yup i have issue too, pain the butt if you ask me, any quick fixes will be appreactied

I believe there may be a bit of confusion going on here.
Correct me if i'm wrong but when most people refer to the AC
They mean engaging the compressor to cool the vehicle.
If that's what is meant by AC then as MD correctly said
Just press the snowflake button and the AC will stay off.
How donI know? I have a 2005 4.4 and I just went outside
To confirm that it works that way.

If however one is referring the the fan that comes on
Each time the vehicle is started then no you cannot turn
It off and expect that the next time you start the vehicle
It will still be off. Mine has never worked that way and
Rightly so. I believe BMW and most people want some kind
of air circulation in the vehicle no matter what the season.

Yeah, I think most of us here are talking about the fan but not the AC. When I bought my x5 5 yrs ago, I took it back to the BMW to get this fixed in the first week straight after I found out this "problem". I remember altogether I brought it back to them at least 3 times until I met the actual saleswoman who sold me the car on the site telling me that it is designed to act like this for safety reason (to prevent fog up).

What i always do now is to turn the fan off before cranking up the engine. I do this old school thing in hope of protecting the vent/ac unit and to keep the battery lives longer. Now my question is: do I really need to turn it off before cranking or I'm just over protecting???

Read post #5

who ever said programing the memory seat or key is wrong.
i personally tested it and it does not stop the fan if u program seats with fan off.

AC is not the same as the fan. AC is the snowflake button, and refers to the compressor and the chilling effects associated with running the compressor. That can stay off if you want.

You appear to be talking about the ventilation fan, not the AC.

just have this coded and that's all . That's what I did. There is no other alternative

Old school thing? Never heard of doing what you describe. My guess is
BMW R&D has taken all that into consideration. Just let the system
do it's thing. Everything will be fine/or not. Just fix it when it breaks...:thumbup:

FYI...if you have the auto climate system (IHKA) versus the manual system (IHKR)...then the HVAC fan is designed to come on, in most cases, to not only circulate air within the cabin...but to also allow the microfilters to remove pollen & dust as well. This feature is probably loved by those that have allergies. :)

For those who find this small feature of the IHKA control panel annoying...without finding some type of coding with DIS or INPA etc to stop it...the best you can do is press the FAN SPEED button until all of the dashes " -" are down to one...then lift your finger and press the fan speed button one more time. This will turn the HVAC system completely off.

If you come back to the car before 16 minutes (yeah, the ol' GO TO SLEEP time interval)...the system will still be OFF when you start the car. If you are away from the car longer than this small time frame...the system will turn itself on automatically.

BUT...since the system is out of the AUTO FAN SPEED MODE...the blower will be at the LOWEST setting...thus all it takes is ONE PRESS of the fan speed button and the system will be OFF again.

I know for some...even this simple step of having to press the button (even once) may still find this totally annoying...but that's what you can do if you want to keep the AUTO climate control system off.

Or...you can trade your X5 in and get one that has the manual IHKR system. :)

you are totally right Qsilver. I was surprised after coding to find the vent auto operational again.shutting it off, taking the key off then starting the engine again, the fan didn't work. The same if i get off the car then get back shortly, the vent still off. after a certain time, the vent will auto run again