E70 30i HVAC Running Blowing Warm + Hot
 

New to the e70 platform here. Long time e53 owner, which by the way, had the 'knurled stratification wheel' to adjust hot/cold in the HVAC.

It appears the e70 is one of few models that does not have the temperature control wheel. I digress.

I noticed our 2010 30i blows pretty warm almost hot air even when the HVAC temp is set down to 60 degrees, with no AC on. It gets pretty warm in the cabin with this setting. It only gets cold with the AC on.

Is this a common issue?

E70 has temperature wheel. It's hidden in the idrive system. Shortcut to get there is hit the vent control button then dial hot to cold.

Try Andrew's suggestion first, otherwise, you may have a heater control valve leaking. Mine is failing and randomly causes hot air to blow despite all controls turned to "cold". I'm going to try the $35 rebuild kit rather than buying a new one.

AM.

Thanks Andrew, I checked the settings and it is adjusted in the neutral position. Neither hot nor cold.

So... heater valve?

Need to know heater core temp to know for sure do you have a scanner that can read temps and valve status?

I haven't purchased one yet. Foxwell 510 or 530, correct?

I've heardRumors about problems with the 530 so I only officially recommend 510 or 520


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Still haven't resolved this. Temp is at 60* yet it is blowing warm air! So frustrating.

I'll poke around with the Foxwell NT510 Elite that I just bought and report back.

It will report the flap percentage of each flap also it will show the status of each heater valve and heater core values.

The heater cores are way more BTU than the AC evaporator. I've used ac plus heat most of my life to have dryer warm air when it's raining.

I'm going to order a new genuine heater valve I think. Part 64116910544.

Update: the new valve did not resolve the warm air issue.

The only way to get tolerable (coolish) air blowing is to use the recirculate button.

With the temp setting at the lowest (60 degrees) it is still blowing warm to hot air.

What does your two heater cores read and do the valves read closed? Also ARE they closed!? Hold hand on the downstream side of the valve it should be warm not hot.

Best guess: stratification flap stuck on outside air.

OK I spent some time with the X5 late this evening. I plugged in the scan tool and took some initial readings with the car cold.

I noticed the driver side vent left of wheel and driver side (left) vent in the center stack were blowing significantly weaker power than the passenger side. Fan speed on full blast, level 9 I think it's called.

Ventilation flap said 100% on the scan tool. I did a test putting the flap to 50%, and low and behold the driver side vents power matched the passenger side vents. Odd.

Went for a test drive, air from vents was coolish at the start. I put the air to max heat for a few minutes (84) and heat got hot. Scrolled the wheel back down to max cold (60) and air cooled off but still warm.

I pulled over to idle for 5 minutes while reading data on the scan tool. Within 5 minutes the air blowing out (still set to 60) is significantly warmer, even hot.

Heat exchanger temperature, left 40.00 *C
Heat exchanger temperature, right 39.50 *C
Evaporator temperature 34.40 *C
Interior temperature 27.50 *C (81.5 *F!!)

Flap Positions
Footwell flap, right, motor position 49%
Position, stratification-flap motor 100%
Position, stratification-flap motor right 100%
Ventilation flap, motor position, left 100%
Defrosting flap, motor position 0%
Position, fresh-air recirculated-air flap 100%
Position, dynamic-pressure-flap motor 100%

Hope this helps! Also need to mention, the AC belt has been removed to diagnose a noise issue and rule out the AC compressor. So the car has no AC at the moment.

Not sure where to read the data on the valves. I didn't see it mentioned anywhere. If you describe the menu sequence to look at, I will.

If the stratification flap was stuck on outside air, wouldn't it be pulling fresh air in from outside (where it was 50*F tonight) resulting in cool air from the vents?

Forgive my ignorance, but if the flap reading is 100%, does that mean 100% open or closed.

I'll have to take some readings to compare but the heat exchanger temps of 40c mean the valves must be open. (unless there is some alternate path)

Test this by pinching the hoses shut. They have a special pliers for this but you can use a quick clamp or a couple pieces of wood and a c clamp.

If the temps drop it's the valve bit closing. This could be the controller for the valves not working.

Poke though the HVAC for real-time values of the valves and you should see them flip on/off every second or two to maintain normal temp.

It's pointless to set to minimum value just set to say 68 so the car will be heating a little bit to get the valves cycling.

I thought you were getting hot air at the same time as AC running so that changes thoughts a bit.

Let me know what those values are in your car if you get a chance in the next few days! Thanks.

Put a new AC belt on finally using the $170 BMW "stretch belt" tool. With AC off, the car blows warm air even when set to lowest temp. With AC on max, car blows barely cool air. Kind of like room temp air.

It seems like there may be a problem with the IHKA flap(s) and is allowing the heat and AC to mix. Please tell me the dashboard doesn't have to come out!!

What temps are showing on the heater cores? Evaporator?

I gave up on this DIY. I brought it into my local BMW dealership.

The AC refrigerant was very low (100 grams of 700 gram capacity). So it has a leak somewhere. Evacuate/refill was $348ish.

Still doesn't really explain to me why it is blowing hot air into the cabin even when the temp is set to 60 with AC off, and the outside ambient temp is 45 degrees F. Shouldn't it just pull in cool fresh air from outside the car?

Otherwise, you'd have to drive with AC on year round, even during winter when outside ambient temp is in the teens? Makes no sense to me.

Currently trying to communicate this with a service advisor. Will update.

The air goes through the heater cores and evaporator always so if it's getting heat it almost always is heater valve not closing.

What are the heater core temps when the issue presents?

I know that I can't keep car cool above about 60-65 ambient outside but at 50-55 usual not a problem

I'm not the first one to mention this problem, found a similar thread here with the exact same issue:

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...lp-needed.html

I'm having the exact same problem. Did you ever find a solution?

I installed a repair kit to my heater control valve recently and like your new valve, it didn't remedy the situation. Now that it's finally warming up here on the Front Range, I'd really like to solve this. When my repair kit didn't fix it, I suspected perhaps the electrical solenoid(s) inside the valve was the culprit. But if you replaced the whole valve, then I fear I'll encounter the same result if I spring for a new valve.

Based on the limited search results, it seems this is not a super common problem.

AM.

P.S. Interestingly, mine's a 2010 model as is OP's, though a 35D rather than a 30i. Mine is an April production which means it came with CIC and perhaps a few other early LCI updates. If there's correlation, then perhaps that explains why this issue seems relatively rare? Just a thought.

I had the AC evacuated and charged at BMW dealer. It had almost no refrigerant in the system. So far we are running the AC all the time now. Another potential area of interest is the plastic trim piece that runs along the cabin filter box area under the hood. This falls apart and allows hot engine air to enter.

And oil smell.

Ouch?

Take a $150 and make it a $450 job....


Just FYI- assume they did a pump down and it held vacuum with no leaks? Then refill and add UV dye? Thats standard/best practice

Thanks, Richard. My partitions are starting to crumble, but they aren't totally failed yet. Maybe I'll go ahead and order new ones anyway, as they're not long for this world. My AC works great, so I don't think that's my problem. It's when I have my AC OFF that I get unacceptably warm air flowing through the vents. Where I live, we have a LOT of days where all you want is fresh outside air flowing into the cabin. No need for heat or AC.

AM.

Service advisor had my partitions replaced last time I had it in getting some other work done. I was happy not to have to do it myself.

I find that I need to run AC when ambient is warmer than about 8° less than my comfort zone. Eg I usually have my temp set to 73F. If it's 65° the cabin will get hotter than 73 so I need to run AC.

I did also have a problem recently where I needed to set my temp much hotter to be warm and much colder to be hot. I discovered a week later that one side in the back seat was set to 60F! I set the back to copy driver and that problem went away. I then set the back seat to off and the front reaches the set point much faster.

Point of fact; "driver controlled" is not an override like the window switch; any adjustments in the back will disable "rear seat copies driver" or "disable rear controls".

It's been 97-100 lately and I figured this issue out just in time!

I have found that I can just use a burst of AC every 10-20 minutes if the ambient is close to my preferred temp especially if at night; the sun is the main cause of cabin heat woes.

Hi - I'm experiencing the same issue, A/c is charged, but when is OFF, I get ONLY Hot air in the cabin, regardless of the iDrive settings (Cold) and the lowest temp setting (16C)


How can I read the flap position settings?

When I posted the above, I did not realize how bad my partitions truly were. They had crumbled away so cleanly, that I didn't realize they were supposed to be much taller than they were. I also eventually realized I was missing the rubber seal that goes all along the top of them. With new Chinesium partitions and a BMW top seal, mine is mostly fixed. Frankly, it's kind of a poor design and it's difficult to perfectly seal the IHKA intake area from the hot engine compartment. If I am not moving, the engine heat will creep in and I'll start getting warm air. As long as I'm moving, I don't have a problem.

AM.

Thx - will check mine although I replaced them couple of years back. now, did you change your heater valve as well?