Fan Shroud

how important is the plastic fan shroud on the 05-09s?
I recently fractured mine on the trail, only a bit, but enough that i had to break part of it off because it was getting in the fan. Well now it is loose on there and just junky, I would like to just remove it, but heard it could lead to overheating. The shroud looks meaningless, but before i take it off i want to know if its a bad idea. I will replace it if so.
Thanks

 

Replace it. The fan blade sucks air through the radiator, Without the shroud, the fan is not as effective and you could overheat.

 

correct... the shroud makes sure that all the air the fan is pulling goes through the radiator first, thus cooling the radiator.. so yes it is important

 

ok i see. anyone know a good place to get one? i did google it, but sometimes millions of options are worse than a few good ones

 

I don't know specifically if there's one place better than another but Mike just had to replace my fan shroud and we got it from partsgeek.com. They ship out of NJ and we got the part next day.

 

sweet checking that out! did he have to take off the whole front end? or did it slide in there nice?

 

This was on my car so I'm not sure how it'd translate to the Tacoma.

 

to replace it all you have to do is first remove the fan, this requires loosening the 4 bolts that hold the fan and pulley to the water pump. most likely can do this without removing the belt if your careful. then unbolt the fan shroud and slide the fan and shroud up and out.

 

Ahh its just a little crack.

 

haha yeah..maybe ill just ducttape it