Didn't want to get into the fan issues but as it seems a popular subject here is my ten pennorth.
My cooling fan was installed by a dealer prior to my purchasing the vehicle. It never, ever switched on! I assumed that the engine never got hot enough. Occasionally the engine would go in to skip fire mode which made pulling away almost impossible and I resolved to find out the cause of the malfunction. Trying a spare ECU from a friend was no different so I guess it must have been the fan at fault. In the mean time I installed my polyurethane inserts in the Centa coupling. On a particularly heavy traffic morning coming out of Hull the engine went in to skip fire again but now, with the new inserts it caused no difficulties and as soon as you get above ten MPH the skip fire mode switches off again.
I am tempted to ask why the fan was needed in the first place? A motorbike fitted with this engine has one cylinder behind the other - a crazy set up as far as cooling is concerned but no need for a fan. A bike can however, pull away in skip fire mode with no trouble - these days, so can I.
Anybody want to buy a dodgy urban cooling kit? It is in the back of the garage with the NVH kit, some black rubber barrel shaped things, a clapped out aluminium sprocket and a toothed belt. Ho Hum.
