the cabin hits comparable values as with a working viscous heater won't matter. So we use the viscous heater as a pulley. Not sure if you have different preferences, but this at least should help you decide what are your options.

flman · **Posted:** Fri Feb 13, 2015 5:58 pm

papaindigo wrote:

X2 on Doc's comment. IMHO the viscous heater is a largely unnecessary semi-luxury item that really should have been offered only as an option if at all but many light desiel vehicles have one or something similar. The only purpose the viscous heater and other similar systems is to artificially provide some heat to the engine coolant going directly to the passenger compartment heater core during the engine warm up cycle. Since diesel engines warm up slower than gas engines this has the "benefit" of providing heat to passengers a bit earlier than it would otherwise be available. There may also be some incidential benefit to warming the engine block by circulating coolant warmed by the viscous but I cannot see how that would be much.

In warmer areas like mine I don't see any benefit and my viscous relay is unplugged year round. In colder northern areas there may be some comfort benefit from using the viscous during the winter. Regardless of location when temps are above say 50F I don't see any benefit from the viscous as the engine warms the coolant promptly.

All this assumes a functional thermostat. If the tstat fails open it's certainly possible that the engine will not heat the coolant enough to reach the viscous heater cutoff point which is controlled by coolant temp. GDE lowers that cutoff point but I don't recall what the OEM or GDE cutoff temps are.

It would have been great as an option, but did any one actually order a CRD, or did you have to take what is on the lot?

It would also be nice if CA emissions stayed there, but unfortunately we all have to have that garbage attached to our engines?

AdrianD · **Joined:** Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:09 am **Posts:** 4

thermorex wrote:

AdrianD wrote:

Hello everyone.
I know this is one year old but I found the coil

I live in Europe so it might not be of too much help, but the coil is: CARGO 250037. Over here it costs around $35 and can be delivered in 3 days.
My viscous heater bearing died and took out my coil. I opened up the rear of the heater and found zero gel in it. Just some clumps which looked like hardened gel. What kind of gel should I use? This might be an even more difficult question than what coil is on there.

On second thought, Renault diesels use 3/4 glow-plugs in an aluminum case which can be installed on a hose. If I don't find a heater for a good price or the gel, I'm thinking about leaving it without a coil (basically an idler) and using the signal for the coil to fire up the glow-plugs.

Just out of curiosity, do you find the viscous heater functionality very important? Many of us here took out the relay that turns on the viscous heater because we wanted to save fuel. I one see absolutely no disadvantage in doing this, few more minutes till the heat in the cabin hits comparable values as with a working viscous heater won't matter. So we use the viscous heater as a pulley. Not sure if you have different preferences, but this at least should help you decide what are your options.

I read about pulling the fuse and setting a lower stopping temperature with a tune.
To be honest, I did not have the opportunity to test with/without the viscous heater. I have had the car since November and the viscous heater was leaky when I got it.
Having quicker warm-up times means less fuel consumption in the winter.
For now, I found a good used viscous heater (no leaks, good bearing), I will install that and until next winter I can think about adding the extra electrical heater from a Renault. VW TDI's have a similar electrical heater but it's installed in the head.

GordnadoCRD · **Posted:** Sat Sep 17, 2016 5:27 pm

Mine only needed a bearing, so I had no need to compare the clutch unit, but the bearing is a direct fit application for the AC clutches in 2004-08 Chrysler Crossfire and 2004 Mercedes SLK.

$80 http://www.ebay.com/itm/A-C-AC-Compress ... H7&vxp=mtr

Again, I don't know if it is the one, but it seems worth checking for those that need it.

geordi · **Posted:** Sun Sep 18, 2016 11:51 am

For anyone browsing this thread now - do not also neglect the alternator pulley if you hear a squeaking in the engine! The alternator clutched pulley (decoupler) can lock up and cause the tensioner to fail ($$$) but may also put extra stress on everything else in the serpentine belt system.

craws010 · **Posted:** Mon Dec 25, 2017 12:47 am

I replaced the bearing in mine today thanks to all the info provided by other members. I was convinced that the noise that I was hearing was due to a bad crankshaft damper. Once I realized that the damper was in good shape, I found that the VH bearing had a little play in it. I was lucky enough to find the bearing in-stock at Autozone. The part # is MT2149. The whole job only took about 20 minutes with pressing the bearing out of and into the pulley with a shop press.

racertracer · **Posted:** Mon Jan 15, 2024 8:57 am

Hello, fellow CRD enthusiasts, long time no see, and happy to say that my CRD is still kicking. I have a question regarding the viscous heater repair that rooster went through.

Has anyone found the replacement clutch?

I purchased the 35mm ID X 52mm OD x 22mm bearing from autozone and I am ready to go.

WWDiesel · **Posted:** Mon Jan 15, 2024 1:21 pm

Finding a good used clutch should be fairly easy as I have provided well over 100 viscous heater delete kits to owners in the US alone. Not sure what those owners did with the VH's they removed.

I also have a good viscous heater that I removed off my CRD back several years ago that I can take the clutch off of it and sell it if anyone wants it.
It was working perfectly when it was removed. I removed it as it was not in service and never used.

Or, I can provide you with a Viscous Heater delete kit to eliminate the viscous heater clutch, bearing, and possible coolant leak point along with deleting the parasitic HP drain on the engine. Simple install, reuses OEM serpentine belt, and comes with complete illustrated installation procedures.

Viscous heaters provide very little actual heat input into the cabin heater and are not needed in many parts of the country. I ran for years with the VH relay removed before developing the VH Delete Kit. :wink:

taroo · **Joined:** Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:14 pm **Posts:** 271

WWDiesel wrote:

Finding a good used clutch should be fairly easy as I have provided well over 100 viscous heater delete kits to owners in the US alone. Not sure what those owners did with the VH's they removed.

I also have a good viscous heater that I removed off my CRD back several years ago that I can take the clutch off of it and sell it if anyone wants it.
It was working perfectly when it was removed. I removed it as it was not in service and never used.

Or, I can provide you with a Viscous Heater delete kit to eliminate the viscous heater clutch, bearing, and possible coolant leak point along with deleting the parasitic HP drain on the engine. Simple install, reuses OEM serpentine belt, and comes with complete illustrated installation procedures.

Viscous heaters provide very little actual heat input into the cabin heater and are not needed in many parts of the country. I ran for years with the VH relay removed before developing the VH Delete Kit. :wink:

I will take a delete kit. How do I get one?

taroo · **Joined:** Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:14 pm **Posts:** 271

WWDiesel wrote:

Finding a good used clutch should be fairly easy as I have provided well over 100 viscous heater delete kits to owners in the US alone. Not sure what those owners did with the VH's they removed.

I also have a good viscous heater that I removed off my CRD back several years ago that I can take the clutch off of it and sell it if anyone wants it.
It was working perfectly when it was removed. I removed it as it was not in service and never used.

Or, I can provide you with a Viscous Heater delete kit to eliminate the viscous heater clutch, bearing, and possible coolant leak point along with deleting the parasitic HP drain on the engine. Simple install, reuses OEM serpentine belt, and comes with complete illustrated installation procedures.

Viscous heaters provide very little actual heat input into the cabin heater and are not needed in many parts of the country. I ran for years with the VH relay removed before developing the VH Delete Kit. :wink:

I will take a delete kit. How do I get one?

First troubles from my CRD... may need help.

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