Blower Switch Acting Up

[October]

Love my E30s, have two of them.

My wife drives an 86 325 sedan with 230,000 on it! Runs like a top

Recently, over the winter, the blower switch stopped working on any setting except the highest! Blower always worked fine with no strange noises or anything. She went out one morning and was letting the car warm up with the defroster on HIGH and noticed that now, any other setting on the switch is like having it turned off completely.

I've tried switching it back and forth and just playing with it in general to no effect. It ALWAYS works on the highest setting and NEVER works on any of the lower ones! This was very sudden. Nothing else is wrong with the car.

I've got a couple of chilton's and the like but thought I would post here to see if anyone had a good idea where I might start...

Thanks in advance!

[Kowalski]

Originally posted by October@Feb 3 2005, 07:33 PM
Love my E30s, have two of them.

My wife drives an 86 325 sedan with 230,000 on it! Runs like a top

Recently, over the winter, the blower switch stopped working on any setting except the highest! Blower always worked fine with no strange noises or anything. She went out one morning and was letting the car warm up with the defroster on HIGH and noticed that now, any other setting on the switch is like having it turned off completely.

I've tried switching it back and forth and just playing with it in general to no effect. It ALWAYS works on the highest setting and NEVER works on any of the lower ones! This was very sudden. Nothing else is wrong with the car.

I've got a couple of chilton's and the like but thought I would post here to see if anyone had a good idea where I might start...

Thanks in advance!

[snapback]285554[/snapback]

is it working at full power on hi? or is it weaker then normal?

[witeshark]

I had this problem. The resistor unit that allows the lower setting needs replacing. Wasn't too hard but took a while

[October]

is it working at full power on hi? or is it weaker then normal?

I'd say it's working at full power.

Where will I find this resistor unit? Behind the switch or somewhere else? I had a similar problem with a Porsche 944 and the resistor setup was on the blower housing itself.

[witeshark]

If I remember right it's in the dash in a weird place near the glove box, this was a while ago

[e30fanm3]

its in with your blower motor im pretty sure, but that is what you need

[bmwbob]

The resistor is either inop or more likely needes a good cleaning. common problem. there is panel across the firewall-easy to remove. remove blower motor cover(2 nylon straps) and unplug resistor. clean all contact plus the thermal switch-looks like points-and should work. plug it back in and try it with the cover off as often you will have to clean 2-3 times

[ldsbeaker]

sweet. Nice to know someone else has had this problem. I'm going to clean my resistor tomorrow!

Drive on, Bimmerheads.

[e30fanm3]

go ahead and replace it, they are cheap, and then you wont have to worry about it

[DiRay]

Same problem with my 1991-11 325i bimmer. Can anyone tell me where that resistor is? used