air cond question
 

hi, I've had the slow coming on problem with my A/C for a while now, usually comes on within 5 - 10 minutes, and once working keeps working all day.

however yesterday when leaving work in 32c temps i noticed that the A/C started normally then at each of the four sets of traffic lights i have to sit at before getting onto the motor way at each light the A/C stopped working, got progressively warmer until just hot air blowing.

although when on the motorway all was good, and today its working good

when i got home i left the car running opened the bonnet ( hood) and the electric fans were not running.

there appear to be two fans in front of the radiator, a very course bladed one closest to the rad and then a less course bladed one directly in front of that,

the car doesn't over heat at any time the coolant is fine the expansion tank is ok.

in other vehicles I've owned as soon as the A/C kicks in the electric cooling fan also starts.

can anyone shed some light on how and when all theses fans should be operating

many thanks

any ideas, on when the a/c cooling fan comes on

Might help if you posted which model/year/etc. of vehicle you own.

I can say it's not the 4.8is because that one only has 1 electric fan.

If not a model year...how about letting us know which model/engine you want us to make suggestions about? Is it the

1. X5 3.0d (M57)
2. X5 3.0d (M57N)
3. X5 3.0i (M54B30)
4. X5 4.4i (M62TUB44)
5. X5 4.4i (N62B44)
6. X5 4.6is (M62TUB46)
7. X5 4.8is (N62B48)

Zulu95 raises a very important point for all those who don't have their model/model year included in a signature...or who don't include that info when posting if they haven't created a signature.

E53 X5s are NOT all the same from 2000-2006...there were some important differences in production thru the years that help us to help you better when trying to answer questions and make suggestions. Provide enough information that will allow us to give the best answers we can. :)

yep sorry guys its a 2005 3.0d diesel, and ive had a look today and i was wrong there is only one fan in front of the radiator, ive disconnected the connector to the electric fan and there is 3 wires going to it two thick and one thin ( black)

seems the two thick are positive and a negative, i put a meter across it and have 12 volts
(13.6 when motor running) im reasonably sure that either the fan has died or that there is some sort of heat sensor that is not working, im thinking of that thin black wire.

can anyone shed some light on how to get the fan assembly out??

there is also a small box with a wiring loom heading into it just above the fan connector

sitting on the shroud for the mechanical cooling fan.

i guess what i need to know is a/ how to get the fan out and b/ is there constant power to the fan and then a control circuit to switch it on and off???

any help will be much appreciated, this thing seems very involved.

thanks

Not sure how to take it out on your car. Our single fan is inside, infront of engine.

Based on previous threads that black wire is a pulse wire. That is what triggers the fan to kick on. But, what I suggest you try is a bit different. Take it to a good AC shop and have them check how much refrigerant is in the system. Yes, freon pressure and that fan working are directly related.

Perusing thru the online TIS...it looks like the bumper needs to be removed before the aux cooling fan can be removed. But the front bumper removal instructions don't look that difficult either (there's instruction for that too at the TIS online site).

Below are aux cooling fan & radiator removal instructions for the M54/M57/M62 engines used on the X5 (see how important model details are? :) ). BTW...the links along the top of the page are live...so you can click backwards to see how I navigated to these DIY instructions...as well as checking to see if there are other TIS instructions you may need.

Radiator removal instructions:


Aux cooling fan removal :

Ok the bumper removes in 5 min too. Search for bumper removal by TwinsPoppa. Very nice, picture intense, how to.

thanks for your help and the links, i had hoped that the fan removal would be fairly straight forward, as it seems however, without removing the front bumper you cant even see the mounting screws.

however before i get to involved i think i,ll take the advice and get the gas levels checked,
and see what happens, hopefully thats all it is

thanks again to all that commented, its appreciated