Blower motor stops for a moment

[danv]

This morning, as I was driving along a street with stoplights, something odd happened: my hvac blower motor stopped working for a moment. I had it at the #2 setting, and the temp knob set to full heat, and I heard the motor stop. A moment later it started again. I remember it stopping at least one more time, and I changed the blower motor speeds, and it starts working. I don't know if changing speeds made it work or not.

This was at like 6:45am after a cold, below-freezing night. The car had been running for about 5 minutes, and had been driven less than a mile, so it was still warming up.

It only happened 2 or 3 times, and caught me by surprise, so I can't say for sure what, if anything, I did to cause this. It might have been from the car stopping or crawling while I waited for the light to change.

Any ideas? This is my first e30, I've been daily driving it since July, and have never noticed this before.

[danv]

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I did search and didn't find anything that seemed similar to this problem. I don't mind a link to a relevant thread.

[E30 Cabrio]

There is a resistor that is possibly going bad. The symptoms are similar to yours that get progressively worse and the Heater/Blower eventually only ends up working on the #4 position.

It's an easy fix and a search should yield results. Different model E30's have the resistor in different places I believe, but it's an easy, inexpensive fix.

Edit: Here you go: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show...motor+resistor

[danv]

I had read that the resistor can fail and cause it to only work on the 4th setting, didn't realize it could cause intermittent operation. I'll look into this, thanks!

[E30 Cabrio]

I had read that the resistor can fail and cause it to only work on the 4th setting, didn't realize it could cause intermittent operation. I'll look into this, thanks!

The Resistor may be at fault here, but not that's not 100% certain until it's checked with a Multimeter.

This link shows what the readings should be for the Resistor and to also clean and check the thermal switch:

http://e30.bmwdiy.info/blower-resistor/index.html

[KenC]

Contacts on the actual blower are probably going out. It just happened to mine recently. I replaced it with a good used unit. Little bit of a pita, but something that needs to be done.

You can tell if it's the actual blower motor pretty easily though. When it stops working, pull the cover off of the firewall so that you can see it. Give it a little nudge with a pencil or something... if it starts spinning, it's the blower motor going out.