[Lomag]

Hey Guys,

I just got back from some work in NY. It was a toasty 104 F outside, probably 130+ F in the car, who knows. I turned the A/C on MAX and it seems to me like the passenger side vents were blowing noticably cooler air than the drivers side vents. I moved my hand between the middle vents back and forth the entire way home (~45 min drive) and it felt the same each time. In addition even when the A/C is not on MAX, so I set the same temperature on both driver and passener sides, the passenger side still feels cooler. I'm going to check that daily now but it seems I might have another thing on the to-do list for the dealer.

Two weeks ago or so a friend and I took a trip down to Atlantic City on a hot day (not as hot as today, but probably 85-90 F) and on the way down he said to me that the A/C did not seem as cool as it should be We had both driver and passenger sides cranked down to the minimum temperatures. So I put it on MAX and it still did not seem as cool overall. I didn't pay attention to the vent differences then though.

Anyone else experience this?

[vegastrashed]

I had this problem last year. This is what someone told the problem was:

Quote

If it's very humid, moisture condenses on the coils and can freeze, which prevents air from flowing over them properly and ruins the ability of the AC to actually cool anything.

If that happens, you just need to wait until the ice melts before your AC will work again. I'd bet that is what happened that day.

Another solution I read here was to blow regular air or even heat for about 10 minutes. Then turn on the A/C.

[Lomag]

Well that's funny! On the trip down to A/C that day I also got a flat tire. After pulling over and confirming a slow leak we got back in the car and little pieces of ice/snow came out of vents when I first turned on the car.. it was like christmas in the summer for a few seconds.. LOL.

But that wouldn't explain today's issue..

[vegastrashed]

Okay, you had a two part question. I think I answered your second question about when you went to Atlantic City and how it started to snow in the car. Your first question, I dunno.

[gabman]

Lomag, on Jul 18 2006, 02:32 PM, said:

Hey Guys,

I just got back from some work in NY. It was a toasty 104 F outside, probably 130+ F in the car, who knows. I turned the A/C on MAX and it seems to me like the passenger side vents were blowing noticably cooler air than the drivers side vents. I moved my hand between the middle vents back and forth the entire way home (~45 min drive) and it felt the same each time. In addition even when the A/C is not on MAX, so I set the same temperature on both driver and passener sides, the passenger side still feels cooler. I'm going to check that daily now but it seems I might have another thing on the to-do list for the dealer.

Two weeks ago or so a friend and I took a trip down to Atlantic City on a hot day (not as hot as today, but probably 85-90 F) and on the way down he said to me that the A/C did not seem as cool as it should be We had both driver and passenger sides cranked down to the minimum temperatures. So I put it on MAX and it still did not seem as cool overall. I didn't pay attention to the vent differences then though.

Anyone else experience this?

Lomag,

You may want to first check your climate control settings in I-Drive. There is a right and left setting, it is possible that your driver side setting is set warmer than your passenger side setting, if memory serves me correctly the warmer setting is orange and the colder setting is blue.

I had the same problem and after my tech fiddled around with the A/c for over 1 hour, he realized that the setting was on winter setting, all he did was turn it down to the blue setting and presto A/C was perfect.

Let me know how you make out

Gabman

[Lomag]

Yes I thought about that however in my iDrive there's only one setting, I assume it applies it both sides. The passenger side can only adjust the middle and bottom vent air flow rate while the driver side can adjust top, middle, and bottom vent air flow along with that red/blue bar setting. I have that set on one blue bar with the flow rates the same on both sides and all the vents open fully physically. I believe also when you hit MAX it overrides all the iDrive settings. I'm stumped.

[low_ball_88]

Lomag, on Jul 19 2006, 11:17 AM, said:

Yes I thought about that however in my iDrive there's only one setting, I assume it applies it both sides. The passenger side can only adjust the middle and bottom vent air flow rate while the driver side can adjust top, middle, and bottom vent air flow along with that red/blue bar setting. I have that set on one blue bar with the flow rates the same on both sides and all the vents open fully physically. I believe also when you hit MAX it overrides all the iDrive settings. I'm stumped.

I think you are right Lomag. That setting is only for airflow intensity. Temperature setting is on the exterior dial and not through i-drive. If you set it to AUTO, it negates/cancels out the intensity setting. Correct me if I am wrong.

[gabman]

Lomag, on Jul 19 2006, 12:17 PM, said:

Yes I thought about that however in my iDrive there's only one setting, I assume it applies it both sides. The passenger side can only adjust the middle and bottom vent air flow rate while the driver side can adjust top, middle, and bottom vent air flow along with that red/blue bar setting. I have that set on one blue bar with the flow rates the same on both sides and all the vents open fully physically. I believe also when you hit MAX it overrides all the iDrive settings. I'm stumped.

I went out to look at my car, you are right, temperature setting indicated on driver seat only, however I have my middle position set to 4 horozontal blue bars, I think one is the weakest while 4 is the maximum,
To the right of the bar settings is a pictogram of a head, body and feet, make sure while you are increasing the blue bars that the body portion to the right is blue.

I do not think that MAX overrides I drive setting , with regards to the temperature settings, I beleive it is only for the amount of air flow. Try setting to 4 blue bars and see if any better

[drjochen]

Funny. My car did a similar thing yesterday.
It then stopped cooling alltogether after ~ 25 min of driving.
I went to the supermarket, came back, and it suddenly worked again.
We are pretty close in location and it was also hot and VERY humid here yesterday.

[ledbettm]

The same thing happened to me in my 07 550i. The outside temp was about 97 and the humidity was very high. I pulled off the interstate and drove to a dealership. They took a look at the car and found a service bulletin on this issue. It appears the software is set to reduce the cooling effect when the evaporator reaches 34.2 - 34.8 degrees. It is intended to prevent ice from forming. The solution is to change the setting but the only way to do it is through a complete CIP upgrade. The bulletin states that stopping the car and shutting it down for 15 minutes will resolve the problem. It also says this is most common on long trips with high humidity and high temps. I found that you can also shut down the compressor by manually tuning of the AC. This will raise the evaporator temp very quickly and fix the issue temporarily.

[drjochen]

Isn't it sad that a igh-tech company such as BMW cn't build a f......... A/C.........

[tab545]

drjochen, on Jul 20 2006, 10:35 AM, said:

Isn't it sad that a igh-tech company such as BMW cn't build a f......... A/C.........

This happened to me recently, too: on a long drive, all of a sudden it was making tons of noise but accomplishing very little. It's infuriating. So it doesn't work when it gets hot and humid? Ummmm, that's when I want it to work. That's really annoying. If it's freezing that's the problem, set it to increase the coolant temperature to above freezing, but still keep it working somewhat. I don't design these things, but it is really infuriating when it stops working!

[Ricracing]

It will be interesting to hear what our Brittish and other EU Forum members will say.

It's about the hottest summer ever in the EU as well...

[JWBMW]

Ricracing, on Jul 20 2006, 09:10 PM, said:

It will be interesting to hear what our Brittish and other EU Forum members will say.

It's about the hottest summer ever in the EU as well...

Hottest July day ever in the UK yesterday (36.5C only!) but I had no problem on a 3 hour drive to London. Basic air con system worked fine and has done all week during our heat wave once the system has got going after 5 minutes running.

[Ricracing]

We had only 32 C and no problems either (with the EU standard auto-AC).


PS. My car has now seen both -32 C and + 32 C, works perfectly each way