Climate control not turning on-2004 X5
 

Hi I have a climate control that has no power. I checked all the fuses in the glove box any the trunk and all are good. i removed the unit and all connections are good. How do I check if its getting power? Is it the plug on the drivers side that has back and white wires cause there is no voltage to it. How do i check if its getting power? Ive read somewhere that it could be a capacitor in the unit but that only controls speed not overall power. To complicate things I noticed my windshield must be leaking as there is water in the footwell on the passenger side. Could water there affect any wires going to this unit and how do i check?

Interesting development. I tried unplugging the harness connections behind the unit and when i did unplug the black harness under the blue one the rear fan blower kicked on. When i plugged in the black one again it turned off why? Any thoughts and the whole time the display was off. I'm baffled. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Water in the footwell can be plugged up condensate drains.

The climate control modules do go bad and are pricey. Used X5 Versions sell for $250-$350 on fleabay. If you have any of the better BMW diagnostic software, you can try to connect to the climate control and see if you can read the sensors or actuate things.

I believe the power connector is separate from the multi pin signal connectors. Look for the large black 3 pin connector.


What? You don't have the guts of one on your workbench?

Thanks for your response. I see the large three pin connector. Im a bit of a newbie at this so how do I check to see if that connector is supplying power? Which wires, there is an orange red and black, can i take a multimeter to it?

Your 2004 is a little different than mine. I'm looking in the Bentley manual at diagram ele-166. I'm assuming you have the automatic climate control (IHKA).

You should be getting power from fuses f48 7.5A and f34 7.5A


The wires you are looking for from f48 is red with violet. Wire from f34 is green with yellow. Brown (probably not orange) is ground.

Yes, use the multimeter to measure the voltage from the power pin to ground, taking care not to short anything with the meter probes.

Well i think we are getting some where. Either that or I will set it on fire..lol..i checked and replaced the fuses in question and i have continuity with the fuses. When i plug in my multimeter i get 0v fir the green one and 0.03v for the red one using the brown one as ground...what gives? Doesn't that mean i have no power from the fuse block or more than likely a bad ground. What else do you suggest cause im ready to buy a new hvac but why would i if i have no power? Ill buy you a case of beer if we figure it out....thx

Measure the voltage between the ground pin and the metal frame of your car (should be zero). Then switch to ohms and measure the resistance - should be very small.

Weird you are not getting power - probably should check the bigger fuses - perhaps this is a weird symptom of a shorted fan sowed resistor or maybe even a blown aux fan.

I was reading other threads and 1 guy found it to be the FSR. 2 others are a bad control module. All found blown fusesv- f48

Well i checked the ground pin the orange one and it had a reading of zero. I checked the fuses for continuity without removing them and the car was off should i try with the car on to see if i get a voltage reading off the fuse in question?

The Fsr if it fails i thought would only give erratic funcion of the module as opposed to totally being unresponsive. Seing that i have the unit out of the dash can i put power to it to see if it lits up?

I had an issue with mine once where the "-" button (fan speed) was stuck and it kept the unit turned off - it wasn't obvious until I unstuck that button....


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I have seen the ones for sale on eBay are lighted like that (12v power and ground). Seems ok.

I would check continuity with the key off. Check voltages with the key on, engine off.

I think it depends how the FSR resistor fails. If it overloads the IHKA module, perhaps it can burn it out. Just a wild guess

Sorry are you suggesting checking the continuity for the fuses abd then check the harness plug for voltage? I just find it weird that the three prong black harness plug has no power.

If it was me...

With key out, I would pull the two fuses in question, measure resistance of the bare fuse - should be close to zero. Measure the resistance from the brown wire on the ihka cable to the metal chassis - should be close to zero.

Then, set the key to "on", but don't start the car, and with the fuses out, use your voltmeter to make sure you have 12V on one side of the fuse holder for each of those two fuses. If you do, reinstall the fuses. This would mean the circuit is OK up to the fuse holder. If not, you have blown something big, start checking the 30A and 50A fuses...

Next, measure voltage in the cables going to the IHKA controller. Make sure you find the two main power wires I mentioned by their color codes. They may not be in the same connector. The power wires are heavier gauge wire than the sensor wires. With the key on, you should have 12V power on each.

anything between 12V and 12.6V is normal with the engine not running - depends on the condition of your battery. If the voltage drops below 12V, you have a battery problem, a power drain or have been tinkering too much without running the engine to recharge the battery.

Thanks David ill keep you posted. .much appreciated

David the fuse holder at 34 and 48 position has 12.2 v when i check one side of the fuse block. The resistance on the brown wire is 0.3 but more importantly no voltage and either the red wire or the middle green one using the chassis as a ground or even the brown as a ground. Where does that power connection (the three wires lead to) cause that connector has no power. Is it possible another fuse or ground is the culprit? Ill double check all fuses and let you know Here is a pic

David could the wire from the Hvac be going under the passrnger side carpet? Look what i found under the carpet. Interesting enough i have no electricsl issues except for the Hvac and a purge valve p0444 and a fuel sending unit side a... guess i better remove the water. This maybe secondary to my prpblem though

Sorry man - Get it dried out and then start figuring out which circuit(s) are damaged. The problems may get much worse than just your AC. Use a wet vac to start, then fans, dehumidifier, etc., whatever you can find. I would probably disconnect the battery now, to limit any more electrical gremlins. Once it is dry, use compressed air to blow remaining water out of electrical connections and deoxit electrical contact cleaner to help remove corrosion.

I don't know how the wire runs, but there are many sensors and actuators in that area that are all part of IHKA. It is really hard to know what is doing what

Well thats an issue. I'd fix the source of the water entry first and then start otherwise troubleshooting the wiring.

Buddy im not impressed. Vacuumed up the water, it was leaking frim the front corner of the window and trickling down Funny thing is everythong works except the hvac....how does the hvac get power and is this related? Let me know if you can while i go drown my sorrows in a keg of beer

thats all the sources of power. There is a signal wire from the main engine computer (DME) which I guess is what wakes it up. But that still doesn't explain why you don't have 12v on the power leads. You probably need to work backwards until you find a connector that got wet that is causing the fault. I can't think of anything else to suggest.

When I had a bad wire in my DSC circuit, a local Indy had software (gt1 maybe) that could test the wiring harness and report which wire had the open - still had to physically find it, but at least you know what to look for. It may be worth calling around any local BMW shops and see if they can do that for you. Of course, it was almost $1000 before that was done. In hindsight, I could have just bought a new engine harness and swapped them out.

Well I have it dry as best as can be, we will see how it is overnight. Still on a hunt for a wiring diagram for the climate control. Id like to know where it gets its power from.

Doesn't anybody know where that three pin black power connector for the hvac leads to? It looks like it may go through the console but im not sure. Anybody?

Well it turns out the drain hose behind the passenger side pillar for the sunroof was pinched and water was leaking from there the dash to the floor. I thought it was the windshield but it was good. Now to sort out the ihka, its probably a bad ground behind the glovebox giving me no power.

Anybody explain this diagram to me. I have good fuses but no power at the red/vioket wire which is part of the x18341 connector. It looks like it goes to X10458 which i cant figure out where this connector is. I also checked the ground at x492 and i think it's fine. Need some good input please .