Climate control not turning on-2004 X5

[apocalapsi]

Hi I have a climate control that has no power. I checked all the fuses in the glove box any the trunk and all are good. i removed the unit and all connections are good. How do I check if its getting power? Is it the plug on the drivers side that has back and white wires cause there is no voltage to it. How do i check if its getting power? Ive read somewhere that it could be a capacitor in the unit but that only controls speed not overall power. To complicate things I noticed my windshield must be leaking as there is water in the footwell on the passenger side. Could water there affect any wires going to this unit and how do i check?

[apocalapsi]

Interesting development. I tried unplugging the harness connections behind the unit and when i did unplug the black harness under the blue one the rear fan blower kicked on. When i plugged in the black one again it turned off why? Any thoughts and the whole time the display was off. I'm baffled. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[David.X5]

Water in the footwell can be plugged up condensate drains.

The climate control modules do go bad and are pricey. Used X5 Versions sell for $250-$350 on fleabay. If you have any of the better BMW diagnostic software, you can try to connect to the climate control and see if you can read the sensors or actuate things.

I believe the power connector is separate from the multi pin signal connectors. Look for the large black 3 pin connector.


What? You don't have the guts of one on your workbench?

[apocalapsi]

Thanks for your response. I see the large three pin connector. Im a bit of a newbie at this so how do I check to see if that connector is supplying power? Which wires, there is an orange red and black, can i take a multimeter to it?

[David.X5]

Your 2004 is a little different than mine. I'm looking in the Bentley manual at diagram ele-166. I'm assuming you have the automatic climate control (IHKA).

You should be getting power from fuses f48 7.5A and f34 7.5A


The wires you are looking for from f48 is red with violet. Wire from f34 is green with yellow. Brown (probably not orange) is ground.

Yes, use the multimeter to measure the voltage from the power pin to ground, taking care not to short anything with the meter probes.

[apocalapsi]

Well i think we are getting some where. Either that or I will set it on fire..lol..i checked and replaced the fuses in question and i have continuity with the fuses. When i plug in my multimeter i get 0v fir the green one and 0.03v for the red one using the brown one as ground...what gives? Doesn't that mean i have no power from the fuse block or more than likely a bad ground. What else do you suggest cause im ready to buy a new hvac but why would i if i have no power? Ill buy you a case of beer if we figure it out....thx

[David.X5]

Measure the voltage between the ground pin and the metal frame of your car (should be zero). Then switch to ohms and measure the resistance - should be very small.

Weird you are not getting power - probably should check the bigger fuses - perhaps this is a weird symptom of a shorted fan sowed resistor or maybe even a blown aux fan.

[David.X5]

I was reading other threads and 1 guy found it to be the FSR. 2 others are a bad control module. All found blown fusesv- f48

[apocalapsi]

Well i checked the ground pin the orange one and it had a reading of zero. I checked the fuses for continuity without removing them and the car was off should i try with the car on to see if i get a voltage reading off the fuse in question?

[apocalapsi]

The Fsr if it fails i thought would only give erratic funcion of the module as opposed to totally being unresponsive. Seing that i have the unit out of the dash can i put power to it to see if it lits up?