2004 3.0 ac delay

[g300d]

No problem at all, glad to help!

Yes, I am surprised I did not find any technical info on this problem in any BMW forum I went to.

I found more info on this problem in a Chevy forum somewhere, of all places.

Dont worry, it is a pretty reasonable DIY, a half day or so job.

Nothing really needs replacing along with the compressor unless during the pulldown you notice any worn or broken parts.

I'm having a hard time posting now, this page keeps closing while I type a reply, will post an outline of the job in a bit.

[g300d]

I watched the tech do the compressor replacement and it was not all that hard.

First off you will have to go to a shop to evacuate and collect the refrigerant, otherwise you will have to dump it to the atmosphere, which is bad according to the EPA. .

My tech removed the cover underneath the front bumper so he could work from the top and bottom.

There is a rubber pipe from the engine to a cannister behind the headlight, looks like an EGR thing, which you should remove. The compressor was removed from the top so this line was in the way.

Remove AC belt, the belt tensioner is leveraged out of the way by inserting the appropriate sized allen wrench into the front of the tensioner pulley and just pushing the pulley in the appropriate direction.

Then you can unplug the harness and start removing the block fittings on the compressor.

Then you can start removing the compressor mounting bolts.

Then move the AC lines out of the way and you can pull the compressor out.

As mentioned it came out from the top.

Pretty much reverse to install.

Do take a look at your belts and the system o-rings while you are at it. I just re-used all of mine since they were still in good shape.

I think the 04's use a Calsonic Kansei CSV 717 compressor, the earlier models use a Denso. My 04 3.0 had the Calsonic.

[Marine6531]

Thanks again brother, I'm gonna give it a try! I will make sure to post any relavent information after the job.

[g300d]

Anytime, good luck and let us know how it goes!

[Marine6531]

Okay so I punked out a little and decided to take it to a indy to get fixed. I just didnt want to deal with it all and i really just need it fixed correctly. So when I get there he says there is nothing wrong. I told him ofcourse there is not right now because the car is warmed up. I explained how the first 15 or minuites after the car is cold is when it doesn't work. So basically, since I didnt want to sit there for 5 hours and wait for the car to cool down, he couldnt really do much because everything tested good and the ac was frezzing. I explained to him about the variable displacment control valve but he said he couldnt tell cause it was working. He cautioned me about just replacing the compressor if I am not 100% sure. He said he would do it though if I twisted his arm. I decided to wait.

g300d-
After reading your post again I noticed you used the word "intermittent" to describe you ac. This would tell me that it works, then suddenly stops, and comes back on again with no rhyme or reason, is this correct? My problem I wouldnt neccessarily call intermittent. Once my ac is working it stays working until the car sits for a few hours and cools down. When the car is cold, no aux fan and no ac, when car is hot fan is spinning and ac is cold. Do you still think our problems are the same and therefore replacing compressor would work? Thanks again

[g300d]

What you are experiencing now is exactly what I was going through in the beginning.

Then it started to become intermitent, it would cool after the engine warmed up, then it would stop cooling, then come on again, with no apparent pattern.

Eventually it took longer and longer for the AC to start cooling, till it hardly would work at all.

And all that time the compressor clutch was engaged too! Really threw me off.

I remember that the day I decided to replace the compressor I started the car to move it to the service bay and the damn AC started working, I almost lost my nerve to replace the compressor right there!