Air Condiotioning/heating Not Powerfull - BMW Forum

bbasra · 05-31-2005, 11:20 AM

I have a BMW 318is Sport 1997 (factory fitted mtec edition) which has digital climate control however, the issue i have is that the heating and aircon is not powerfull at all.

In the winter the car takes ages to heatup inside and in the summer like now, takes ages to cool down inside, i have to open the windows instead.

The fans/blowers just dont seem powerful enough even if they are on full. Full on my BMW seem the equivalent of 2 out of 5 on my dads Mercedes c200.

i bought the car last june and has always been like this, however, when i bought the car, the car had a k&n filter on it which was removed and replaced with the bmw original. this was removed and installed by my local mechanic.

Is this normal? It can't be..... please advise what shall i do?

I live in Middlesex, West London, UK.

e36surge · 05-31-2005, 12:03 PM

Had a similar problem with my 1994 318is. I had the micro filter changed and the blower cleaned. There was so much dust and dirt on the blower fins that the blower couldn't turn. There is also a ceramic resistor that tends to fail on older e36's and you may notice you have to turn your dial or setting your fan speed to 4 to get it going.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partgrp.do?mode...426&hg=64&fg=40

The link above shows the AC and heater set-ups. The one below is the micro filter.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partgrp.do?mode...426&hg=64&fg=10

This is text I got from another post. For checking you resistor.

'Sorry I dont have an electronic picture. Located on the LH side of the heater above the footwell. It clips into the heater housing and has 4 wires running into it via a single plug.
The colurs are:
Pin 1=Blue
Pin 2=Green
Pin 3=Black
Pin 4=Green/Grey'

bbasra · 06-01-2005, 11:26 AM

I dont think the ceramic resistor is gone on mine.

how easy is it to change the microfilter and clean the blowers?

i'm not a mechanic nor do i now about cars..... i work in the IT field and dont mind trying.

where do i find this filter?

fredo328 · 06-01-2005, 12:19 PM

here is a good site, only thing is that this DIY has you removing the glove box.
http://www.logun.org/microfilter.htm
There are other DIYs out there on some other forums that show you how to do it without removing the glovebox.
This is also a good site for a bunch of DIYs on our cars:
http://www.bimmerdiy.com/