It has finally cooled down enough in NC the last few weeks to necessitate the use of the heater. AC is left on Auto almost all the time, with heat usually set 70-72 on the driver's side and 70-72 on the passenger's side. Air exchanger is in auto as well. Normal warm-up in past winters has been just a few minutes at speeds under 40 mph and idling, with airflow directed at the windshield, followed by pleasant, warm air in the footwells and torso-level vents. During the warm-up, warm air comes out of the passenger side of the windshield vent, cool air out of the driver's side windshield vent.

For the last several trips, the warm-up cycle has been about the same, but the airflow has not moved from the windshield to the footwells and torso until approximately 30 minutes into the drive. This would be annoying enough, but when the airflow does finally shift to the footwells/torso, warm air only flows to the passenger side, cold air comes out on the driver's side.

I have checked all the settings, tried taking it out of Auto and changing the red/blue dial in the vent settings menu, and nothing has worked to get the driver's side to blow warm air.

Evidently the blower is working, there's just something preventing warm air from flowing to the driver's side vents? But air is flowing...cold, very cold air.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

Happened again today. Very warm air coming out of the passenger side, outside temperature air (a balmy 27 F today) coming out of the driver's side.

Nobody has any ideas what would cause this?

Some more information: I had a thermostat fault back in October during our first cold snap. Local BMW mechanic reset the fault and it has not returned. I am also continuously getting the "high battery drain" warning with no other symptoms of a drained battery. I figure neither of these is related to the heater, as the passenger side still receives warm air.

 

BMW designed this into the car. When warm air is blown on the driver it promotes drowsiness. I think you will find it in the manual.

 

Haha. It's funny though...sometimes it blows cold, sometimes warm...this morning during a short drive, the passenger side got warm air, driver cold. After a 15 minute stop, on restart, the car warmed up normally and switched to giving the driver some warm air.

This is strange.

 

"...with airflow directed at the windshield, followed by pleasant, warm air in the footwells and torso-level vents." You made that sound so good lol

 

Actually, it as far as the temperature issue goes it sounds like "normal operation" ... but requires more 'personalization' to suit your tastes.

But to be sure I'd refer you to the climate section of your owner's manual. It will show you how to manipulate various features of your car's climate controls including intensity and direction of airflow. Those adjustments might help you obtain better personal results. If you don't have the owner's manual you can easily download one specifically for your year e60 from the Information section of this forum. If that fails to deliver the results you want I suspect it's a temperature sensor (not a thermostat) somewhere in the climate control system that is at fault.

The high battery drain issue is something a BMW shop needs to interrogate and diagnose - our cars can be electronic nightmares!

 

I think I may had a similar issue going on. I was having varying temperatures for my heater and it also seemed to not be as hot as I felt it should be. I recently opened up my microfilter boxes and cleaned them out. Also I cleaned out alot of the debris in the microfilters. It seemed to have worked.