Heater/AC Fan not blowing!!!

[thejamesvolta]

Hi everyone!!!! First post.

Anyways...I was hoping someone could help me out with a situation I'm experiencing. I've noticed over the last two months that when I would turn on my heater in the morning to go to work, it would take a couple of minutes for air to start blowing out of the vents. I thought, 'no big deal, maybe it just had to warm up'. But now it is getting hot (live in AZ), and I went to turn my A/C on expecting the fan to take a minute or two to turn on, and nothing. I then tried the heat to see if it was the a/c compressor that was bad, but the fan would not blow air at all with the heat either. I know the A/C unit/compressor is good because when I turned it on, I could feel VERY cold air barely coming out (outside air pushing it in through vents as I was driving). I checked the fuses of course and they all looked good, so I was wondering if someone could give me a little insight to this situation. I was going to put the car up for sale this weekend, but it's kind of hard to sell a car in Arizona, if the A/C doesn't blow. Thank you in advance!!!

[lincolnmaster80]

It's always good to post the year and model of your car. That way we can get you the best solution...

For instance, the solution for your problem that you've described is different on an E32 (88-94) than it is on an e38 (95-00/01).

If it's an E32, you might be able to get away with a loose connection. Or you might end up having to remove the entire dash (one of the design engineering ideas someone at BMW had...)

But don't let that scare you just yet, let us know what you've got and we can give you some proper pointers!

[thejamesvolta]

Ha ha. I can't believe I forgot to add that. Sorry guys.

1994 BMW 740iL

[lincolnmaster80]

Originally Posted by thejamesvolta

Ha ha. I can't believe I forgot to add that. Sorry guys.

1994 BMW 740iL

Glad to see someone hasn't crossed over to the darkside (E38 7's).

I'm not sure if the 740's had them, but on the 750's and older 735's the "sword" is what controls the heat. If the sword was disconnected, the valves were wide open and you'd get constant head. If 12Volts were applied to the sword, you'd have constant cold. However, neither is happening as you say, neither cold (a/c) or heat is blowing...as though the system is shut off.

Assuming you've checked Fuse #9 (if the 740's have them under the hood), you might be looking at an IHKA failure. There are various solder fixes that you can use to fix this and this very well may be your problem. Before you do that though...

...I'm not sure if there is a relay for the heater, on any model of E32, but it would be in the fuse box under the hood if there is. Try wriggling the heater relay (I'm not sure which one it is) and if that doesn't work, try taking the heater relay out and reseating it with the car off...sometimes it needs to "find" a new connection after sitting for so long or has possibly wriggled itself loose.

I tried searching the archives over at the E32 board on Roadfly.com (here) and that's the closest thing I can find. If you wanted, repost over on the E32 roadfly board (registration is free as far as I know) and there will be a few people with some fixes that have experience the same thing you have. (Namely 'highline' or 'johan' but the other guys over there are also quite knowledgeable)

Hope I helped somewhat...

[mbba]

i have same problem with my 740 1996 any help please what the problem is and how to fix