Help with blower motor resistor

[strood]

I know this has been covered before with some excellent guides, however the model I own does not seem to match any of the photo's.

I have been told the resistor is in the passenger well, supplied with photo's doesn't match

In the manual it says it is in the drivers footwell, looked at the pictures and it doesn't match.

I have the BMW manual & parts CD still no closer.:mad:

Can somebody tell me where it is before I have to dismantle the whole car.:cry:

I have a 3 series e36 m44 1997 1.9ltr compact with right hand drive.

The heating and cooling controls are manual with one combined console containing the heating controls, dvd player, clock and heated rear window button. This might help with the indentification as I have not seen this arrangement on any of the photogrpahs in any of the manuals.

If i could only find the Bl***y thing then I can fix it.

Signed

rappidly balding man

[E36youngster]

well, when i replaced mine, it was tucked away in the footwell. Being US spec, it was in the driver side, it might be passenger on yours

[jason_recliner]

It's not on the "passenger" side, it's on the left hand side, regardless of which side of the road you drive on.

This is a worldwide forum. LHD is only in ~70% of countries.

[Edit:] The Bentley manual is from the US, I think. You will often need to adjust to their ways.

[Silvercat]

I know this has been covered before with some excellent guides, however the model I own does not seem to match any of the photo's.

I have been told the resistor is in the passenger well, supplied with photo's doesn't match



If i could only find the Bl***y thing then I can

Signed

rappidly balding man

Have a look at this:
http://tinyurl.com/4l7nsl

This is for the hedgehog type. Mine is actually the other type and there are detailed pics somewhere on one of the forums. But I think they are more or less in the same place - you have to get your head down in the footwell and look up towards where the microfilter is. Problem is you are looking for the end of the unit and it is not really obvious.

If yours is not the hedgehog type then it will be a green Behr unit. Subject to frequent failure once they start going. The thermal fuse at the end blows. Probably caused by the fan not being 100% OK and drawing too much current. As far as i can tell they blow on position 4 - there is a fix which involves bypassing position 4 with a soldered link. Do at your own peril - mine has been ok now for 6 months though after several failure,

[oakley]

U dont have a hedgehog resistor so unfortuantly uv been looking for a part that doesnt exist in your car! Sucks.. I know as I spent days ripping my car apart to find this out the hard way!! Ur resistor is inside the motor blower, Take off the grill cover under the bonnet, remove the plastic baffle and remove the pollen filters.. behind the right hand side one (as u stand looking into the bonnet) u'll see a piece of shiny metal thats kinda like a capitol C shape.. disconnect it and thats ur resistor. Iv done a DIY on here some where so If i can find it i'll post it up for u mate.. All in all when u know wot ur doing takes about 20 mins to sort!! :)
Oh and ur best of taking the part out and taking it to the dealer.. They gave 2 or 3 different resistors and none of them were correct until I actually presented the part in person! and its only a few quid so not worth the hassle of soldering it to bypass it!!

[oakley]

Heres a link to another thread with the same probs, I stuck a quick DIY on the last page.. I have an in depth one on my computer or it may be on here some where but this one should help abit, theres several pics on the showing what the part looks like anyways :)
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228833&highlight=fan&page=2

[strood]

I suspected this is where it might be but didn't want to start pulling apart until I was sure.

You said the part was a few quid 2-3 or 20-30? and did you get yours from a BMW garage as the one local to me was going to quote a couple of hundred for a wing mirror, so I took it to be all BMW parts would be really expensive.

:)

[jason_recliner]

Dont forget that eBay is your friend. Typically I'd expect to find about US$40 for a blower resistor.
I bought mine (ceramic type, non-hedgehog) for AU$61 from a wrecker (forget AU$160 from the $tealer).

[oakley]

Froma dealer it was either £7 or £17 I think...Im sure it was towards the cheaper one but i'll see if I can find my receipt..Dont be put off using the dealer mate not all their parts are stupid price, if anything I find them alot cheaper then the other ealers Iv used over the years for other parts...And get friednly with them! All the emplyees at my dealer know me by name and I always get intoduced to the new staff..That way u get alot of stuff cheaper (or free..the amount of times iv one to pick up aload of parts from the parts department and they dont charge me as I use them so much and get on with everyone)
Anyother help u need mate just ask.. Iv had compacts for years now!!

[strood]

well I now have my glove box out, my steering well out and the area where my blower motor is half hanging out and I still can't locate this sodding resistor.

I have decided to add some pictures

here is my right footwell

148705

here is the right hand side of my blower motor

148706

Here is the left hand side of the blower motor

148707

Here is behind my glove box

148708

Here is to the right of my glove box

148709

None of the diagrams / pictures/ descriptions I have been given seem to match these photos. If any one can recognize these layouts and identify where the resistor It would be an enormous help as i may have to resort to paying a garage a fortune fix the problem.

:bawling:

[oakley]

Ur right mate looks nothing like it should!! Different to mine... Do u have air con or not? Is it a 316 or a 318ti??
If u can PM me all the exact dets of ur car/ month and year of manufacture (should find a build plate under the bonnet by the strut on the drivers side if u dont already know it) auto or manual...or the last 7 of ur vin if all else fails and i'll print out a diagram and try and work it out from there for u!

[strood]

Hi

the car is a compact 318 ti manual , it's build date is august 1997 the vin number is the one stamped on the bottom of the wind screen but would you believe you can't make it out because it's partially rusted away :mad: but does begin with WB

It has a 1.9ltr engine, right hand drive

148748

Here is a view of the dash, they are manual controls, and it doesn't have air con

148749

here is a view of the engine to help with identification

148750

I assume it's a m44 as the layout of the engine looks less 3 series and more like the z3 series

I have the haines manual 92-98 not the same as these.

I also bought the bmw cds of ebay which state it should be located where the blower motor is.
148753
but it did not have the filters etc yours has, I removed the end caps to expose the fan and motor bit as in the previous pictures. The only place left I can think of is if the wires go through the body of the car into the centre area of the console behind the cd player?


hope this narrows it down a bit more

[oakley]

Humm i'll have a dig around mate and see what I can find out for u..Mine has air-con and the pollen filters hence it looks abit different..Im sure if u went to the dealer the parts department will be able to tell you what part u need and exactly where it is...I'll see what I can come up with in the mean time tho!

[strood]

Well went down to my local bmw dealer,

talking about sour faced, however what he did say is that in some models the blower resistor is located right under the dash, so my last chance of a self fix is if I remove the cd player and dial controls I maybe able to access from there. If not it means removing the whole dash which looks like a nasty job in this case. So it would be a garage job, god knows how much that would cost as the part alone would be £22:dunno:

on the upside my replacement rear wiper motor should be here anyday now and that is a straight forward fix, asuming it matches.:)

on the down side 2 days after putting on my new chrome BMW dust caps some little scrote has nicked 2 :mad:

[oakley]

You obviously have a very unhelpful dealership!
They can tell you exactly where the part os there obviously just being a bunch of lazy 5hits..

[oakley]

Try this see if you can find it here ( I still thought all compacts were under the bonnet but worth checking)
http://www.competizone.com/BMW/techarticles/E36-blower_resistor/E36-blower_resistor.htm

[rop]

I have a 2000 316i Compact left hand drive. I cannot find the resistor. Have been under the dash and the bonnet. Can you please post some images where I am supposed to find the darn thing? How do I remove the obdii connector when I am removing the panel below the steering wheel?