blower fan help!!!

[fenj66]

Hi all and happy new year!
Today I noticed  my fan wasnt blowing.  Tried all settings on the climate control  panel. The leds for fan speed went up and down as selected  but no fan working.
My first thought  was  the infamous  fsr hedgehog so promptly  went to bmw and £85 lighter got a new one.
However  the new part has made no difference.  It just gets red hot like the old one and still no fan.
i have checked all fuses that look remotely connected  to the blower system and their  all ok.
what else could be the issue for a sudden fan failure?  Im thinking  the fan itself. But not sure where that is or how to check it.
any ideas folks?

[X MAN]

Have you checked the plug connector going to the FSR for any corrosion or dry terminals ?

I've done the rear blower retrofit on mine and had to change the complete blower wiring harness. The
Wiring harness from the donor car had quite a bit of corrosion on one of the terminals going to the FSR.

[fenj66]

ive given the connectors a good spray of contact cleaning fluid and given it all a good wiggle whilst on, but to no avail unfortunately,

[X MAN]

Came across this post a few months ago, have a read ,may give you some ideas to try.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showth ... p?t=668285

[fenj66]

thanks x man, i had seen that thread i can spin the fan by hand( well, with a long screwdriver!) it would help narrow down the culprit part if a kindly x5 owner lived near by and i could swap parts temporarily to see whats causing the issue???  ::) ::) ::) ::)

[briankerrys47]

[quote="fenj66"]
thanks x man, i had seen that thread i can spin the fan by hand( well, with a long screwdriver!) it would help narrow down the culprit part if a kindly x5 owner lived near by and i could swap parts temporarily to see whats causing the issue???  ::) ::) ::) ::)
[/quote]When my blower stopped it was the 2nd stage resistor ( whatever that is) O:-) O:-)

[fenj66]

i think second stage resistor must be the same thing as the final stage resistor (fsr).
i have just directly wired 12v to the blower fan and that works ok, so its either a faulty new part from bmw or the control panel.
unfortunatley, if i take the fsr back to bmw as faulty, they check the whole car to confirm the problem for a tidy fee and only refund the fee if the they agree the part was faulty, so its a gamble taking it back.. what to do??... :'(

[briankerrys47]

[quote="fenj66"]
i think second stage resistor must be the same thing as the final stage resistor (fsr).
i have just directly wired 12v to the blower fan and that works ok, so its either a faulty new part from bmw or the control panel.
unfortunatley, if i take the fsr back to bmw as faulty, they check the whole car to confirm the problem for a tidy fee and only refund the fee if the they agree the part was faulty, so its a gamble taking it back.. what to do??... :'(
[/quote]Mine was 2008 £20 part 40 lab,w
went to Asda for breakfast they phoned when ready :/)))))

[fenj66]

problem sorted!! phew....

ok, i have spent most of the weekend playing around with this but finally found the problem and a relatively easy fix.

i was about to dissasemble the climate control panel and see what i could see in there, but i did a full voltage check on all the terminals of the fsr multiplug first,
there are five terminals in the plug and i found results as follows:

black/green wire is the fan + feed.
yellow/green wire is the mains in + feed at 12v.
fine dark blue wire is the fan speed controller from the front panel, varies from +2v at low fan speed to +8v at full fan speed.
brown wire is earth.
red/green wire is fan earth.

as the fine blue wire was providing a variable voltage i decided that the control panel was probably ok after all.
so i decided to check the actual fan again.
with a portable 12v power pack and a couple of single lengths of wire i connected the fan terminals on the multiplug to 12v. i had done this yesterday for a split second to make sure the fan actually turned, which it did.
anyhow, this time i left the fan running at full blast for a minute, then i reversed the polarity and run the fan backwards for a full minute. i could hear the fan struggle slightly at first but then sound like it was running free.
i then reconnected the multiplug to the fsr and hey presto, fan running perfectly with full speed control from the front panel.

so it was the fan after all!! ive no idea why it should have suddenly decided to seize, but i never really alter the fan speed i always leave on low speed. maybe i need to give it a full blast every now and again, which i will do from now on.
i wonder what bmw would have said if i had taken it to them, i bet they wouldnt have "bump started" the fan like i did but probably insisted on fitting a new fan which is a major full dash out job by the look of it.

i should have guessed that the fsr wasnt the culprit as the fan just refused to come on, from what ive read about fsr failure, thet tend to go all weird and run fast and slow or not even turn off with ignition if their faulty.
i put back the original fsr as it was working fine.  so now i have a brand new, tested, fsr which im sure bmw won't entertain taking back. so if any reader wants one, they can have mine posted with bmw receipt (not sure if the 2 year warranty is transferable tho), for £55 and save £30 at my loss.

hopefully the fan will be ok now but at least i know how to bump start it if it seizes again!

thanks for the replies folks, hopefully this thread will help someone else. 

[fenj66]

update!!
after 6 months perfect service my blower fan seized up again this week.

after a quick panel strip down and 12volt direct to the fan/hedgehog multiplug forward and reverse, it appears to be all ok again.
i wonder why the fan is deciding to stick now and then?  :blink: :blink:

[fenj66]

more updates on this problem!

the fan has stopped working yet again. my little jump start method got it working but now the fan is screeching intermittently. i think its on its last legs and a dash board stip down to change fans in looking likely, anybody have any experience of top dash removal??