THanks for the info guys. But here in India and the maddening traffic which is start & stop plus the 35 to 38 degrees temp, without the fan the temp surely goes up into the RED.

Will wait for my new viscous unit and give you guys a feedback.

zeaphod said:

The 2.5 N/A has a non viscous fan - on all the time. Tempted to remove it, but paranoid about overheating, although the average summer temp in Norn Iron is only about 10 degrees.

Click to expand...

Can that be changed for a viscous one I wonder?

Prith said:

THanks for the info guys. But here in India and the maddening traffic which is start & stop plus the 35 to 38 degrees temp, without the fan the temp surely goes up into the RED.

Will wait for my new viscous unit and give you guys a feedback.

Click to expand...

The 200tdi certainly does run colder a lot of the time, however in warmer climates, you will find that you cannot do without the fan... I am currently running my 200tdi auto in west Africa, and it certainly does warm up real quick during the days with average temperatures between 30 and 35 degrees C, with the added heat load from the condenser with the AC running.
Booting it hard on the freeways at speeds above 75, I notice the thermostatically controlled electric fan stays on all the time and the temperature gauge creeps ever so slightly past the halfway mark.

• The same process repeated during the cooler night temperatures, and sometimes the fan does not come on at all regardless of how hard and how far I drive.

In my mind, the 200tdi is certainly the engine to have in these parts.

Theres a nasty knocking/ rattle coming from the front of the engine bay when the engines running on my 200tdi defender and I think it's the alternator pulley or a similar problem.

I'm going to have to remove the cowl and possibly fan to investigate and fix the issue. Given the lack of access to the belts and pulleys, and the fact that my engine temp seems to run about 1/3rd of the way across the dial unless I drive for about 50+ miles, I'm thinking I might leave the cowl and maybe the fan off. It seems like this might not be too much of a big deal from what I've read here.

PS I'm yet to get a haynes manual for the defender so can somebody explain how to remove the fan cowl. I get the impression from my searching of the forums that the rad has to come out!?