No heated air in footwell

[Lotus Man]

Friends,

I own an '03 X5 3.0, and am having problems with heating of the foot well, just this morning. Going into manual venting mode, you have the option of directing the hot hair up top (against the windshield), directly towards you, or down below in the foot well. All seems to work, except the air going to the foot well. It was 9F in Boston this morning, and my face and body was sweating, while my toes are in pain from frost bite. What gives?

Also, if this is typical, has a fix been determined? If so, how much would this set me back $$$?

Thanks in advance!

[Aimster]

My problem is that the footwell is the only place that is giving out hot air and all the other ones are giving out cold air

[Michelle]

:xoutpost:

[X5Jay]

Just for a test - try directing the air to the footwells only, fan on high - are you getting warm air that way?

[Lotus Man]

Originally Posted by Michelle

:xoutpost:

Thanks, glad to be here! Just wished I'd joined years before. I'm just now sifting through threads that talk about my X5's problems -- Hey, I'm not the only one! Had I known the root causes and corresponding remedies earlier, I could have saved multiple trips to the dealer and $$$! To everyone on the board, I too have:

1. Rattling rear hatch...still do. Been putting up with it for over 2 years now.

2. Transmission delay in engaging...after vehicle is cold/parked overnight. (Crap, looks like it's too late to fix on BMW's dollar...based on what I'm reading on this forum.)

3. Both my gear reduction/tray actuators broke off in my rear seating cup holder. So now the tray snaps open and close with no dampening. Is this a costly replacement/fix? Do they (technicians) have to tear apart my center console to do the fixing?

4. The plasic spring-loaded "claws" in the rear cup holder tray doesn't seem to like the cold. I, unknowingly, left a cup of soft drink in one of the holders for a week during winter. During a routine cleaning, I saw it and decided to remove the cup. "Snap" goes one of the spring-loaded claws (perhaps under tension for too long with weak/brittle plastic material?). The parts seem too small to replace, so I'm assuming that it's an entire assembly replacement.

5. My pixels in my amber display (onboard computer) are fading by the day! I can't even read half the messages displayed!

6. My GPS screen and amber displays on the dash all fade in and out/change slowly during extreme cold weather -- nature of LCD?

7. My car lets out a low-pitch squeal during start up on a cold day...I feel sorry for it, everytime I hear it.

8. Everytime I shut the car off, I hear a brief squeal...almost like a rusty hinge sound.

9. Under extreme cold conditions (i.e., below 8F), my temperature gauge bounces to the red (overheating) zone upon startup! I quickly shut the car off (knowing that it's *impossible* that the car can be overheating at this point), and restart it again, and then the gauge acts normal -- i.e., starts in the low blue and progresses towards dead center as the vehicle warms up.

Sorry for the data dump. I'm just now looking through all the threads and slowly discovering some of these common ailments, but if you guys/gals already know the exact threads/links that deal with some (or all) of these issues (given the comprehensive nature of this forum), posting them would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks! Glad I found this place! My next bundle of questions will be about how much I should be paying for Inspection I/Inspection II/Oil services!

-Will

[Lotus Man]

Originally Posted by X5Jay

Just for a test - try directing the air to the footwells only, fan on high - are you getting warm air that way?

Negative, X5Jay. I tried that just before I parked the car at the office this morning. There is a black plastic square duct that resides just above the brake pedal. This is where I assume all the cold/hot air comes out for the driver's side foot well. I turned the fan up high (manually), and also turned up the temperature to 90F, and directed the fan to the footwell only (manually). I hear a loud humming of air...as if the fan is pushing the hot air...*somewhere*. But absolutely no airflow coming out into the footwell, from both the front seating. I also noticed that there are two sets of flat ducts under the front seats that direct foot-level air to the rear seating. I haven't check for flow there yet -- but then again, if I manually direct air only to the footwell in the front seating, does that automatically apply to the rear seating, too? Because I know the rear seating has its own completely separate climate control thumb wheels, located next their vents behind the front seating center arm rest.

It was REALLY cold this morning...do you think some actuator/pneumatic and/or vacuum-assist vent door froze shut? But then again, 40+ minutes of the morning commute with the heat on should have thawed everything out. Hmmmmm.

Thanks again for such a quick response!

[X5Jay]

Originally Posted by Lotus Man

It was REALLY cold this morning...do you think some actuator/pneumatic and/or vacuum-assist vent door froze shut? But then again, 40+ minutes of the morning commute with the heat on should have thawed everything out. Hmmmmm.

Thanks again for such a quick response!

That's exactly what I was thinking, but I'm not sure if it's frozen due to cold weather or due to accumulated dust and dirt. Do you have a place (a warm garage) where you can park it over night to see if it's the cold? I'm from this area too (Peabody) and it sure is cold out there! GL & welcome!

[Lotus Man]

Originally Posted by X5Jay

That's exactly what I was thinking, but I'm not sure if it's frozen due to cold weather or due to accumulated dust and dirt. Do you have a place (a warm garage) where you can park it over night to see if it's the cold? I'm from this area too (Peabody) and it sure is cold out there! GL & welcome!

Unfortunately, (as you know) garage space is a premium around Boston. But I'm going to take your advice on testing the heating system on warmer turfs...so methinks I'll take the ride to the CambridgeSide Galleria mall tonight. Love that heated garage...all for a buck and hour, hehe. Peabody? Small world. How are you liking that Lambo dealer up there, huh? First of its kind in MA!

[X5Jay]

The Lambo dealer is very cool. I was given a tour while it was under construction last year and haven't been in since though. They did have a couple of Lambos that my kids and I got to sit in though - they had them in the used car showroom at the BMW place next door - I'm friends with one of the sale managers there.

[Lotus Man]

Never been inside a Lambo -- Put that on the list of things I'd like to do before I die.



More importantly, my footwell heater vent worked after a little thaw-out period! Having the vehicle sit inside a heated mall garage for a couple of hours did the trick. Started the car afterwards and channeled all the flow to the footwells, and it's gushing out hot air down there. Thanks again!