I love BMW BUT!!!

[L~C~G]

Last night the cabin fan / blower motor on my E46 stopped working.

This would probably not piss me off quite so much if I had not already had the enormous pleasure of replacing the motor on my E36 for the same F*cking problem.

I went onto the net to see where this fan is located in comparison to the E36 and guess what. It is in the same F*CKING place, and the brain dead retards have again installed it in such a way that it is virtually impossible to remove the old one with out destroying it, and fitting a used one with the blades intact is impossible.

I love my BMW and I have loved all of them that I have owned before but I have also owned many other cars and honestly, a bm is a PITA to do repair work on compared to other brands of cars!!!

The cabin blower motor was a common fault on the E36, and guess how BMW sorted out this fault on the E46................THEY DIDNT!

I find myself feeling somewhat ANTI BMW this morning!!!

Rant over

 

[whattingh]

Well so far I can tell for things I have heard for other people is not just bmw. all after around 2000 2003 some there is not so great to work on. The problem is things get design to make production line optimal. They dont cant if you need to strip half the car to do repairs later on.

What I do find with my BMW so far is you need lots of special tools to get things done.

 

[BMW M]

LCG,

Are you sure that the fan motor is busted and not just the module in the footwell? I had the same issue with my e46 330d, and it turned out that there is a connector that powers the fan under/above the footrest in the footwell.

So what happens is when you rest your foot on the footrest and you push down on it, the footrest in turn pushes directly on the connector which then pulls appart slightly over time and causes an arc between the points which causes the connector to fail.

Was a DIY R300 fix if I remember correctly and all was well with the fan afterwards

Hope this helps. :thumbs:

 

[L~C~G]

I havent confirmed 100% yet but its doing exactly what my E36 one did.

It stops working all of a sudden then the next time you start the car again it works for a little while and then it dies forever a little further down the line.

I suspect a winding in the motor goes and if it stops in that dead spot on the coils it want start up again. I will test for power on the fan itself etc before replacing it but as I said, its a serious Deja Vu.

Where in the foot well would I find this offending part? Drivers / Passenger? Clutch or accelerator side?

 

[msm]

It stops working all of a sudden then the next time you start the car again it works for a little while and then it dies forever a little further down the line.

It could be the "hedgehog" resistor which is a common fault on the E46. I replaced mine on my 2003 E46. The symptoms are erratic fan behaviour.

 

[BMW M]

I havent confirmed 100% yet but its doing exactly what my E36 one did.

It stops working all of a sudden then the next time you start the car again it works for a little while and then it dies forever a little further down the line.

I suspect a winding in the motor goes and if it stops in that dead spot on the coils it want start up again. I will test for power on the fan itself etc before replacing it but as I said, its a serious Deja Vu.

Where in the foot well would I find this offending part? Drivers / Passenger? Clutch or accelerator side?

Next to the clutch, you take out the footrest (2 Screws) pull away the carpet an voila! Mine did excatly that which you describe up here.

 

[msm]

Next to the clutch, you take out the footrest (2 Screws) pull away the carpet an voila! Mine did excatly that which you describe up here.

BTW, this is one of those times when you curse yourself for having a manual E46 - you'll figure out what I'm talking about when you do this job :fencelook:

 

[L~C~G]

Ooooh this sounds like its going to be fun.

Im starting to think this may actually be the fault because the fan came back to life on my way to work this morning.

Nothing like trying to repair an intermittent fault :flyfun:

 

[m0lt3n]

Does anyone know where the relay/resisitor is located in an E90?

 

[Loom]

The fan on our E36 stopped working but after cleaning the contacts on the fuses and relays it worked fine. I think it's improbably that that was the cause but it hasn't given any problems since.

 

[Legacy]

I would go with the hedgehog on this one. My E46 was always erratic and then just stopped working, I replaced the resistor and its been fine ever since.