help quick my heater wont work??

Wed Jan 26, 2005 4:10 pm

just got into my 325 cab e30 and mt heaters wont turn on been working fine. cheked the fuse its ok not blown

any help as i need my heater as its bloody cold

Wed Jan 26, 2005 7:46 pm

Either electric heater valve jammed shut or airlock. Have you been doing anything to the cooling system lately?

Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:44 pm

no mate i havent been messing with it at all.
just came back after a long drive still wont work.

parked on my drive with my lights on and the heater around to no4 and sumin clicks behind the dash and the headlight go dim for a second then back to normal does this every 10 seconds or so, dunno wot that is.

if its that valve thingy can i do it??

thanks sean

Thu Jan 27, 2005 12:36 pm

anyone know anything to help me out??

just went out again to my car and when i turn the heaters on i can hear a clicking sound cuming from behind the dash but my heater wont blow air out this is really starting to piss me off now

Thu Jan 27, 2005 1:43 pm

Are you saying the fan isn't working? i.e. not blowing out cold air, or just blowing cold where ever the heat control is set?

Thu Jan 27, 2005 8:32 pm

no mate im not geting no air inside my car even if i put my contol to hot or cold any numbers 1-4 i get nothing just dead.

Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:04 am

ive got the same problem. mine stopped working when i put my new engine in and loom. fuse is ok. havent touched the wiring, have replaced the switch, but still nothing. any ideas. thanks

Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:02 pm

any luck yet as ive run out of ideas. is this a comon problem?

Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:12 pm

Try this link Mate

http://www.totalbmwmag.co.uk/HandsOn/TechJun01.PDF

Tris

Tue Feb 01, 2005 5:32 pm

If the blower's not working then it's likely to be either the resistor or the blower unit itself. If you're not getting any heat while the cars moving - blower on or not - then it's down to water. Either the valve is jammed shut as described in the link above, or you've lost coolant.
Hope you find the problem.

Tue Feb 01, 2005 6:51 pm

The heater fan would still run on position 4 with a dud resistor pack. Blower motor is fed from unloader relay K7, along with the mirrors. Do these work?
None of this would explain no heat from the heater due to ram effect when moving along though.

Tue Feb 01, 2005 10:24 pm

thanks will have a look at the link now. my mirrors did work, but have taken them out now. there was just nothing. if i turn the position switch on to any number nothing happerns. have also replaced this with one i new that works. its getting to the point when im thinking of just ripping the heater system out, but then if it rains i wont be able to sort the windows out, and it is the one luxury i would like to keep.

Tue Feb 01, 2005 10:44 pm

Pull relay K7 and short pins 30 and 87 together with a wire link. If still nothing, take a wire from the battery+ terminal, via a 30A fuse if possible, to 87 of relay K7 socket.

Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:24 pm

parked on my drive with my lights on and the heater around to no4 and sumin clicks behind the dash and the headlight go dim for a second then back to normal does this every 10 seconds or so, dunno wot that is.

Are you sure you haven't got air conditioning!!!!

Thu Feb 03, 2005 10:36 pm

lol, i have the exact same problem with mine. turn the fan speed to 4 and just get a clicking like a relay from behind the glove box, and my dash lights and fuel gauge etc flick a bit.
haven't had a chance to look at it yet but will let you know when i do,will ask a few of the older tech's at work to find out what it is

Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:06 pm

The temperature switch on the dash is a rheostat which alters the voltage going to this valve.

Erm... no. Not on mine anyway. Mine (1989 325i SE) pulls some kind of cable when you turn it. Or, more to the point, it often doesn't, and you have to twist and twist it, then there's a sort of pop, and it releases, and it all works again - till the next day.

Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:21 am

No rheostat, just a simple switch which applies 12V to the valve in the first few degrees of the heater knob from cold, and then switches off, allowing the valve to fully open. Temperature is controlled by air blending. ( I assumed it was a rheostat as well, untill a few weeks ago, when some comments on another thread prompted me to go and look at the back of a spare heater switch panel.)

Guest · Sat Feb 05, 2005 9:59 am

I have just changed my heater blower. I had the same problem with the click and the dimming lights. It turned out that one of the bearings had seized. On a previous E30 my blower bearings fell apart with similar symptoms.
Luckly the job of changing the motor is a 15 min job.
You can get a replacement blower from a scrappy for about Ãƒ”šÃ‚£10 - Ãƒ”šÃ‚£20

Sat Feb 05, 2005 2:38 pm

Wen you guys are talking about the heater switch, you actually mean the FAN switch. You had me worried there for a minute, as the HEAT control is a cable, not electrical..

Sat Feb 05, 2005 3:46 pm

hogweed wrote:Wen you guys are talking about the heater switch, you actually mean the FAN switch. You had me worried there for a minute, as the HEAT control is a cable, not electrical..

The HEAT control is actually both.

It has a set of electrical contacts that open/close the heater valve, and it also has a mechanical (Bowden) cable that controls the mixing flap in the heater box.

Ian.

Sat Feb 05, 2005 4:00 pm

No then Ian, being fairly omniscient, you're going to tell me what's jammed that makes my (Bowden) cable feel like it's about to snap when I try and turn the heat on for the first time every day, then suddenlt releases with a pop... I expect it's that valve you mentioned? Will it cost me much to get fixed? I'm crap at that sort of thing.

PS Does that POA on your machine mean Price on Application? I can promise you I would love to buy it, but I think it's a case of "If Sir has to ask..."

Sat Feb 05, 2005 4:45 pm

I wouldn't say I'm omniscient, I just spend more time than is probably healthy messing with E30's

Anyway, back to your question. I suspect it's the mixer flap getting stuck inside the heater housing. I had a similar issue when I was fitting an Air Con heater box into my car. It was not actually the mixer flap, but one of the others. When it was closed all the way, it seemed to get stuck in that position until you 'broke' it free. Once it was moving, it was nice and smooth. I just trimmed a very small amount of plastic from the edge of the flap to stop it from catching. This was however quite easy as the heater was out of the car at the time.

For you to access the mixer flap, you will need to remove the heater matrix to gain access. Even then it may not be possible to get your hand inside far enough to shave the flap down. An old Stanley knife blade dragged across the edge of the flap works really well for this.

Ian.