My 96 318 has a cooling problem. I have been lucky and caught it starting to get near red line hot and pulled over and shut it off. Cooled down and tried to jumper the double temp switch (in top of radiator on pass side). It will jumper on high but ont on low. Normally this indicates the fan is burned out on low speed, but I have tested it by removing and jumpering directly to the battery. I have checked the relays and fuses in the fuse center, all seem to wrk normally. Where and what is the ac pressure switch? Any other places to check that I might be missing? Just need some direction for troubleshooting. Another question...................where are all the archives gone to? Thanks in advance...........Mike
Wish I was more of an a/c Wish I was more of an a/c expert for ya Mike, but that's hardly my forté See this page and scroll down a bit, it describes the a/c pressure switch - you'll have to search for your own car, this googled up for E30's... http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/catalog/shopcart/BE30/POR_BE30_VENTac_pg3.htm Presumably the water pump is all ok? Coolant level & radiator cap good? System holding pressure? (never open when hot, if you value not getting scalded) Have you tested the fan clutch? The aux fan I think is only supposed to kick in with the a/c and/or maybe as a supplement when things get real hot? From what Pelican says there, the a/c pressure switch should only be affecting a/c operability? If that fails, more likely you'd burn up the compressor or something like that? Only way the a/c compressor could make the car run hot is it's putting more load on the engine than it should, like if the a/c clutch or compressor was locking up or burning out? If you're enough of a d-i-y'er, get the E36 Bentley manual if you don't have it already, that likely will come in handy. The old forums may eventually become an accessible archive, word is it'll be couple months or more, maybe.
cooling fan on low speed Hi MGarrison, a familiar voice of wisdom. I appreciate your reply. It could be the fan is really set to low speed as an ac aid. I don't remember it that way specificlly last year when I was having a fan problem that had burned out on low speed. But it does come on (low speed) when running ac. So, this is a plus. I have just replaced the water pipe 11-53-1-174-738 and the hose that blew off last week. I need a new bleed screw as well, mine wont seal again. I am lucky to have a cycle for other transportation as getting parts and finding time are precious commodities. Yes, you have me dialed in correctly as a DYI and my Bentley manual is dog eared. Needless to say, my right bionic eye is glued to the temp guage as I aproach traffic. As an old retired guy working part time, I can use the other time to fix, polish and clean my precious convertible. thanks Mike
condensor fan 96 318 cooling fan problems. I had to buy a new radiator as I found the bleed screw threads fractured. Also, the plug at the fan had shorted and this I replaced with some good spades. Now after all this I am a bit paranoid. I would like to install the pusher fan that is common to the six cylinder 3 series. My condensor has a support bent framing in front of it, is this common to the six cylinder series? I have taken a picture and can't find where to attach it, but if you would look into your grill and tell me what you see, then I can add the fan to my car. I will wire it to run with ignition on as a back up to the suction fan that I have. thanks in advance........Mike
I have E30's Mike, so I can't I have E30's Mike, so I can't tell you exactly what your E36 should be looking like. E30's have a viscous fan clutch, and an electrically operated fan that supplements cooling and aids with extra cooling loads from the a/c system. I sorta would expect that your car came with a pusher fan - if the car took a front end hit, perhaps it's possible a replacement didn't get put back? You might try searching bimmerforums.com or bimmerfest.com, maybe you could dig up some pics there?
Hay MGarrison, I think I should like to have a E30 one day. Neat cars. So, six months later and I forgot about the extra fan install. With all I did, new radiator, replace electrical connections, replace water pipe and the biggie.....get the air out of the system, all is well. I still miss this site and the old forums, nice to visit again. Thx......Mike
Welcome back, as it were, Mike, hope you had a good holiday & glad you resolved your cooling issues! All the posts from the old forums are here (possibly shuffled a bit, topic-wise), they were moved over, but, obviously, the new website and forums have a much different look-&-feel than the old ones. Let's hope your cooling problem _stays_ solved!
