Strange AC Problem - Slow to start, sometimes

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by Redliner911

My car does not have an aux electrical fan at the front of the radiator. I have no idea why. It's an '04 4.4i.

I am skeptical about the refrigerant level because the behavior has been the same before and after I had the system re-charged and the problem has existed for nearly a year. If there was a serious leak, I would expect the AC to not work at all. But right now, once the compressor does start, the air is super cold and nice.

That's your problem, your car is missing an important part of the AC system That fan is used to cool the condenser so that the "HOT refrigerant" can condense and become a liquid again.

Here's a pic as to how it should look:

[Redliner911]

I read somewhere that some models did not have that fan. Here is a picture of mine. I don't see any obvious mounting points for a front fan. Am I really missing parts? Is the condensor normally mounted in the front of the radiator too?

[upallnight]

Go to Realoem, type in your vin number and see if they list an electric fan for your X. Yep condenser is normally mounted in front of the radiator. I have both the electrical fan and the engine driven fan on my X. AC is cold enough to hang meat in front of the vents. It's ice cold all the time and I don't even have to rev it to 4,000 rpm.

There's some slot that the bottom that the shroud slides into and the top is retain by those plastic rivets.

Here a pic of the fan, not my X as mine is an I6 and not a V8.

[SlickGT1]

Yea I donno. I know for sure the 4.8is only has the one fan. No fan in front of radiator.

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by SlickGT1

Yea I donno. I know for sure the 4.8is only has the one fan. No fan in front of radiator.

Realoem list a fan for a 2006 4.8i E53

RealOEM.com * BMW E53 X5 4.8is Fan shroud/fan

[sad4mx]

Originally Posted by upallnight

Realoem list a fan for a 2006 4.8i E53

RealOEM.com * BMW E53 X5 4.8is Fan shroud/fan

I took a good look at my 2006 4.8is and it has only one fan, and it is behind the radiator. Your link to RealOEM shows that fan. There is no engine driven fan and no Aux fan. So I guess the 4.8is is set up a bit differently. I am having the same AC symptoms I have seen in other posts in the forum, AC won't kick in unless the engine is revved around 4K, so probably low Freon. I did get a bubble in the Schrader on the high side when I removed the cap, and the engine was not even running.

[jayjay_dee]

not sure if its the same case for e53, but on e46, automatics has 2 fans, while manual transmission only gets one...

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by jayjay_dee

not sure if its the same case for e53, but on e46, automatics has 2 fans, while manual transmission only gets one...

But the fan on the E46 is the Electrical Fan, not the engine driven fan. The electrical fan on the E46 does come on when the AC is on.

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by Redliner911

Hi guys, for us here in Arizona, spring was last Tuesday and hell is about to begin, so I would like to get this solved.

Cliff Notes version: The AC will not blow cold air at startup until I rev the engine to about 4krpms. This seems to get the radiator fan turning and thus the AC compressor engages.

Long version:
I've been lurking on these forums for two years now and they have been super helpful fixing things, but I've finally come across a mystery that searching this forum has not solved. My air conditioning works great... once it starts running. But sometimes it takes as long as 5 minutes before it will blow cold air. Before that it just blasts me with hot air. Other times it will start up within 30 seconds and work great. After searching the forums, I found a lot of similar AC problems are related to the accessory fan in front of the radiator. However, when I went to check it, I realized my '04 x5 4.4i does not have this fan at all! I found one mention of some x5 not having an accessory fan, but I don't know why this is and what it means for the AC system. Now heres the thing, I did notice that the puller fan (the fan behind the radiator) was not running at startup so I revved the engine to about 4krpms at which point the fan turned on and the AC started working immediately. So right now whenever the AC will not run at startup, I sit there revving my engine a bit until the compressor will engage. It's not the most elegant solution, so I would like to find the root cause. It's not very classy to be revving your engine whenever you get in and I think some people might think I want to race them, lol. I did have the dealership look at it about 8 months ago and they found a leak, I believe it was the condensor. It was repaired and the system was re-charged, so I am pretty sure there are no leaks and the system is charged. The issue to me is getting the compressor to start running at startup. Any ideas?

The clutch portion of the fan maybe bad. Does it freewheel when the engine is stopped?

[AZX54.4]

I have this same problem with my 05 4.4. Any conclusions as to why they do this? Is it in fact low freon? Mine has always done this even after it has been recharged.