Xoutpost.com - Help with air conditioning

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So I finally had a chance to check things around. Did a cold start and verified compressor clutch and it was stationary. Aux fan was also not running. Turned on Max AC and compressor clutch engaged and spinning. But no cold air and aux fan stationary. Verfied compressor clutch again by turning AC off and then back on.
Waited for about 2 or 3 minutes and still no cold air and aux fan stationary.
Closed hood and went for a drive. Shortly after driving there comes the cold air.
Back into the garage and noticed aux fan running.
Connected gauge and read a little over 35. Bmw dash showed outside temp of 68. Seemed about max so did not recharge.
Just as sanity check turned off AC and both compressor and aux fan stopped.
Turned AC back on and both compressor and aux fan running. Also AC is blowing cold air.

In short, on a cold start turning on AC while car is stationary there is no cold air and aux fan not running. As soon as I start driving AC starts blowing cold air and also Aux fan starts spinning.

My first instinct is an issue with ambient temp sensor. If it thinks it's too cold it won't let the system run. A few other sensors similar. My low side pressure sensor was loose and if it jiggled closed from motion could give results above. It would be GREAT to find a proper diagnostic flow chart. I wasn't able to find one. Anybody aware of one?

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Hi,

the aux fan will only come on when the high side pressure increases to a certain pressure. so I wouldn't worry about that right now. Anyway while driving with sir entering the front of the car, this will simulate the fan running. This could also however be associated with the system not having enough refrigerant. I'm not a fan of diy kits as you can do a lot of damage if not sure of what you are doing. By the way I'm in the refrigeration and air con business so I do understand these systems well. Anyway your first course of action should be to physically check the suction pipe.It’s the bigger one returning to the compressor, usually has the charging up-stand connected to it on BMWs.Once the system is running this pipe should be sweating but not frozen.Also the discharge pipe (small pipe from compressor to condenser) should be too hot to touch and the liquid line from condenser to the fan coil, should be warm to touch.So if the suction is warm of the discharge not too hot to touch, then it is reasonable to assume that you need refrigerant.When adding do so very gradually and wait for pipe to be as I previously described.This is old school stuff but can, with experience, work as good as using a gauge (especially if broken).One other point is that if the system is not operated regularly, then the o-ring seals can dry out and cause gas to leak.FYI the oil circulates around through the system along with the refrigerant. Regarding your compressor, I would doubt very much that it is faulty.It will either be working or very badly damaged.I hope this helps you a little.

sounds like the fan or an intermittent open wire. Always tough to troubleshoot...

Thanks for all your replies. Just wanted to clarify that after driving I checked the aux fan while the car was stopped in the garage with no air blowing into it. I then turned off the AC and the Aux fan stopped and turning it AC back on started the aux fan again. This was done when the car was stationary. Also someone had mentioned that I could test the Aux fan with test tools? I have INPA, will that help test?

Quote:

Originally Posted by garfield81 (Post 1043773)

I have been seeing couple of things related to the air conditioning on my X and wanted your advice before I start working on it.

1.) For the past week the air conditioning takes a couple of minute to start blowing cold air when starting the car first thing in the morning. After that the air conditioning seems to work fine for the remainder of the day. Searching through the forums I found that this is possibly related to the compressor and the compressor might need replacing.

2.) During a long trip over the weekend the air conditioning suddenly stopped blowing cold air (it was cool but not cold) and fan speed on max wouldn't feel as it was blowing as much of air. After a stop over and shutting down and restarting the car everything seems to be normal. Searching for this on the forums it looks like I possibly need to recharge the air conditioner (which someone mentioned would indicate a leak since you never need to recharge). And for the fan speed it sounds like the FSR needs to be replaced.

All in all it looks like I potentially need a new compressor and/or recharge the air conditioner and a new FSR. So the question is should I be replacing them in a certain order like FSR first or recharge the system first to avoid replacing good parts?

I have the same symptoms with my E39, I replaced the FSR and no issue after.

Finally got a chance to hook up INPA. First read codes and saw nothing related to cooling/Aux fan. The. Tried manually activating aux using INPA and was unable to do so. INPA showed aux on but the fan was not moving. AC was not blowing cold either. Went for a drive and the cold air started blowing and so did the aux fan. So it sounds like the aux fan is bad. But wouldn't the ECM have codes stored regarding it if it was bad?

Also I found a Behr Aux fan at FCPEuro for $360 and free shipping. Sounds too cheap to be true! Is that legitimate site?