climate controls

[scott41258]

Anyone ever had problems with there climate control going off and on at will. It acts as though it is loosing power. I thought maybe where the unit gets its power might be loose or something. Anyone have an idea where I might start looking to fix this problem?

[viper328]

i've got the same problem buddy. i am also asking on the forums. if you hear anything. let me know. and vise versa

[WYO62]

I had the same problem with my climate control. I'm sorry to say that the problem is with a coating that is on the ciruit board. Good news it can be fixed for about $100. I found a guy out of seattle on e-bay. I've had mine refurbished and it's been working fine for about a year. :) Turn over was about a week and the CC is easy to push out of the dash and replace yourself.

[al_r]

Look at:

http://www.macadamizer.com/bmwfix.html

[scott41258]

i will give this a try. if it works, you just saved me $400

[BMW tinkerer]

i will give this a try. if it works, you just saved me $400

I had the same problem with my 97 328is. I first removed the unit from the dash and played with connector cable - I discovered that when I squeezed it in a certain way, the power was restored to the unit and all of the HVAC functions returned. So I decided it was a loose connection on the circuit board where the multipin connected resides.

I followed the instructions on a website similar to the one listed above in this thread to get the unit out of the dash. I then took a soldering iron and I touched it to each of the solder points of the connector (I think it was about 32). This takes some time and some patience. All I did was melt them and let them cool - I didn't add any solder unless it seemed that some was necessary, and then I added only a tiny bit.

when I reconnected it - the problem was gone. I did not need to add a capacitor.

good luck!

[scott41258]

well i am going to try each of the suggestion saturday. i will let you know how things turn out!

[scott41258]

i got to say THANKS to Al R, it worked and i now have heat and air con. i cant wait to tell my bmw mech that it worked, he laughed at me when i told him what i was going to do. oh well, he wont make $400 off me this time!

[cdnR328i]

Had this same issue a few months ago. I bought a new capacitor, but all said and done....all I did was basically re-solder the connection. Done! Works fine now! This is a common E36 problem. I'm sure there'll be more interest on this thread later.

Save your money guys. It's easier than it sounds. And yes, I've heard people getting quoted Crazy dollars for this. Here's what pisses me off: many mechanics/shops will resort to replacing the OBC instead of fixing it.

Hats off to macadimizer for posting this fix for all.

CdnR328i