A/c Questions

[mrclean]

When I turn on the A/C, the compressor kicks on, but it seems to make quite a bit of noise, and it barely cools. Further than that, I can't seem to get it to blow out the front vents. So, I have 2 questions, 1, I'm pretty sure this car has R12, so should I try to find someone who has a couple of cans of R12 and try and recharge it to get it running better, or should i convert it to R134 and what does that involve. Also, the other question is, does the A/C blend door (the thing that changes the vent the air comes out) run off a vacuum system, or is it controlled by an electric motor and I'll probably have to replace it? Thank you.

[Bear]

R-12 is the correct refigerant unless someone converted her to 134a (for that there would be a decal in engine compartment staing when the system was converted and whod did the job). Teh vents in the dash are controlled by air distribution motors (sometimes called stepper motors) and there are about nine of them. If you remove the lower trim panels on the dash you can see some of them, but to have no flow out of any dash vent is weird unless the sword is bad. You need a Bentley manual, you really do to do the investgative requirements on this car.

[mrclean]

Well...air is coming out of the defrost vents for some reason, I hit the button to tell it to do bi-level, and it doesn't change the flow of air..I don't know why, and the way i get the system to turn on at all is to click the int air button, if I hit the A/C button it doesn't come on...but if i click the internal air button it turns on...its weird...where would I get a bently manual, I have a chilton's, but its really bad for my car and very non-specific about most things, where would I locate one of those?

[Bear]

First check EBay (of course) and then any BMW part supplier on the internet (bimmer parts, Pelican parts),euroweb, the parts bin as a start). The Bentley is really the bible for our cars, I could not have done anything to my 1988 750 without that document.

[FREDPLT]

Believe it or not, I had an 86 with bad AC, when i took the assembly apart I found the blower was installed backwards when the car was built. Amazing!

[mrclean]

Well, pretty much all of the Bentley manuals I've seen are for 88-92 I believe, would information from those be relevant, or is there another manual that I haven't found, because i haven't found one for the 85 7 series.... would one for the 5 series work on my car? Also, I played with the a/c again today, and it seems like its mostly coming out of defrost, but its very slightly coming out of the front vents, so it looks like i'm gonna have to take apart the blend door motors or whatnot to see if they've seized up.