AchtungE60

Quote:

Originally Posted by yajimbo

I have read some posts on this but, I want owners from Texas to chime in. Especially owners who leave their car outside during Texas heat. Is it normal for the A/C to take 10-15 mins to cool? Or should it just start blowing cold air? Another thing is that it cools well enough when driving on the highway but when I get to an idle position(stop light) the air then blows warm/weird odor air. It also cools pretty well at night but again when I get to an idle position it blows warm/weird odor air. What does this mean? I am going to a independent German car shop, but I would like to know what I can expect.

Check your cooling settings.
If all ok Check your refidgerant levels....go to auto store and pick up a large can of 134A with the gauge, should be no more than $30
There's a 32oz like this...you probably won't need it all but I'm sure eventually you'll need it sometime in your life.
http://shop.advancea...7CGRP2004A_____

Should be filled while car has someone in it revving it up between 2500-3000 rpms. I usually keep mine at about 38psi.

These e60's seem to take a minute or two or driving before they blow cold and it takes another 5 minutes or so to get to maximum cooling from my experience.
One thing I noticed that was once I changed my belts last season, the A/C started to blow colder faster. Doesn't make too much sense to me unless I had slippage and wasn't aware. Worth a try either way.
You take it to a shop and they'll juice you especially when you're desperate. It's the American way.

Gpzguy

I REALLY can not agree with trying to recharge your system with the product shown in the link of this post. It contains a leak sealant, and once you put that crap in your system, any decent shop that does A/C work won't touch your car with a 10-foot pole after that, and yes, they do test for it. If they try to recover your refrigerant with that stop leak in it, it'll contaminate their system. The simple way they test for it is to hook your system up and bleed some of the pressure off through a very small orifice (pin-hole size) and see if it clogs up.

I generally do not endorse recharging your own system for many reasons that I don't want to go into right now, that is unless you have access to the correct equipment (a low side pressure gauge is not enough) and training. Any reputible independant shop can evacuate your system, measure how much refrigerant was in it, and leak test your system for pretty cheap.

Another thing you can do is get a black light and look at your A/C system under the black light. Often there is a UV dye put in the refrigerant oil that glows greenish under the black light. If you see any green glow around your condensor, compressor, or the lineset and joints, then putting more regrigerant in there is just going to leak back out again.

I'm a mechanical engineer, and I've been turning wrenches on many, many different kinds of cars now for a long time, and the A/C system is something that, other than diagnosis, I generally won't touch. There are too many expensive consequences if you get it wrong. I could go on for pages and pages of my own tales of woah and wasted time and money and hard knocks and skinned knuckles, but I won't. Just my honest opinion of course.

tonyb635

I had a similar problem here in SC. It would take a good 15 minutes to blow cold. I started using a windshield heat deflector and I am very impressed. Now the cold air starts blowing within 1-2 minutes max. My windows are not tented but I'm thinking I might do this too. So I'm thinking the sun heating up the dash must have a lot to do with the AC not cooling quickly or at least part of the problem...

viper1213

i have the same problem with my 04 e60. In houston it gets hot and it takes the ac 10 minutes at times, and other times it just blows warm air im actually taking it to the dealership tomorrow to see what they say.

tex_phil

Yeah man, same problem here in SA, its been hot as hell. Feels like warm air like viper said

Evotivo

I live in corpus area and i have the same problem. I'm guessing its the extreme heat.

Bdaddylo

After a minute or two, your A/C should be blowing noticeably cooler air even at idle. If it's not blowing cold, then I would get it checked. I have experienced on occasion when my A/C did not blow cold because the compressor would not engage. To remedy this I turned the A/C off and on until the compressor engaged.

I've found that the fastest way to cool off the interior of your car is to drive it with all the windows down for several minutes and be sure to tint your windows and use a sunshade.

gotabyte

Had mine at dealer yesterday and they stated it's normal in that car to not blow cold air right away. That sucks that BMW cannot make an air conditioner that works when it's hot. Two minutes of hot air is pathetic and a poor answer on an expensive car. My F150 does not have that problem for 1/4th the price.

stoic1

I use my windshield heat deflector almost every day regardless of how warm it is. Tint is a must here in Texas. One little tidbit most people know about, but some might not. When hitting the button to open the door lock keep the button pressed, it will open all the windows then it will open the sun roof. Best way to dump all that hot air in the passenger cabin!

Once I get going down the road with the a/c on, I'll close all the windows. When I close the sunroof I then open it vertically to let the rest of the hot air vent out. When I feel the cabin cooling down enough I close the sunroof, now I'm chillin.

Bdaddylo

I think that was a pathetic response from Peake. My dash read 102 yesterday and my A/C blew cool air within 10 seconds and was cold within 2 minutes.