Gee_115

This is wierd today was kinda cold so I turned on the heat. The heat only comes through the rear center console and the windshield and window defrost vents. If I turn it on the front vents or footwell it is blowing straight cold air. Funny though when I tried the AC it blows through all the vents. It is not a big problem the car is still being warmed but I just can't use the front driver or passenger vents. I suspect it must be an actuator somewhere, would help if someone could point me in the right direction.

Krisbiker2

I had this problem on my 2003 car- dealers said it was impossible. When the heater unit was eventually stripped, it turned out part of the casing inside was broken, allowing cold air to the footwells to bypass the heater matrix. After much "how the f**k did this happen", it was found in earlier years the blower was replaced(by authorised dealer), and conclusion was that they must have broken the casing and either not realised or just reassembled it anyway. As the car was covered by warrenty, this was all no cost to me, if you're not under warrenty, cost to see if this is problem would be high I would imagine as the whole dash had to come out before the prob was found. The dealer had the car for over a week, getting the casing was some of this time but I shudder to think what it would have cost if I was paying. Hopefully you are A) under warrenty, or suffering some other problem

bgreaves

Go into your iDrive settings and make sure that on the drivers side of the display, that the 'Heat' (shown in a red color) is turned up. I had the same problem and it did the trick. if you need to understand more, let me know.

Gee_115

That's not the issue already did that.

Darkchild

I have no heat and when I unplug water control valve I only get heat can't figure out problem

ctcoin

What car and year do you have? I have a 2007 530xi and had a heating problem.

brooklynbmw

I have the same problem ..heat only through the windshield vent and feet vents...but cold air through the dash vents its crazy!!!

ctcoin

There is an inherent heating design problem with some of the 5 series cars. Unfortunately, some 5 series cars did not come with an auxiliary heat pump. Without the pump, there is inadequate flow of water through the heater core. You will really notice this on cold days (below 20F). When your car heat is in "AUTO" there are sensors in the heating system that will not allow the dash vents nor the leg vents to open until the air coming out of the defrost reaches a certain temperature. Once this temperature is reached, then the lower vents will open. BMW does this, so you will not get cold air blowing on your legs and feet.
Without the positive pressure from an auxiliary pump the water is actually sucked through the heater core by water passing by in the lower radiator hose via a venturi effect. This is done by the water that returns from the heater core meets up with the lower radiator hose in a Y fitting. During cold temperatures, you need more flow because the demand is higher. This system cannot handle the demand. You have a choice to either install an auxiliary pump with is complicated or you can do what I did. I installed a small piece of aluminum flashing in the tee of the inlet hose where is connects into the upper radiator hose to essentially "cup" the water and force it down through the heater core and it seems to work very well. I have never had heat in my car below 20F while driving to work and now I have great heat even in the single digits! I must warn you, you do this at your own risk. I have only driving my car with this for about a month now and it seems to work very well. I would recommend taking this out during the summer months because I have not tested yet and there may be some cavitation going on as the water passes by the flashing and it may cause gas coming out of solution and this may eventually cause a vapor lock. It took me about 1/2 to an 1 hour to make flashing part and install it. Before you do this I would check to make sure the heater solenoids are working and you have no restrictions in the the heater core. Make sure that when you put the flashing into the heater hose that it still wants to spring back out so it grips the the inside of the hose (Do not over bend it). I used electrical tape to hold it tighter to install it and then pulled the tape off once it was inside the heater hose. Also, make the sure you make the longest piece you can fit into the hose so you get more material into the heater hose. You do not want this piece to come loose, because it will make its way into your engine. Like I said before, you do this at your own risk.

ctcoin

A couple questions: Was the heat in "AUTO" mode ? If yes, what happens if you manually go into vent settings and change them? Do you get heat out the vents then? If so, then it is not an actuator.