A/C with a mind of its own

[fishfeet]

My A/C does not care to work when I want it to.
Ill start the car and Ill get no response from any of the control, as if the whole unit is dead. After driving for a little while it may cut on. Once it does I can contol its speed, temp, etc etc as if nothing was wrong. It may or may not cut off on me again.
Other times Ill work fine right from the start.

Sometimes it will cut on, but the lights will be dim and I cant control it on or off. This happens less often, but has number of times.
Its rather annoying.

Any ideas as to the problem?

Ive checked fused to make sure none are loose.
My only guess is a loose wire behind the control unit thing.



Also - Im not sure if this could be related or not. But it seems that when the A/C is not working I feel a pretty hot heat source coming from the pedal area - right side under the radio-A/C controls. It does not feel like simply an effect of not having A/C as it feels hot even on somewhat cool days. When the A/C is running I never notice it (I dont run A/C to the feet, so its not covering it up)
So perhaps these 2 problems are related.


Any help appreciated.

[randywalters]

You apparently haven't searched the forum - this seems to be the most common problem on the 96+ E36 cars and there are a ton of existing posts about it.

Search for the word "Capacitor" or "CCU" or "Climate Control" and you should come across a link to a DIY on how to solder a new capacitor to your CCU's circuit board.

Or just buy a new or used CCU and swap it out (takes literally one minute to R&R).

EDIT - here's the link to the fix:

http://www.macadamizer.com/bmwfix.html

[jijacob]

Search is everyone's friend. Odds are if you are having a problem, someone else has already figured out the solution.

[fishfeet]

I thank you for the help - I did do a search a while ago. But using search terms involving AC (but that doesnt match the required characters), then air conditioner, and related terms.
Never would have known to search for Capacitor, CCU, etc (climate control I probably could have.. just didnt come to mind)


furthermore - if anyone could have every problem or question answered from a search, then whats the point in having a forum other than OT?
Meh.

thanks anyhow for the link. thats all i needed

[Tochenzo]

mine still does this, i have to hit it for it to turn on lol, i did the capacitator thing and it worked for a good week, but i didn't solder it in because i wasn't positive if it would work. If i soldered it in it would probably work normally but i'm just too lazy to fix that :rolleyes

[The Hawk]

Hi All, just joined the Forum, 'cos just bought a 1998 328i with 48,000 km's (wow) all original & checked out.

Anyway within two days, the Climate Control started acting-up as it seems is very common. It appears that mine is the capacitor problem, not the final stage problem.

However I read the repair details & frankly that is getting beyond my skill levels. I find a guy in NY state that will repair for $49 , but I'm in Canada and that means shipping/duty etc etc.

Does anyone have a Canadian solution/suggestion?? Budds BMW in Oakville, Ont. want $467 Canadian to replace.

Please Help!!

[scrowley111]

do it yourself.
Hi All, just joined the Forum, 'cos just bought a 1998 328i with 48,000 km's (wow) all original & checked out.

Anyway within two days, the Climate Control started acting-up as it seems is very common. It appears that mine is the capacitor problem, not the final stage problem.

However I read the repair details & frankly that is getting beyond my skill levels. I find a guy in NY state that will repair for $49 , but I'm in Canada and that means shipping/duty etc etc.

Does anyone have a Canadian solution/suggestion?? Budds BMW in Oakville, Ont. want $467 Canadian to replace.

Please Help!!

[MrNorwall]

theres a guy on ebay that does it for like $40, i got it done and 5 months later working great