Air conditioner/heat

[Redfox]

So my question is, when the car is on, you can "hear" the whoosh of the heat or air, but when you stick your hand to the vent, nothing comes out, and I'd like to know why that is? There is a slight, but barely noticeable "draft" coming out. After a while the car will warm up some, but not enough as to where I feel it should. What could be causing this? Basically, the blower won't blow. (waits for perverted comments)

How do you fix this problem, or what could be wrong?

[bmwm42]

lets start with basics lol does the fan work on all speeds if its only working on high setting 4, the resistor needs to be replaced. If the thing never blows then well blower needs to be replaced. You could also check for the fuse for it but doubt it.

[Redfox]

lets start with basics lol does the fan work on all speeds if its only working on high setting 4, the resistor needs to be replaced. If the thing never blows then well blower needs to be replaced. You could also check for the fuse for it but doubt it.

Nah, it does whoosh on all speeds, and it just barely blows on all of them. Someone mentioned that I may need an AC conversion due to the fact the car is older and the ac usually sucks in older cars. How much would that cost? Estimate of course.

[StereoInstaller1]

Think of 3 systems intersecting at the vents.

The 3 systems are cold, hot and blow.

If you have hot, you should still have blow. If you have no cold, that is no biggie..unless you want it to work.

The blow part is the blower motor, the switch and the resister pack. Most common failure is the resistor pack, generally it dies leaving only "high", but if you have fan on all 3 or 4 speeds (depending on year), but still no "blow", you need to dive into your fan motor first, see if the "blades" (it is squirrel cage style) are properly attached, then make sure there are no obstructions in the airway.

You may well have a broken control cable, too.

[bmwm42]

time to replace the blower motor after that then you can do a ac conversion to r134a would need a new everything pretty much except lines condensor guesttimate 500 to 1k parts and labor

[Redfox]

Sounds fun.. Hopefully it's just the blower that needs to be replaced.. I really want ice cold air conditioning, and realllly dont want to spend $500+ dollars for it.

[scottinAZ]

if all you get is a puff of air, and the blower is on high speed, you most likely have a busted control cable (or three). Is the air not coming out at all (or very little), on any vent, or is it just the dash vents that get no flow (you have three sets, defrost, dash and footwell) see if the air comes out anywhere, and start with getting it flowing.

[Redfox]

UPDATE:

Took the car out tonight with an old plate, couldn't resist waiting anymore to register. Runs like a champ. But I messed with the settings.

One, the defroster switch gets stuck when you press it in. How do I fix this?

Two, air (not cold) for AC blows out, but ONLY on setting 4.
Air (semi warm heat) blows out ONLY on setting 4.
No other settings work when it comes to blowing anything out except setting 4.

What does this mean?
What do you think is wrong with it?

Also, I noticed when driving there is a whining and vibrating coming from what i believe is the fuel pump, and it's like a high pitched hum. Any ideas?

Keep in mind that I haven't taken it for a tune up yet.

Thanks

Rach

[Van Westervelt]

You need to replace the resister for the blower motor, as stated before.

[Redfox]

Alright thanks. As for the gas gauge, that doesn't seem to be moving either. Suggestions?

[Eecen]

Searching will find you answers to these questions.
Usually a lot faster than asking in a thread too

[Redfox]

Besides going down the list of 500 pages, is there a search feature to find the questions I have? I haven't used forums in a while, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Kershaw]

have you noticed the black navigation bar at the top of the page?

might want to start there.

[Jean]

1- it does sound like your blower resistor is bad, if the fan works only on high / 4th position. the blower resistor is in the same place as the blower fan. behind the cover on the firewall side in the engine bay.

as you know understand the blower fan is there for moving air, cold or hot. the box where the heater core is located (under the dash), also houses a core (evaporator core) for your a/c system. The heater/ac controls are then used to route the air that the blower fan blows through the right "channels" in this box.

2 - the gas gauge is controlled via one or two fuel level senders in the gas tank. the common issue is either bad cluster or missing/not tight nut behind the fuel and/or temp gauge behind the cluster. makes for bad electrical connection = half working or not working gauges.

[Redfox]

Thank you so much for your help, I'm really greatful!

May I ask, if you do know, what the possible high humming sound could be? The best way I could describe it is it sounds almost the same as an automatic window going down or up in a car, but it's consistent while driving.

And is there a way for the window defroster button to become "unstuck" besides hitting it hard a few times till it pops out?


Thanks Jean!

1- it does sound like your blower resistor is bad, if the fan works only on high / 4th position. the blower resistor is in the same place as the blower fan. behind the cover on the firewall side in the engine bay.

as you know understand the blower fan is there for moving air, cold or hot. the box where the heater core is located (under the dash), also houses a core (evaporator core) for your a/c system. The heater/ac controls are then used to route the air that the blower fan blows through the right "channels" in this box.

2 - the gas gauge is controlled via one or two fuel level senders in the gas tank. the common issue is either bad cluster or missing/not tight nut behind the fuel and/or temp gauge behind the cluster. makes for bad electrical connection = half working or not working gauges.