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heater blower center vents

Discuss your latest mods or ideas, and anything to do with the BMW X5 (E53).
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Ryoken
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Location: Sunny Leeds

heater blower center vents

Post by Ryoken » Sat Dec 09, 2017 8:52 pm

just a quick one, the air coming out of the vents is acting as little weird,
when i want heat, ive always set the sentre vent knob wheel to hot , and the heater controls to auto and temp to max, and its been working fine ,but of late  i seem to be getting very little air from the centre vents.
the motor sounds like its blowing but not actually doing anything ,
ive changed the temp to cool and change knurl to cold  and air blasts out ,  so its not the knurl on the centre  vent,
i have noticed though that the motor speed does flutuate now and again,  it doesnt seem to stay stable,
i did today however , if i set motor to max and set heat to full, then turn off auto and set air vents  to upper and centre it does work ok,  but auto  is a bit off,
could it be the hedgehog?
ive not really described that very good have i :)
2002 e53 4.4  tempremental
2001 suzuki Hayabusa just for fun

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sleepyfolk
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Re: heater blower center vents

Post by sleepyfolk » Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:06 am

If the motor control has gone weird I think I’d replace the hedgehog anyway as it might only be a matter of time before it decides it’ll run the fan even with the ignition off and toast your battery, that’s what happened to mine anyway. No idea what else it might upset to be honest. If it’s in climate control auto mode it will fluctuate but if it’s doing its own thing when set manually just change it.

Must say, I struggled with the controls and centre vent and after much reading about how to set the controls I leave mine set as follows which came from one forum or other but seems to work for me:
1. Set air con (snowflake symbol below demister) to on - green light on
2. Set recirc control to auto - left hand green light on
3. Set climate control to auto, green light on and should say auto on screen
4. Then just use the up and down arrows to set the required temp, I never change any of the other buttons now.
5. If you set the temp up high the fan will kick in at a high setting once the engine has warmed up and there is warm air to blow so there’s no need to mess with the fan speed.

The centre vent I think is a bit weird and more separate from the climate system in terms of its control, my understanding is that it takes air from outside directly and the centre wheel allows a certain amount of the air from the climate control system to mix with it, apparently designed so you can blow cold air on your face to keep you awake without affecting the climate control system. If the have the centre wheel on the warmest setting it will mix whatever temperature air you have set on the climate control with a smaller amount of the outside air.

So if I’m not talking bollocks, try setting your auto controls again and see if the fan is really misbehaving or whether it helps with the auto recirc flaps etc
Last edited by sleepyfolk on Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
E53 X5 4.6is Carbon Black 2003
Mercedes CLK 320
Audi A6 Quattro 2.4

X5-D-Sport
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Re: heater blower center vents

Post by X5-D-Sport » Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:04 pm

it also needs to have the air directed upwards by the tinsy push button on the air direction controls to get air out of the center vent properly.

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