Re: 1997 5 Series Air Conditioning

[alex.fadeev@xxxxxxxxxxx]

"HORNER,DAMIAN (HP-USA,ex1)" <damian_horner@domain.elided> wrote:
> Hi everyone - my A/C has stopped spitting out cold air. 

Damian,
Has it been slowly loosing cooling efficiency our went out all at once?

> Now, I know of a BMW mechanic who does work from home - he is supposed
> to be very good, but I fear he might work to the motto of "Replace 
> things 'till the problem goes away". 

Sorry, but he is not very good.

> I called him up and he asked me a few questions, simple diagnostic
> stuff, without having seen the car.  I happened to mention that the
> front, aux. fan didn't come on when the A/C button was pressed and 
> he immediately said that that would need replaced before he could go
> any further, at a cost of 240 GBP (370 dollars) plus labor.

Could be as simple as a fried fuse or a dead low-speed aux. fan resistor.

> Now, IF the fan is broken then I have no bother replacing it, in fact
> I would happily do it myself.  But I don't believe it is, and even if
> it is it still doesn't explain the sudden lack of cold air on my car.

Without a working aux. fan, the condenser could have overheated and blown 
the high-pressure valve. Look for traces of oil upstream from the 
condenser/compressor. 

> So what I need to know is this:
> When the AC on a 5 series (current, soon to be replaced model (what 
> this the number for it anyway E???) ) is on, does that auxiliary fan 
> absolutely always run ? 

Yes. At low speed.

> On my old E28 it was the case that that fan always ran when additional
> air flow was required to reduce the temp of the radiator, or the A/C 
> was on, but I am not sure about the newer model car and am not about to
> have some guy talk me round to this so easily.

It's the same on all modern bimmers.

HTH,
alex f
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