No air!!

[oakley]

Got in the car this morn started her up and turn the blower on and nothing!! It only works in setting 4, all the others and nothing happens, it still runs hot and cold etc so thats cool just no fan noise on the other settings..any ideas? Worked fine yesterday..(cars a 318ti m-sport e36 yr2000 for anyone that dont know,,,,:dunno:

[SCANDINAVIAN13]

Hedgehog

[PhilipWOT]

check fuses

[Pirate_copy]

Does indeed sound like your hedgehog (Final Stage Resistor)

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3349096

[oakley]

Ahhh cheers for that pirate was just aboutto write my rude reply!! Makes sense now :)

[oakley]

K well iv checked out the "hedgehog" thing..apparently auto climate (digital) has the hedgehog and manual dials (like i have in mine) have a diferent resistor...Is this correct??

[Pirate_copy]

yes mate, sorry, i thought you had climate control :(

[oakley]

No :( all the compacts are manual dials. Iv checked the A/C and that all works, also still get hot air just no fan unless on full speed...I'll try and find out what resister I have then!! Give my left arm for climate control!! Dials suck..too hot, too cold..too much time looking or blindly fidlin' with dials when ur trying to concentrate n driving!! Grrr

[oakley]

well just ordered the part from the stealer and it came to £17! If thats the correct part I may have to stop calling them stealers!! (I had 2 quotes from breakers one at £40 the other at £80!!)

[oakley]

Just incase any other compact readers ever have this problem.. UR RESISTOR IS NOT under the dash! Its under the bonnet..unfort it took me 4hrs, alot of swearing an sweating to find this out :( then the part the dealer ordered for me was wrong!! Idiots!

[martin37]

Hi whereabouts was this on the compact?

[oakley]

I'll do a diy if its goin to help anyone..As the part was wrong iv got to reurn to the dealer tomorrow and collect the right part so i'll do a step by step as iv put her back together now. Have u eva replaced ur micro filters (ifu have them) if so the resistor is behind the micro filter..Next to the blower motor..Theres quite abit to strip out before U get to it but to give u an idea of time the dealer only allows 25mins for this job!! I'll do the diy and try and post tomorrow

[B/\/\W]

Don't put your fan onto setting 3 or 4 until the engine is fully warm, I read that somewhere.

[oakley]

Yeah balls to that!! Im not sitting around waiting for my engine to warm up before i turn the fan on to defrost my windows!! Gunna do more damage to the engine letting it sit there idling until its warm...id rather just replace a very cheap part every few years then replace an engine!! Maybe i just impatient!!

[B/\/\W]

Yeah balls to that!! Im not sitting around waiting for my engine to warm up before i turn the fan on to defrost my windows!! Gunna do more damage to the engine letting it sit there idling until its warm...id rather just replace a very cheap part every few years then replace an engine!! Maybe i just impatient!!

I defrost my windows with warm water then you only need fan speed 2 to stop the water refreezing :D

It's not going to be a problem for much longer in the UK don't worry, our climate has gone screwy as you know!

[Pirate_copy]

Don't put your fan onto setting 3 or 4 until the engine is fully warm, I read that somewhere.

It will just take the car longer to warm up i guess, no damage will be done

Yeah balls to that!! Im not sitting around waiting for my engine to warm up before i turn the fan on to defrost my windows!! Gunna do more damage to the engine letting it sit there idling until its warm...id rather just replace a very cheap part every few years then replace an engine!! Maybe i just impatient!!

I agree buddy

[B/\/\W]

Gunna do more damage to the engine letting it sit there idling until its warm

Idling for long periods doesn't cause engine damage I don't think, it's just they tell you not to do that because when the engine is cold it's inefficient and produces truckloads more emissions, but who cares! :D

Then again, maybe it does, I just thought with the engine just ticking over with no gas there's no stress on it.

[jason_recliner]

The resistor actually sits in the air flow path, to keep it cool.
Now on 4, there's no added resistor, which is why it always still works at full speed.

The lower the fan speeds the higher the resistance, the less current to heat the resistor, but the less air to cool it. And because dissipated power = (current ² / resistance), I think that means fan pos 3 will usually die first (if all were used equally). Though mine started at 1.

I cannot see any relationship to water temperature. Anyone care to enlighten me?

[Edit:] Certainly on 4, flat out with no resistor actually in circuit, you can't possibly damage it.

[Pirate_copy]

Idling for long periods doesn't cause engine damage I don't think, it's just they tell you not to do that because when the engine is cold it's inefficient and produces truckloads more emissions, but who cares! :D

Then again, maybe it does, I just thought with the engine just ticking over with no gas there's no stress on it.

That is true to some extent, but warming your car up by letting it idle is not a good plan as you get hot and cold pockets in the engine, plus it needs load to push the oil around properly

[oakley]

cheers jason that makes sense coz it still works on 4 if u take the resistor out completely..Kinda handy to know! Weird how different the resistors look on different models of the e36 tho....

[martin37]

Would be great if you could do a diy, my heater is not working at all.

[oakley]

Martin let me know wot symptoms u have..if its the resistor it'll just mean ur fan blower will only work on one speed (normally full) but u can still change between aircon and heater etc..Im hoping to crack on with it today buttheweathers looking abit crud at the mo so it may have to be tomorrowat the latest..

[Pirate_copy]

Would be great if you could do a diy, my heater is not working at all.

Do you have the analogue system (with turn dials)?

[oakley]

Its a ti so yeah he will......

[SewerSideUp]

Had the same problem on my precious 92' 325i .
Pisses you off when you need cold air !

I didn't fic it thouhg. Me dad did !
So, I never go how !

[Pirate_copy]

Oh yeah...doh!!

Have you checked the fuses?

[martin37]

Hi all dont have air con, the heater doesnt work at all, ive now taken the panel off under the bonnet and have got to the blower motor and found a filter jammed in there, removed it but still no fan, so im guessing that the blower motor has gone. Any ideas how to test it and i guess how to get it out of the housing. lol and yes have checked the fuse is there more than one??

[oakley]

Try this mate
http://sqbimmer.com/dump/e36_blower_motor/

[martin37]

Was this on your compact?

[oakley]

Na it was just a link i found....

[martin37]

Well today have tested the fan and doesnt work at all, and managed to get it out without breaking it, cant seem to find the resistor though

[oakley]

If it was the resistor it would still work on full power (4) if it doesnt work at all then its going to be a blown motor mate...If u took the motor out u would have found the resistor..I expect u just didnt know wot it was, its an odd looking thing!! Its right behind the pollen filter in the opening to the motor..I took some pics for a diy today will try and get them posted later

[oakley]

121074

121075

121076

121077
I'll do a proper diy later but this is the resistor and where it lives!!

[martin37]

Hi, thanks for the pics but mine looks nothing like it, the blower motor is in the middle as yours is, but mine has different filters and theres nothing behind them like yours, i will take some pics when i get the chance as havent managed to source one as yet.

[oakley]

Yeah cool post some pics...Wot year is urs? It maybe that u have the older engine (m42) If so i'll dig out some pics for that......

[martin37]

Mines an m44 but i dont have air con, the wifes using it this week, so as soon as ive got my hands back on it at the weekend i will take some pics, help some other people out there,