E36 M3 Climate Control

[thegreengoblet]

Hi all
I'm now the owner of a 97 E36 M3 Evo Saloon after taking it in part exchange for my TVR Cerbera. So hello to all.

On the night of the swap, it developed a fault with the Climate Control where it powered off. A bang on the dash restored the power. So today after another power failure whih didn't restore with a bang on the dash, I managed to get the unit out of the dash and work out that the large connector was at fault. If you moved the connector the power came and went. So I jammed a piece of card down the side of the connector and this seems to have fixed the problem. However, when I turn the key to off I can still hear the little motor inside the box whirling away - it must be responsible for pulling in air through the small vent on the front of the unit in order to work out the temperature inside the cabin. Is this normal? Will it go off after a while (been on for over an hour now)? Or is something else at fault? As a side note, I checked all of the fuses - which were ok, but I did find that removing and then replacing all the Climate Control ones stopped the motor from whirling??
Any help much appreciated.

Edited by thegreengoblet on Friday 18th July 18:35

[Top pup]

There's a guide for fixing the climate control unit floating about somewhere, a capacitor on the circuit board plays up. You should be able to find the guide on one of the e36 forums.

[Mroad]

The fan running inside the unit is, I think, normal. Well mine does it, it is just the fan motor for the temperature sensor, it does turn off but takes a while.

The capacitor repair is for when the unit turns off by itself. If yours continues to turn itself off for no reason (other than the connector) than that may be your problem.

[thegreengoblet]

Thanks guys

I got a bit tied up for a while, but I've been back out to check it and it has now stopped.
I'll see how my bodge holds up over the next few days, otherwise I'll have a search for the capacitor fix.

[teabagger]

yes, the fan does run for a while after the ignition is switched off

[gavm5]

Hi greengoblet, the fan whirring is normal- it does eventually go off after the ignition is turned off.
As for the unit "going off" this happened on the day I test drove my wifes 323i sport touring, when we got the car home it already had a wedge holding the plug inplace !
I had already done some research on what to look out for when buying an e36 with climate control.
The fix is cheap in materials - less than £1 for the tantalum resistor from somewhere like Maplins.
If you are handy with a soldering iron then it should take no longer than an hour to strip down and locate the faulty resistor - just take your time as the plastic clips would have gone brittle by now.
If you need any info on how to do let me know
regards, Gav

[scz4]

Search on ebay, there is a guy who will fix it for £15 or so.... I used him and it's been 100% reliable since. It's that or £300 for a new one, your choice

Search for you - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-CHEAPEST-E36-CLIMATE-CON...

Edited by scz4 on Saturday 19th July 17:54

[thegreengoblet]

Thanks again chaps.

Had to laugh at your connector wedge Gav as that's what I've done.
I'm an Electronics Engineer so I will be able to do the fix myself.
So Gav, is the problem resistor obvious when I take the unit appart?
Or any info you can give me will be very much appreciated.

Cheers

[Travis Mcgee]

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

There you go, step by step instruction with photos too. Dead easy.

[thegreengoblet]

Thanks Travis

[thegreengoblet]

All done. Took 20 minutes and seems to be working a treat so far.
Interestingly, the temperature sensor was absolutely caked in dirty fluff - almost fully blocked actually. So cleaning that out has helped to quiet down the fan which sucks in the air to adjust the temp in auto mode.

So thanks to you all.

[Frik]

I think my capacitor cost 54p.

It's my kind of fix