E90 BMW 330i AC Condensor removal

[Blomhj]

Need some advice gents...

So seems like a small piece of rock has damaged my AC condenser yesterday ( confirmed by leak-test) . Any idea how to remove the Condenser ? can you just pull it from the top or do you need to strip the whole front section or remove the radiator to get condenser out etc ...

Damn trucks trowing small stones on the highway !!!

Been a bad month , had my cooling fan replaced at R17k all inclusive, warrantee paid R10k at least , those OEM fans from dealers are damn expensive compare to aftermarket..

 

[Lizzard]

WOW :dropjaw:

You should be banned from the forum as you are scaring the other E90 330i okes like me :fencelook: , lol

Sorry to hear about this, I have done some DIY on mine but did not removed or worked on that section yet.

Hope someone can assist you with this as I am subscribing to this thread. If I may ask, what happened with the cooling fan?

 

[Blomhj]

always good to know what you are getting yourself into when an owner of a BMW...hehe

Stone went trough kidney grill and wedged itself onto the top side of the condenser core , just my luck I suppose.

On the Fan

Car went into limp mode ( no dash lights ) , couldn't get it to change gears on manual mode and first thing that came to mind was the gearbox went boom , so got home and pull codes and got a 2EEF code related to the fan , try to test the fan on INPA it turned once and went dead and also made a funny noise .

Fan also didn't kick in when I started the aircon, so aircon didn't work , when the condenser coil went I thought its the damn fan again..

 

[individj]

17k...screw that

 

[Lizzard]

Please, please let that not happen to me, prettttttyyyyyy please

I think to remove the condenser you will need to remove both the front bumper and the radiator to get to it, but I could be wrong. Maybe by luck only the radiator but there is going to be a lot of hours (for novice like me) work needed to be done here.

Have you managed to get a replacement yet or are you going the oem bmw way of asking the price on that

 

[Blomhj]

Replacement condenser for R1.8k and quote to repair R6.5k . Warrantee doesn't cover condenser only compressor so this one is on me so I can use aftermarket parts. Going in next week

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oh edited post above to explain fan issue for you

 

[Lizzard]

Thank you for that, much appreciated raise:

Who did the leak test for you to determine this, private or a business and how much is something like that?

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See I am having the manual version so I guess I will also not have power but not the limp mode, but interesting to know. Glad to know there is someone out there with their own diagnostics software also :rollsmile: had to buy mine due to my steering angle sensor problem, and not to talk about the latest waterpump issue

 

[STEVEN COOL]

Thank you for that, much appreciated raise:

Who did the leak test for you to determine this, private or a business and how much is something like that?

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See I am having the manual version so I guess I will also not have power but not the limp mode, but interesting to know. Glad to know there is someone out there with their own diagnostics software also :rollsmile: had to buy mine due to my steering angle sensor problem, and not to talk about the latest waterpump issue

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R1450 NEW

 

[Ratslaaf]

^^^ that's very cheap!

I had to remove the condenser on my car, but lucky the front wasn't fully assembled yet. But in your case, you have to remove the water hoses to the radiator, remove the fan and unscrew the two little rubber/plastic bolts that hold the whole cradle in place. Remove the two screws that hold the radiator to the cradle. Then once that removed you can push the radiator towards the engine. Lastly, you have to remove the little screw that sits between the condenser hoses and the plastic clip there, and your condenser will be loose enough to pull upwards.

 

[Blomhj]

Damn...all of that just for a condenser. Thinking of it now... I'm leaving auto electricians to work on the coolant system. I'm not sure these guys know what they in for. Do you think this can be DIY'd and just get gas done . Looks easy enough ,just had a look on TIS.

 

[Ratslaaf]

Sure you can DIY it, it just told you above how to

It's a bit of a mission tho

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On the other hand you have no idea if the guys will bleed the coolant system properly after they removed the radiator hoses. Best that you do it yourself to make sure hey