1990 318i touring... heater/blower motor & leak

Sat May 31, 2014 1:31 pm

Hi all.... I have two questions.

Just replaced the heater/blower motor as the old one sounded like a bag of nails.... the replacement one is lovely and quiet... but i'm still stuck with the same problem as on the old motor in that the motor only works on setting 2 and 4... not 1 and 3.
I'm pretty sure that there's something else I need to change...
What and where is it ?

It seems to suffer a bit of a leak in the two storage compartments at the rear of the car. Nothing major, but can't seem to work out where it comes from. The car is solid with no rot.
In peoples experience, could it be coming from above somewhere, or do you think it's coming in low.

By the by, been on a bit of a frenzy with the car and pulled out the moulded headling board. The old headlining was drooping right down & manky. I'm going to have a go at recovering it. Getting the board out was bit of a job, but I used the E30 wikipedia which was a great help.

Thanks..... Steve.

Sat May 31, 2014 1:48 pm

Blower will be the resistor:

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... nly_on_Max

The water leak is probably the tail light seals (if you have a sedan - we don't know what E30 you have), but a good trick is to spray talcum powder around the area and look for water trails over the next few days.

Sat May 31, 2014 9:46 pm

This is what you need

Sat May 31, 2014 9:49 pm

A lot of the time the leaks are from the gaskets behind the rear lights but as with mine it could be where the filler neck is for the rear washers once you have done the lights

Sun Jun 01, 2014 12:02 am

Thanks for the replies.

Is it best to buy a new resistor from BMW or elsewhere, or does anyone have a working used one for sale.

Sun Jun 01, 2014 7:50 am

For how much they coat I would buy a new one they aren't the easiest thing to get at so you don't want to do it twice

Sun Jun 01, 2014 9:36 am

Ta.... New one it is

Sun Jun 01, 2014 10:15 am

It might be worth having a look at your existing resistor pack before buying as they come in two different varieties. The one shown above is most common but mine is quite different to that. Not sure of the reason, possibly because my touring has aircon.

The leak could also be caused by the rubber grommets that the sharks fin trim thing attaches to on the rear pillar - I think its no.7 on this:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=51&fg=20

BMW charge about 20p each for them I think - seems unlikely but it fixed mine.

Sun Jun 01, 2014 10:27 am

Mungo1337 wrote:

The leak could also be caused by the rubber grommets that the sharks fin trim thing attaches to on the rear pillar - I think its no.7 on this:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=51&fg=20

BMW charge about 20p each for them I think - seems unlikely but it fixed mine.

Not at all an uncommon place for water to leak into an E30. If either end of the trim feels in any way loose, then water will be coming in.
I've come across this many more times than I have found leaking rear light gaskets.