E46 330ci hot footwell with cold A/C on

[sparks_E46]

Morning all,

Driving to work this morning I noticed quite a bit of heat coming through the drivers footwell above the accelerator pedal area. The A/C was switched on 21 degrees blowing cold. Any ideas on what could be happening? The drive is about 8 miles.

Thanks

[fourfoldroot]

Hedgehog resistor. And it's a pig to get out.

[Mr_Yogi]

Yeah, as above sounds like the hedgehog. My E46 330i heater was doing all kinds of weird on the test drive and it was the Hedgehog resistor. Luckily the garage sorted it, but there's loads of info on the web about it.

[sparks_E46]

Thanks for that. Any danger in driving it for a few weeks? It's got some heavy use coming up, including getting us to the airport in just over a week and I'm going to struggle to fit it in.

Edited by sparks_E46 on Thursday 26th April 07:56

[sparks_E46]

Thinking about it, this has only happened since turning the heater dial between to two vents to the coldest setting last night. Only had the car a week and hadn't played with it yet?

[Maxus]

I don't think it with be the hedgehog, that controls the fan speed not the temperature.
The temp dial between the dash vents is separate to the outputs from the heater control panel. This will blow cold from the central vents regardless of the temp setting. Try turning the AC down further and see what happens. At 21deg it may be that the cabin temp was below that so the system was bringing the cabin up to 21deg whilst blowing cold in your face as the central setting was on cold.

[sparks_E46]

Maxus said:

I don't think it with be the hedgehog, that controls the fan speed not the temperature.
The temp dial between the dash vents is separate to the outputs from the heater control panel. This will blow cold from the central vents regardless of the temp setting. Try turning the AC down further and see what happens. At 21deg it may be that the cabin temp was below that so the system was bringing the cabin up to 21deg whilst blowing cold in your face as the central setting was on cold.

Will try that later, cheers. Previously it was on 17 degrees and the dial sort of half way.

[anonymous-user]

I don’t own a BMW but if the heat coming from the other vents is correct, I’d suggest a stuck blend door motor. This blends hot air from the heater and cold from the AC bit like a mixer tap. If it gets stuck you gets one or the other.

[E-bmw]

It is coming from the massive exhaust collector just 2" in front of your feet.

[sparks_E46]

E-bmw said:

It is coming from the massive exhaust collector just 2" in front of your feet.

Okay will take a look- is that much of an issue?

[E-bmw]

sparks_E46 said:

Okay will take a look- is that much of an issue?

Keeps your feet warm in winter, gets too warm around the feet if just pootling in summer....... No.

[sparks_E46]

I drove it again this lunchtime, set the climate control to 17 and put the dial between the vents to the upper cold setting and it was fine. Will monitor it over the next few days.

[stevewak]

FWIW I have the c/c on AUTO and 20.5deg C all the time and use the dial between the top vents to fine-tune it. Colder in summer, warmer in winter. It's not like a super-efficient modern car. It warms up quickly then takes time to settle down. Try an air-cooled 911...

[sparks_E46]

Didn’t do it on the way home.. we’ll see.