I got a 2004 545i and... I started my drive from Miami to New York yesterday. After about 6 hour/ 500 miles into the drive, the A/C vent wasn't blowing any air at all, even if I put the air control to manual and set it to Max air. I can feel some cool air when I put my hand close to the vent, and I hear the fan noise really high but no air was coming out...

I also tried to set the Climate control in the iDrive to cool (blue bars) for both Driver and passenger side and set it high... I pulled over to a rest area for 10 mins and checked the fuse, it was all ok... and started the engine again, Now, it all worked fine for about 10 mins, I could feel the cool air, then stopped blowing air again.

I stayed overnight in North Carolina. this morning, the A/C and air are working just fine today. I still have a long drive to NY tomm, I don't want this problem to creep up again few hours into the drive. A/C compressor seems to be fine 'coz I could really feel the ice cold air....

Do I need to change the filter or something? any ideas?

Thank you in advance for any clues.

 

Sounds like the evaporator is getting frozen. Let all the ice melt off and you'll be fine.

 

Did this happen at night, after the outside temp had fallen? I'm thinking like noonehome that the evaporator had
frozen. But why....

 

Thank you both for responding. I will watch out for evaporator getting frozen on my way upto NY and return trip back to Miami as well, and post my results .

 

This was exactly my same reaction too -- that your evaporator was freezing. IF it's blocked off with leaves, built up gunk, etc. and can't drain its water -- the water you should see on the ground or in your garage floor when you pull in from driving it for a while -- it freeze up and turns into a block of ice within your system, which blocks the flow of air. That this is happening a while after you drive off sounds very familiar ... I had this happen to me many ages ago in a VW. Once I found out where the drain hole was and cleaned it out, all was solved because the rest of the AC system was working fine. Hopefully others with older BMW's can chime in.

 

OP, you said you had your A/C on "Max"? I think I read somewhere in the manual that Max setting is not meant to be used continuously - use it to cool the interior down and then switch from Max to normal A/C. I have never had a problem like yours though - just offering a "second" opinion

 

Sorry about Dup. posts.

GL keep us posted

 

We were having that exact problem in my dads 2002 X5. And we were driving up through Redding to Oregon on I5, and man was it hot. But anyways, we took it to a mechanic in Oregon and they said it just needed freeon or Refridgerant (same thing pretty much).

We would drive for about 10-20 min with the air on fine, then it would slowly die, and eventually only a little air was coming out. It was working in the back seat though. We would pull over, turn off the car, and start it up again a few minutes later and it would work fine for about 10-20 minutes before it started to die.

Any mechanic, gas station service station should be able to do it. I dont know how long it would take, a couple hours at the most if you know that for sure it needs freeon/refridgerant. If you want them to look through the AC and make sure everything else is working probably a few hours plus.

 

While speaking on AC, not to high jack your thread But why doesnt my ac get that cold?

 

forums.e60.net/uploads/1155867731/gallery_237_213_2073842.pdf
Information from IHKA technical bulletin:

SBT Integrated automatic heating/air-conditioning system (IHKA), Basic and High E60, BMW AG - TIS

Evaporator temperature sensor
The sensor measures the outlet temperature of the refrigerant at the evaporator to prevent icing from occurring.

Maybe another scenario:

Program for avoiding condensation on the window surfaces (IHKA High only)
Measures to prevent condensation on the windscreen depend on a number of conditions:
? The engine must be running
? The IHKA must be in automatic mode
The IHKA control unit evaluates condensation sensor signal (humidity). If condensation on the windscreen is imminent, the
following measures are initiated in turn until the condensation has been eliminated. If one measure proves to be ineffective, the
next measure is initiated. Once successful, the measures previously performed are reversed step-by-step in reverse order.
Measures against condensation on windscreen:
? Open the defrost flaps further (max. 17.5 %)
? Switch to partially fresh air from air-recirculation/AUC/automatic air-recirculation mode
? Switch from partially fresh air in air-recirculation/AUC/automatic air-recirculation mode to fresh air
? Switch off variable evaporator control
? Raise blower speed (max. 28 %)
? Reduce airflow to footwell (by about 60 %)
? Increase temperature setting (by max. 2.5 ?C)