Well. seems to be fixed. The final stage unit was $113 and installed in about 30 minutes or so. Removed the bottom part of dash and unhooked three plugs. Removed two Torx screws and replaced unit. Works fine so far. If repairing your automatic climate control(96+) replace this item. If you have a 95 or older I understand the blower motor resistor is used instead of this and goes bad often. Cost of a blower motor resistor is 37 -41 bucks. You can buy these a bit cheaper on Ebay, but we did not have time to wait. Got too cold. Here is a shortcut to a BMW site that showed me where and how to remove, although I did not have to remove as much stuff as this fellow did...
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?p=3349096