I just bought a 95ti sport w/ only 34k on it. Love it so far. The heater seems to blow warm air at best..anyone else have a problem like this?

Any suggestions would help cause Winter is brutal in Wisconsin.......

check the level of your coolant. If it is too low, it won't work to it's full potential or won't even work at all.

Could be a loose cable to the temp dial.
If it's cold at idle and luke warm at speed, that might be the problem. You need to remove the glove box and knee bolster. Reinstall cable and secure with a small screw.

Another possibilty is a faulty bypass valve located on the firewall. I would replace that first since it might be easier.

my first guess would be a thermostat stuck open. it will overcool the engine.

Check If Your Temp Gauge Reads Above 1/4 Cold. If It Does The Heater Valve Would Be The Next Thing To Check. With The Heat Wide Open Both Hoses Shoud Be Hot. The Valve Is Mounted On The Firewall Behind The Intake.

Hi, I have a question. Where the temp gauge is supposed to show at normal state? Half-way? More that half way?
Thanks!

Pretty much center. Maybe a needle width off center.

I found this thread because I had the same problem. The heater was warm at best, but only if you turned on cab air recycle. Without the cab air recycle it wasn't warm at all.
We had it serviced yesterday and they replaced the thermostat (said it was stuck open). The heat works better, no doubt, because now we have somewhat-hot air without cab air recycle turned on, and pretty-hot air with the cab recycle on. However there are two things bugging me:
1) Am I spoiled by every other car I've ever owned? Or are we supposed to feel HOT air coming out of our 318ti vents? My mazda blows damn-hot air, and with the new thermostat the beamer's air isn't as hot as the mazda's.
2) This is a mystery: if I turn the blower selector dial to the place between feet & face, the air turns COLD. The outside air is cold here right now.
Do you think it could be a faulty bypass valve? That is some strange behavior...my thinking is that the air should always be hot regardless of blower dial position, and if I fix that problem the hot air should also be hotter.
Anyone have any ideas?

It should be fairly hot but never was as warm as my Mazda either.
Could be air in the system.
It's easy enough to check the bypass valve.
Once the t-stat is open and your heat is on both hoses should be warm.

Ahhh, thanks 1996. That's interesting about the heat not being as hot.

Mine is VERY hot. Just replaced my radiator and flushed my cooling system. Did the collant system bleed procedure as documented in my Bentley manual. It's not kinda warm, it's hot and it's supposed to be.

I would say air in system. burp it, worked for me last year now it's hot city!!!!!

vwt3

Thanks for the suggestion vwt3...but how do I burp it?
:smile:

Severian, you can burp the radiator by loosening the plastic screw at the top or the radiator next to the fill cap, start the engine and let run. You will loose some coolant so you might want to put something under your car. Let the coolant flow from the hole where the screw is until you only have coolant and no air escaping, then tighten up the screw. easy. My heater was blowing cold this fall, I replaced the bowden cable from the temp dial to the heater box and it fixed mine. Check to see how far the cable is opening the flap at the box, it should open all the way, mine wasn't.

Thanks very much Breeze30.

Do you have a diagram or other online resource that describes the heater box and how I would access it? Is this the same cable mentioned earlier in this thread where the poster said I should remove the glove box and the knee bolster? I will try to find diagrams of these as well, but I wonder if I have the aptitude to perform this procedure, so to speak.

I've changed the oil in her a few times now, and I installed car stereo stuff in another car of mine, but I don't have experience with glove boxes, and I don't know what a knee bolster is. I'm willing to learn though!

Ah! I found this so far from realoem.com

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...99&hg=64&fg=20

I can see where the bowden cable lies behind the control panel, I suppose the question is whether the other end of that cable properly opens the flap at the heater box, found at the other end?

Correct. You have to take the glove box out of the car, its only 6 screws or so, unhook the glove box light and switch wires. Then take out the knee bolster, its only 4 10mm bolts. Then unhook the heater vent for the passenger side. Then you can see the other end of the cable and the flap it opens.

Awesome, thanks. I will definitely try this.

Hey Severian, sorry I did'nt get back to ya on your how to burp question, wife is in hospital so i been out of the house and away from my laptop. Looks like breeze30 got it covered hope it works out let us know.

vwt3

Thank you for the reply, vwt3. I hope everything turns out okay with your wife, that's more important!

I have another update guys. I'm in the midst of attempting this repair. So far I have

* taken off the glove box and the knee bolster
* I see a flap for the FOOT vents, and that seems to be opening & closing fine. I have yet to remove the passenger face vent.
* attempted to bleed the coolant system using the small, black plastic screw next to the coolant cap

Strange...as I stood by my engine and waited for coolant (or air) to come out of that hole that the plastic screw plugged, nothing happened. I waited a good 10 minutes with the engine idling, but no coolant came out. Is this indicative of a problem? I assumed coolant would eventually rise and start pouring out. The temp dial is smack at 50%.

Nother update, holy **** you guys were right!! I removed the floor vent tube on the passenger side and can see the yellow lever and the bowden cable. It was NOT pulling the lever far enough toward the inside of the cab to fully open the heater...it was mixing hot and cold air. Awesome!!

Now another problem, the little metal clamp came OFF of the yellow lever, so I'm stuck trying to put the clamp back on before I figure out how to make it stay. Looking at the assembly I must think to myself...this is just waiting to happen. Kinda sad, huh? This tiny metal clamp attached to a little plastic lever.

I'll update you if i succeed in attaching it again. Thanks you guys, I never could've done this without you!

Had the same problem with the dial on my 318ti. Adjusted the cable and now I got heat.

I found the problem. A piece of yellow plastic at the end of the Bowden cable USED to clip to the heat duct near the lever to hold the cable in place. That piece of yellow plastic broke, so I assume I'll need a new cable. How in god's name will I get to the other end of this cable, I don't need to take the dash apart, will I?? Can I just take out the heat/radio panel??

Oh boy...

The cable is cable A in this picture, and the clip is part B. That clip snapped. Anyone know what I can do to fix this? Do I need the new part I wonder...

hmmm

I believe the fix is to pop the cable back on and drill a small hole and use a screw it hold it.

Man...this is disheartening. It's VERY hard to work in that area, and unfortunately it's impossible for me to pop the cable back on because the plastic tab that SHOULD click into place on the duct broke off. Therefore I have a bowden cable that's flapping around and I have nowhere to drill a hole, or reattach it to the duct.

I'm kicking around the idea of drilling a hole, then using very stiff twine to tie the cable back into place. I don't know how I'll drill...I'll need to hand drill a hole or punch it or something.

do you have the pic?

would you be able to get a hand tap in there?

A great time for the digital camera base to stop functioning. Damn kodak and their stupid proprietary hippy crap.

I'm gonna try to rig something. But thanks so much for your help you guys. OT, but any guesses why "burping" my coolant system didn't lead to coolant coming out that plastic screw?

i was cursing my minolta today too ... i just love the autofocus, especially when it DOESN'T! pos ...
sorry, one of many things i haven't done myself yet. i posted the bentley manual instructions before though, try to find that thread and see what it says.

Well, mission accomplished, at least 95%. I found a thin metal bracket laying around that I bent 90 degrees, and it traps the metal cable next to the duct, effectively reattaching it to the duct and allowing 95% range of motion for the yellow lever. Unfortunately when the lever comes 95% of the way it hangs up on the screw that I used. If I ever feel the motivation i'll take it all apart and use a flathead screw. I didn't think about it at the time.

Again, you guys rock. Thanks for your support.

I have the same problem, but i can't the the freaking floor vent tube off so i can get to the yellow lever. its starting to drive me crazy. any suggestions on how to get that sucker off?

Make sure the upper opening (the one that connects to the main heater system) is unlatched...I used a flathead screwdriver to get under the lip and pop it loose. Then lift the bottom LEFT end up until it pops loose (the end that routes toward the shifter stick). You may have to work your hand up under the paneling that surrounds the shifter stick, but it's flexible enough to allow your hand to fit under it. Finally, I had to make sure the panel below the glove compartment assembly was loose and flapping around so I had enough clearance to remove the entire tube. The panel I mean is made of card, not composite, and mine had the alarm system box attached to it.

After I revved the engine a bit this functioned as normal; the engine spit out some coolant. Mission accomplished!
:biggrin:

Does anybody have a pic of how the yellow tab that broke off is supposed to be reattached? I just got my new cable and I have no Idea how to reattache it.

does anyone have pictures of this cable that is actually in the car? i think mine may be broke, or i need to burp my system. or both..so any pics would be greatly appreciated. Maybe someone needs to do a "knowledge base" page on this. seems like a few of us have had this problem..w/ the bowden cable

It's not hard to find. Passenger side, remove the panel by the passenger's feet (phillips screws), then remove the knee bolster (bolted on), then remove the tube that leads air down to the passenger's feet (it's towards the center of the car), and once you move that tube you'll see the RED/YELLOW of the bowden cable. It's attached to a plastic YELLOW arm.

how much coolant did you lose when you burped the system? i have animals and dont want to mess w/ having it all over....

When I burped it I lost maybe a tablespoon full. Not much at all.

Jam a few rags around the bleeder screw and put a tub underneath.

If you spill anything, use kitty litter to absorb the fluid, then wash with soap and water.

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say that the info I found on this thread was priceless. I had the same common problem (cable +yellow lever). With all the info I found on this thread, I printed everything out and systematically tried everything first until it came time to take the glove box off.

Again - kudos to you guys.