Air con is "dead" - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

Artur Costa · 6th August 2003, 20:10

Well last year we had a problem with the air con chain (or string I dont know how it is called in English), the chain was old and was not giving power to the air con compressor so in spain (marbelha) they changed it and it was fine until now.
Today my dad decided to take the M5 to work as its so hot hear (41ºC) 105ºF that he´s daily drive (A4 1.9TDI) sufers a lot with heat cus of the Turbo sistem the car is a lot slower....not that the car gives any prob cus its only 2mouths old but you know what I meen ..

Well he turned it on and the air con was making so mutch noise that he got scared! And worst it was coming hot air out of it

So he witched cars and went to work...foned me and told me to take the car to the dealer. You can imagine how it was to drive the car with 41ºC out side , no air con , and traffic (Im still sweating

)
I got to the dealer and .... no mecanic there , all of them on vacations !!!

So only dealer with mecanics was 20kms from here !! So into the car again...a bit of more hell...windows open (as a ricer

) so I wouldn´t die...(lol)
I got to the dealer and this one was nice , parking with shade and air con in the reception... the mecanic there told me it was the air con compressor and not the chain so I asked the price and he sayd more less 500€ to 600€.....I got everything seatle with the receptionist (nice girl....

) and I told I was gonna let the car there today at night .....
Into the car and home now (still hell hot inside it and out side)...

Well did this happend to anyone else here?
The aircon compresor went dead .... it was 12 years old so its not that Im complaining , but did anyone have this prob?
How mutch did you pay to fix it?

Sorry for the long writing...

BTW still 38ºC outside

Alan Archer · 8th August 2003, 11:27

It is a sad fact in my experience (four 5 series)
that if you don't use air con it wears out...
and if you do use air con it wears out....

I always look upon the A/C system as the one part of
a 5 Series that BMW didnt engineer....hence its about as
reliable as that fitted to anything else rather than any
better.

Oh well, enjoy cool air now,

at a cost !

Regards,

Alan Archer

M5touring reg · 10th August 2003, 23:54

yes the a/c-compressor cud be the problem on a 12 years old car -
if that is what they say, maybe - but often it is enough to just
build up the the pressure again by filling up the cooling liquid,
my a/c went from zero effect to full effect only filling 0.450 gram/
liter liquid, there is obviously a tiny leak somewhere but it can
not be found - contact an a/c (cooling systems) expert instead
of a BMW-mechanic, am a/c expert has better knowledge and will be MUCH cheaper - "guess how I know"

good luck !

M5touring reg · 10th August 2003, 23:54

yes the a/c-compressor cud be the problem on a 12 years old car -
if that is what they say, maybe - but often it is enough to just
build up the the pressure again by filling up the cooling liquid,
my a/c went from zero effect to full effect only filling 0.450 gram/
liter liquid, there is obviously a tiny leak somewhere but it can
not be found - contact an a/c (cooling systems) expert instead
of a BMW-mechanic, am a/c expert has better knowledge and will be MUCH cheaper - "guess how I know"

good luck !

jrturbo · 11th August 2003, 13:37

hi there

i would suggest taking your car to an air con specialist, get them to check the system.

should the compressor be faulty, get the model of the compressor from the sticker on and try purchasing it direct through an Air con supplier or alternatively have it rebuilt. either way it should work out cheaper than purchasing a new comprsesor from BMW.

good luck

Joe rubido

Artur Costa · 13th August 2003, 05:41

Well , we went yesterday to pic up the car and the bill was big (another one) but not very high cus they changed the oil of the compressor and changed the gas to a new one (probably with CFCs?)
The air con is working fine but they "took" us 455€