climate control constantly blows up fuses

[supermanX5]

Dear friends,

I hope one of you could advise on this matter. Last week all of a sudden the climate control of my 2003 X5 shut down. After a quick search on the web, I was referred to check two fuses, and indeed fuse no. 48 was blown off.

Naively I assumed that replacing the fuse would resort the problem, yet, the climate control (on AC) worked perfectly well for about 20 min, and then shut down again...

So far I replaced 4 fuses, each time it was the same ordeal. Following one of the forum threads I tried to clean the inlet of final stage resistor (or whatever sensor lies there behind the left climate mini-grill) by blowing compressed air, but it didn't resolve the problem.

Any advice kind people ?

[trapdoor]

Perhaps not a huge amount of help, but the Climate panel in my X3 started to do the same thing. Would work for a while and then go off and blow a fuse. Mine was acting up for a while before it started blowing fuses, such as the display flickering.

The climate control panel was eventually changed out by the dealer under warranty, but not after some real ranting, as they kept giving it back to me as 'no fault found'.

[supermanX5]

Many thanks for the information trapdoor.

I hope this will not turn out to be the case in my car, as my car is no longer under warranty...

I didn't encounter display flickering, but it is indeed blows up fuses systematically.

Does any one know whether such symptoms may occur due to the final stage resistor ? or any other component but the central climate control unit ?

[killcrap]

try blowing air into the fan for the climate control unit, to remove any dust build up. other wise, replace the ihka control unit.

[supermanX5]

Problem resolved !

With lots of doubts (and a bit of concern) I decided to attemt replacing the final stage resistor. This can be done by following the excellent DIY thread in http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/...nt-bmw-x5.html.

To my great suprise, I found inside a replacement final stage resistor, whcih seemed rather new (about a year old). That was already a good hint that this component may be problematic.

After replacing the final stage resistor, I run the engine with the AC on for about 20 min with no problems, later I took it for several longer rides in which the fuse never blowen again.

So to sum up, if you happen to face a similar problem (climate control keeps on blowing fuses after few minutes of AC operation), before you go ahead and spend couple of hundreds (or even few thousands) of dollars, do yourself a great favour and try to check whether replacement of the final stage resistor resolves the problem (cost 58$ in Pelican + 1 hour of your precious time).

All the best dear friends and drive cool and safely !

[eddieboyii]

glad you solved your a/c issue. I changed my FSR, and still nothing.

[rosiesboss]

Same here, fuse #48 works for several seconds and blows. I just replaced the final stage resistor per the great link above, and very disappointedly, the fuse still blows out. Interestingly, the FSR has been previously replaced as the one I removed was the new style. Thanks in advance for any other suggestions

2001 X5 3.0