My HVAC blower motor may be a casualty of sub-zero temps (UPDATED)

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 01/05/2018 at 14:51 • Filed to: None

1

18

When it’s cold out, the auto climate control on my 335xi waits to start blowing until the engine has started warming up, even when it’s “on.” This is a nice feature to prevent being blasted with freezing air when starting a cold ass car.

My wife and I alternate weeks of who gets to use our 1-car garage. She has it this week. This morning it was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . I started my car, let it warm up a little bit, and headed to work. About 2/3 of the way through my 8 mile commute, I noticed the heat still hadn’t started blowing. Normally it only takes a few minutes before the engine has warmed up and the heat starts blowing. I tried switching the climate control over to manual mode, but nothing happened. I continued on my way to work, thankful that at least my seat heaters were working.

Initially I thought it might just be the blower motor didn’t like being parked outside overnight in the cold-ass temps, and maybe if I put my car in the garage tonight and let it warm up, it would resurrect the blower motor.

But it’s been this cold all week and the blower worked fine until now. So I did a little research. According to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , it might just be a blown fuse, or it could be something called a final stage resistor, or it could be the blower motor. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! isn’t too difficult, but maneuvering up and under my dashboard in my not very warm garage is pretty unappealing to me.

So I called my mechanic, and they have some time available to check the car out this afternoon. My wife and I were planning to meet for lunch today, so now we’re just going to meet at the mechanic first and then go to lunch. At least this probably will only cost a few hundred bucks at most to fix.

UPDATE:

At lunch I went out to the car and tried turning the fan up to high and banging on the panel under the glove box as the mechanic suggested, but no response from the fan. So I brought it in to the shop. My lovely wife picked me up at the mechanic, we grabbed some falafel at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , she dropped me off at work, and I just got a call from the mechanic.

He was able to get the motor to blow, eventually, but there were some electrical burn marks on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . He tested the motor with the oscilloscope and the signals from it were all smooth indicating no likely mechanical fault in the motor itself. He has a resistor in stock and he’s popping it in. Total damage is $285 and I can pick the car up later today.

This is a solution I will live with.

Also, falafel is good.

Wacko > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 12:08

1

did you give it a love tap?

my Sx4 needed a love tap on the blower to unfreeze it when cold.

the frost on the blower was enough to stop it from working.

Textured Soy Protein > Wacko 01/05/2018 at 12:12

1

Mechanic suggested trying that. It’s way up behind the glove box but he said to whack a certain trim panel to see if that gets it going. I’ll try that at lunch before I head out to see if that helps.

Wacko > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 12:17

0

if the tap works, it’s just the frost that stuck to the copper and metal inside and prevents it from rotating until melted or wacked.

try removing the most snow possible from your boots before entering your car. as i noticed it was my fault for letting to much snow pile up on my floor mats which cause the frost in the first place.

PartyPooper2012 > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 12:24

1

Love tap... or finger blast... i.e. get your hands on the blower and give it a little spin. My wife’s mini had the blower stop...blowing. I took out the cabin air filter... in a position I am unable to reproduce, I got my hand in there... elbow deep and gave it a little spin. that was enough for it to get going.

Just make sure your car is off and nothing will spin out of control and chew your fingers off when you do this. A little spin of the drum... and then turn car on after you got your hand out. See if that gets it going.

Textured Soy Protein > PartyPooper2012 01/05/2018 at 12:28

0

My blower motor is behind the glove box. There’s a panel I can try to whack to get it going but to get my hands on the motor requires this .

Textured Soy Protein > Wacko 01/05/2018 at 12:29

1

I always kick my shoes off before getting in the car, but that doesn’t stop puddles from forming in my WeatherTech floor liners.

PartyPooper2012 > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 12:38

0

Blower on a mini is also behind the glove box. The cabin airfilter has a hole just big enough to get a small hand in there.

yours might not have a hole big enough... Good luck.

This is one of those.... most hated type jobs... basically anything that requires removal of dashboard I hate the most. I wish there was no dashboard....

Textured Soy Protein > PartyPooper2012 01/05/2018 at 12:41

0

My cabin filter is part of the cowl under the hood.

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 13:28

0

I have a pair of 1992 Grand Marquis. One has the automatic climate and the other doesn’t. I don’t know about you but when it’s that cold out I gladly welcome 30 degree air rather than wait for the 60 degree air.

Wacko > PartyPooper2012 01/05/2018 at 13:39

0

you want him to finger his car, he ain’t Ray Wert

vicali > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 15:06

0

I’ve fixed half a dozen blower issues on the VW/Toyotas I’ve had - I’ve never seen it be the motor.

Resistors, switches, and cold solder joints- yes. Motor turning the fan- no.

Wacko > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 15:15

0

285$ for a resistor

wow the BMW markup is insane 

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 15:17

0

I see several problems here.

First, your car is too nice. That one is easy to fix.

Second, where you live.

Third, well, it’s sensitive . On the one hand, what guy makes his wife park on the street ever when it’s five hundred degrees below zero (See Number Two above)? On the other, I need my garage for my man cave stuff and my wife likes it when I fix the car for her and save us lots of money.

It’s messy for you. But least there is good falafel.

Party-vi > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 15:20

0

Good to know BMW is still using the best parts money can buy a shitty little fuckin thing that always goes bad goddammit.

Textured Soy Protein > Wacko 01/05/2018 at 15:37

0

Parts & labor.

Textured Soy Protein > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/05/2018 at 15:54

0

We never park on the street, we have a outdoor parking space in our driveway.

The alternate weeks in the garage is our general plan but there are definitely times where I’ve volunteered to park outside when technically it’s my week.

Also if her car is parked outside and it snows I’m usually the one who goes and cleans it off.

Textured Soy Protein > Party-vi 01/05/2018 at 15:55

1

At least I have soft touch interior plastics.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Textured Soy Protein 01/05/2018 at 16:24

0

I only meant to have some fun; I hope it didn’t come across otherwise. I’m a teacher and I’ve been off these two weeks and all my spare time I’ve spent (on Oppo and) straightening up my garage workspace. And it’s California, so no rustbuckets...