This has been my favorite car hands down. Through 47 years of driving! One problem has just emerged and I'd like some input from anyone who might have had the same. Just over 4 years/72,000 miles into ownership of the new car the AC has stopped cooling. Took it to the dealer shop, who said they detected a freon leak inside the car around the dash area. They recharged at around $230, and said they think the evaporator will need to be replaced at the the tune of $2300 in order to fix it. I've read many forum posts about x3 AC problems of this type, which hinted at some basic problem with the equipment. Before getting my repair, just want to know if this is being elevated and any company-wide fix is being planned. From the forums, I will be asking about a check on the O-rings before going with the high-dollar repair. But, meanwhile, I'm still lovin' the car!
Welcome to the club & forums! What you've researched hasn't had anyone sharing what solved the problem for them? It would indeed seem unfortunate if something like the evaporator is a common failure item, due to it's inaccessibility - I don't know the specifics for your car, but the bulk of that repair, or probably more than half of it, might be labor for accessing the parts and then putting humpty-dumpty back together again. I too would be less than thrilled to be considering the possibility of such an expensive repair with the thought that it might very likely happen again so relatively soon. I presume the two likely culprits would be the expansion valve or the evaporator. I don't know the dealer's testing procedures but maybe Charlson here will pipe in - I would tend to think some leak-testing dye might normally be used to identify what's leaking & where before jumping to conclusions & swapping parts based on guesswork. Point being, I think there's supposed to be systematic leak-testing & identification procedures, although it might well be something like the whole dash needing to come out just to get to the parts to see the results of any leak testing, which could very well mean just replacing parts anyway because it takes so much to gain access.
Welcome to the club! Yes sadly that is a common repair for your vehicle and expensive as well. There are new and updated evaps now for this issue. I have done many many of these on your car.
The A/C on my 2008 BMW 328xi was feeling weak for a while and finally crapped out last week. (at only 33K miles) Dealer today diagnosed to the evaporator and quoted at $2600. (Chapman in Chandler, AZ) I calmly stated that: #1 properly designed A/C systems should last at least a decade #2 I could easily find at least 30-40 cases of evaporator leaks on BMW E90s online so it seemed very much like a well established issue #3 I had consulted with multiple shops, including the dealership where the vehicle was originally purchased to complain that the A/C felt weak but they all stated it was in-spec Service adviser confirmed that this seems like a fairly widespread issue and stated he would talk to his manager to see what they could do. I received a call back later stating that BMW was willing to pay for 70% of warranty price under good will and the cost to me would be $400. I know some people have gotten it fully covered but considering my car is two years out of warranty I thought it was a pretty good deal. So are these new and updated evaps the solution to all of our problems? Anyone have any repeat issues after replacement?
The new evaps are updated for this issue with them blowing out early on. Weather or not it will solve the problem I'm not sure but hopefully it will. This problem is quite common for the e9x vehicles and e70 vehicles.
