Its summer in UAE and its extremely hot so we do our best making sure that the AC system is maintained
gas refile changing belts and pulleys etc which i already did some time back
yesterday morning I started my car heading to work and tried to start my AC but nothing comes out of it at all
the RPM moves when AC is on and you can clearly notice that the front fan is working fine
doubts and thoughts would go to compressor and lots of money paying when you go to garaj as they start guessing and rubbing your pocket
i did my homework when i came to office and search around and here is what i came with
the symptoms would be that AC remains ON even when you switch your car off in some cases which would drain your battery
when you switch the blower to the Max , it doesn't really feel big change between medium level , still not max blow
you would hear some weird noise coming out of the AC also you would feel the blower power goes between up and down every while , so knowing that there is no gas leak in the pipes coming and going to compressor which can be checked by examining the compressor pressure we are mostly looking at a common problem in the E46 and from experience its in many other BMW (talking about old generation from 1995 up to 2004 mostly)
which is the Blower Regulator or Final Stage Regulator , this part fails after sometime for some reason and it actually affects very much the blower performance (this is one of the reasons makes people hate used German cars claiming that its AC is not cool)
I decided to give it a shot and buy that part cost of 150 Dhs and took the car for fixing
Asked the workshop for a guessing of the problem and he started guessing and i should leave the car for checking cost would be 1000 Dhs +
drove to another workshop and decided to use some tools myself to do it, all you need is screw driver normal one and another T18 or T20 screw based on the car model
removed the glove box fully (6 screws for my case with normal screw driver) , set on the passenger seat upside down head down and foots up coz the place is tight and that would be the only way you can control the fixing on the side close to the gear you will find one part to be removed with T18 2 screws once you remove the same you can see the regulator that is very easy to move py pushing clip and pull the regulator, unplug it and install the new one then reverse all fixing steps and you are done
I would strongly recommend that you remove the battery cable before you start to avoid any short or electric shock which I faced
attached picture where you can see the original fitted regulator VS the aftermarket to the left
also the picture of the view when you remove glove box showing the part that needs removal to reach the FSR
you may find loads of threads online for the same with details videos if you do your homework
the labor time took me 30 min and cost of 150 Dhs, now i can swear that my AC never performed so well as now since i ever bought the car
hope this would benefit others and good luck with the fix
gas refile changing belts and pulleys etc which i already did some time back
yesterday morning I started my car heading to work and tried to start my AC but nothing comes out of it at all
the RPM moves when AC is on and you can clearly notice that the front fan is working fine
doubts and thoughts would go to compressor and lots of money paying when you go to garaj as they start guessing and rubbing your pocket
i did my homework when i came to office and search around and here is what i came with
the symptoms would be that AC remains ON even when you switch your car off in some cases which would drain your battery
when you switch the blower to the Max , it doesn't really feel big change between medium level , still not max blow
you would hear some weird noise coming out of the AC also you would feel the blower power goes between up and down every while , so knowing that there is no gas leak in the pipes coming and going to compressor which can be checked by examining the compressor pressure we are mostly looking at a common problem in the E46 and from experience its in many other BMW (talking about old generation from 1995 up to 2004 mostly)
which is the Blower Regulator or Final Stage Regulator , this part fails after sometime for some reason and it actually affects very much the blower performance (this is one of the reasons makes people hate used German cars claiming that its AC is not cool)
I decided to give it a shot and buy that part cost of 150 Dhs and took the car for fixing
Asked the workshop for a guessing of the problem and he started guessing and i should leave the car for checking cost would be 1000 Dhs +
drove to another workshop and decided to use some tools myself to do it, all you need is screw driver normal one and another T18 or T20 screw based on the car model
removed the glove box fully (6 screws for my case with normal screw driver) , set on the passenger seat upside down head down and foots up coz the place is tight and that would be the only way you can control the fixing on the side close to the gear you will find one part to be removed with T18 2 screws once you remove the same you can see the regulator that is very easy to move py pushing clip and pull the regulator, unplug it and install the new one then reverse all fixing steps and you are done
I would strongly recommend that you remove the battery cable before you start to avoid any short or electric shock which I faced
attached picture where you can see the original fitted regulator VS the aftermarket to the left
also the picture of the view when you remove glove box showing the part that needs removal to reach the FSR
you may find loads of threads online for the same with details videos if you do your homework
the labor time took me 30 min and cost of 150 Dhs, now i can swear that my AC never performed so well as now since i ever bought the car
hope this would benefit others and good luck with the fix
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