Auxiliary fan

Post Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:56 am

G'day folks.

Summer is approaching in Qld and I'm trying to fix the wrongs of past regarding my auxiliary fan on my e30 323.
About a decade ago we had aux fan troubles and an auto elec replaced the fan and also jury rigged a new relay that only took input from the a/c compresor (not the temp switches on the radiator) and the fan only ran at high speed - no resistor. In his defence the link between K1 relay and fuse 3 is cactus so I guess he didn't want to spend much time on the job. Anyway, part of his "fix" was to throw out that little cable that runs from connector C113 (round 3 pin about 20mm across) to the connector on the fan (3 spade terminals).

Now that I'm trying get things back to normal I'm going to need this cable.
I can't find anything in the ETM or realoem about it. I can't even work out what type of connector it is so that I can make a cable of my own.

Does anyone know anything about this cable?

Thanks in advance
Dave

Post Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:42 am

Do you have a photo of the plug in question? Terminals for these cars can be a pain. You can get them from BMW but they seem to be a small aprt they like to charge what feels like a lot of money for. I spent hours on RS components website trying to find terminals which matched up to what BMW have but some ar every hard to find. Others are slightly more common but still take some time to dig out.

Post Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:52 am

Thanks for the repsonse - I might have to go into see the BMW parts guys.

Here is the connector on the aux fan

IMG_0187.jpg

And C113

IMG_0213.jpg

...Dave

Post Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:05 am

Ive never seen that spade connector type plug on an E30 fan, must be because its an early car, either way id get rid of it as its not waterproof and join your cables reliably
Most fans have the length of cable and plug you need connected direct to the motor/resistor
Ive just had a quick look on realoem and the plug housing you need is not listed under E30, I may have one I could get a part number off, otherwise the same plug is used on several other models E34/E36/E28 etc etc so should be available used.

Either way before you start repairing I would recommend testing the low speed function via the resistor as its common for these to burn out

Post Sat Sep 18, 2021 2:59 pm

Dan makes a good point to look at changing the fan connector for something waterproof. As for the C113 I suspected this is how it looked. I ran this type of plug on my E30 when I initialy converted to an electric fan. The terminals that came with it had short tails on them to be joined to the existing loom. The C113 connector PN is 61131378410 and this page has the various round connectors http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/E36-C ... mm_system/ I'm sure if you drop Cheltenham BMW a call or email they can tell you which is the correct terminal for that plug and get you on your way.

Post Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:04 am

Thanks for the comments.
We've had the car for nearly 30 years and it has been worked on by a number of mechanics/auto electricians - so anything could have happened along the way
I agree that the connector on the fan looks way from waterproof - exactly the same as our e24.
The C113 connector - I've found PN 61131378410 too - but I need his mate. I think it is 1-378-949 - found it on a picture of a replacement fan at ECS Tuning. That fan only had the one round connector not 2. Even if I can get that connector I'd still need to find the 2.5mm bullet connectors to make my own cable - might be a problem.
The realoem page for our e30 https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showpa ... Id=64_0516 shows (sort of) the connector just below the resistor.
I have a new resistor - so that should be okay.
I'll give our local BMW parts counter a call to see if they can help me out.

...Dave