2002 X5 3.0 fan weirdness ... does this sound like the FSR?

[Bottomfeeder]

Hey Everyone -

Recently I've been having some intermittent weirdness with the blower while running the AC. Occasionally it will just stop blowing cold air, and not respond to increasing the speed on the AC control unit on the dash.

It has only happened a handful of times, but so far returns to working normally after either (1) restarting the car, (2) turning the AC on and off a time or two, or (3) doing nothing until it just randomly starts working again.

From what I've read, this kind of erraticness is pretty classic final stage resistor behavior. Does that sound right? Anything else I need to be considering as a potential source of this?

And lastly, is the FSR a part that it's best to go with BMW OE, or are other options reliable? There are some super inexpensive ones out there.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Chris
Lockhart TX
2002 X5 3.0 Titan-silber
2005 X5 3.0 Schwarz-2

[andrewwynn]

I’ve had success with knock off FSU.

I’ve had problems with the auto sensor and fan speed.

Set to auto then hit max and turn off max. That would fix without restarting the car. (On wife’s she didn’t have max but “rest” and if I turned the temp to min. or max. that also would work.

The symptom was the fan speed would drop even before the temp was reached hot or cold. This weird kick in the butt made it work again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[X5chemist]

I've been running an aftermarket FSR too. Two years or so. All good. Hopefully, it's not the blower motor fan! When resistors fail, usually a speed setting fails. Starting and running at the same fan speeds points to blower motor resistance start.

[Bottomfeeder]

Thanks for the good counsel, gentlemen ... think I'll try an aftermarket FSR and see if that makes the problem disappear.

Originally Posted by X5chemist

Hopefully, it's not the blower motor fan! When resistors fail, usually a speed setting fails.

Oof ... yes, I sincerely hope it's not that, too. That might break my spirit. :-)

Chris

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by X5chemist

I've been running an aftermarket FSR too. Two years or so. All good. Hopefully, it's not the blower motor fan! When resistors fail, usually a speed setting fails. Starting and running at the same fan speeds points to blower motor resistance start.

No resistors on x5. FSU does all the speed control.

You can jumper the pins on the FSU connector to confirm the blower motor is ok.