E36 Fresh Air Flaps: how to fix without removing the console?

[bmwsmurf]

Hey guys,
I've searched everywhere online, looked through the E36 Bentley, and fiddled/stared at the parts through the engine bay for an hour but I simply can't figure this out.

Basically, I had to replace my blower motor, and as part of the process I wanted to figure out why the fresh air flaps next to the blower motor housing weren't moving.

I followed the standard process to remove the blower motor from the engine bay. I unclipped both of the air flap housings to the left and right of the blower motor assembly. As you may already know only the driver's side one detaches. The passenger side one can be unclipped and loosened so that you can push it and look at the stuff behind it a bit. The driver and passenger side air flaps are connected by a bowden cable, so that if one moves the other ones moves with it to both simutlaneoulsy open and close at the same time. Behind both the driver and passenger side air flaps are the recirculating air flaps, which both seem to work fine to open and close when using the recirculate button from the cabin.

As far as I can tell, there is definitely nothing to attach to the driver's side air flap door, so it must be the passenger side air flap door that is controlled by an electronic motor/cable. However, looking behind the driver's side air flap door, I can see no place where a cable could possible snake through and come out and attach to anything. Keep in mind that I don't have a great view behind the passenger side flap door. I finally gave up and put everything back together.

Later, I did some more searching and figured out from the attached photo below (look at the lower left hand corner) that the cable attaches to a pivot which attaches to the door from the top. So, my cable worked itself loose from the pivot and/or the pivot broke. However, from my recollection there is simply not enough room to do anything about this from the engine bay. Is there any way to address this without having to remove out the entire dash/console and removing the entire AC/blower motor housing unit (the thing in the picture)?

I did remove my glovebox but that doesn't really help much :)

<glad to have fixed the blower motor, sad that I couldn't address the flaps>
Thanks for reading and any pointers.

P.S. Anyone know what that black cable is for?

[dietzkev]

if pivot itself is actually broken you'll need to source used one most likely if you deal with dealers like ones around me. I actually have all the parts but my car has 356K miles on original parts and the door itself has a square hole that the picot snaps into that is now rounded out somehow I'm guessing the force of the stepper motors because they have a lot of force behind them. Anyways the part that locks into the door can just be epoxied and it will work, hopefully that helps. Thats assuming your stepper motor is working. The black cable going over top of blower motor cover is just a sensor for the auto control. I've looked high and dry from my own sources for the little parts and couldn't find even a part number. And if the door is like mine and you don't feel like epoxy is way to go then you can get new door for around 100

[bmwsmurf]

Hmm.. so the cable goes down a bit and snaps onto the door's surface, not the top of the door ?

Thanks, really appreciate it.

[macelius]

Hmm.. so the cable goes down a bit and snaps onto the door's surface, not the top of the door ?

Thanks, really appreciate it.


For posterity:
The actuator rod ("cable") attaches to the lever as seen in the picture. The shaft at the fulcrum of the lever goes through a hole down into the box and has a square end that snaps into a hole in the top of the flap door. On mine the lever is fine, it's the part at the top of the door it goes in to that broke. Not sure how but i'm gonna try to get some epoxy slathered in there unless i can get that whole duct/side of the blower fan case out.