air cond question

[bigwave2255]

ok my replacement fan arrived last night and i plugged it in while sitting on top of the motor cover, turned the a/c on and away it went, so next challenge get it fitted.

Yarno when fitting yours did you have to remove the intercooler?? i cant see the two mounting bolts, it seems that the lower part of the fan assay. disappears behind the intercooler, can you confirm???

so after work today im getting stuck into it, ive printed out twin poppas (thank you) instructions and am ready to roll ( i hope)


on my car the two thick wires have constant 12v even with the car off, with the car off i placed the new fan on to of the motor and connected it to the loom and just for an instant the fan new fan kicked on, then off.

turned the car on and the a/c on and away it went.

once i have the new fan in i plan to run it for a few days to see the results, if the a/c is still slow coming on then i will take it to get regassed

[Yarno]

No , intercooler stays in. Just remove the plastic bumper and then the metal bumper. Fan will come out.

[bigwave2255]

thanks, im on to it this afternoon, i get home early on fridays so head down tail up and in to it

[bigwave2255]

ok its in, took me 2 hours and it works perfectly, now i just need a couple of days to see if the slow start is cured.

i bought an after market fan and i could only get one to suit the petrol engine cars, the seller said most people just take the fan and controller and fit it to the old shroud.

the turbo diesels have the intercooler below the radiator and this protrudes in to the space there the fan sits on petrol engine cars.

however my original parts felt brittle so i decided to modify the new shroud to suit my application, and it worked well, i also took the opportunity to blow compressed air through the radiator and intercooler to clear out any debris.

didn't loose a single fastener, although i did manage to break one clip on each side where the bumper wraps around to the wheel opening

oh one other thing, on diesels you have to remove the steel bumper as well otherwise the fan will not come out

so many thanks to those who do write up on these sort of things its much appreciated, i wish i had the patience to take the time and do the same

[SlickGT1]

So doess the fan stay on?

[bigwave2255]

the fan does stay on while the a/c is running, obviously i cant tell if this is the case when the car is moving.

only bummer is that it hasn't fixed the slow coming on problem.

so now as i have the electrical working i guess its time to take it back to the a/c repair shop to get gas levels checked, however from reading around i,m of the opinion some one is going to be replacing the compressor

[Yarno]

Ok I have just been to the Auto electrician that does a lot of euro cars. I told him what was happening and what I had done (replaced Compressor and fan). He says mmm I think you have the wrong fan. I told him then that yes it was a fan from a petrol model. He said that that would 100% be the problem.

So now I am confused as to what to do, Bigwave's seem to work with the petrol fan, but mine definitely does not.

I have looked at the schematics on here
Engine cooling - BMW WDS
Electric fan - BMW WDS

And compared them, the look a little different.... not to sure.

What to do, another fan is $521 from Schmiedmann

Are you sure yours works Bigwave? No warming up when sitting at the lights?

[bigwave2255]

Hi Yarno.

mine works fine with the petrol engine fan, i was led to believe that they are all the same, the only difference is in the diesel cars shroud, its trimmed down at the bottom to accommodate the intercooler, it sticks out past the a/c condenser (??)

my fan works when the a/c is working, however my a/c is still taking about 10 minutes to kick in when the car is first started or if its been sitting all day, however if im using the car running around then the a/c works immediately, and when working is super cold.

i reasonably sure i had two problems, 1/ that the fan had died and 2/ that the thing is slow on,

i also have to add what while i don't know if my original cooling fan is the original BMW fan from manufacture, the replacement fan is different in that the controller on the original fan was part of the fan motor whereas the replacement after market fan has a separate controller, the 3 wires go to the separate controller and then the 2 heavy wires continue on to the motor.

the separate controller also has a dirty great heat sink on it, and the heat sink is positioned in the upper rh corner of the shroud ( looking from the drivers position lhs if standing in front of the car) and facing towards the front of the car

this was another reason i chose to modify the new shroud to fit , as it was not possible to easily mount this separate controller within the original shroud.

i really cant see how your fan could be at fault, and from all i have read the fans are all the same its just the shroud for the diesels that is model specific

so now i have to sort out only why the a/c is slow coming on

[upallnight]

Fan needs to be on when the compressor is on or the pressure on the high side will build up so much that the high pressure switch will turn the system off. When you are driving and not stopped there is enough air flow that the fan isn't really needed to cool the refrigerant in the condenser.

[bigwave2255]

yep, correct.