'93 E34 A/C Issue

[johngo1]

I have a 93 e34 that has some sort of A/C issue. At first I thought that it needed refrigerant so I bout a can that had a guage on it. Upon taking a reading it seams that the A/c system has pressure so I did not add any. The next thing that I found was the the aux cooling fan was not working. It turns out the the fuse was blown. I replaced the fuse and it blew again must be a short somewhere. The compressor does seem to turn on. The problem is that I am not getting cold air.

Any ideas... Would a short in the aux fan wiring be enough to prevent cold air or do I have several issues??

Thanks for any tips...

[Ross]

Check if the fan rotates freely. If not it's toast. The wee little gauges on those cans aren't a very good indicator of system performance.
If it's not cooling at all then you have issues besides the aux fan.

[johngo1]

Check if the fan rotates freely. If not it's toast. The wee little gauges on those cans aren't a very good indicator of system performance.
If it's not cooling at all then you have issues besides the aux fan.

Fan turns freely and the a/c cools but very very little.

[Tiger]

To get AC working you need to fix those fans... without those fans, you will never get cold air.

[filip00]

well....

the compressor for AC won't turn on unless it detects enough pressure in the system. the minimum is 5BAR, standard is around 10.

you have the gas in the system, but if it's still not working, you should check the fuse for the aux. fan in the front. still not working? there are many things which may have failed.

the presostate (dunno how to translate it to english, it's the can for the gas), the "klimaanlage" fuses, on my 525i those are 9, 20, 27, 29...

tell me more info when you check these.

[filip00]

after a more thorough reading of what you posted, i think your system could be simply out of gas. it may be under some pressure, but adding some more should fix it.

i also advise not to add the coolant by yourself, rather let the professional do that, because it needs perfect pressure, and he must add some oil for the compressor.

[bsell]

To get AC working you need to fix those fans... without those fans, you will never get cold air.

Second fixing the fuse-blowing short first. Ain't nothing like burning up a wiring harness!

Once the fan works, get a proper set of gauges on the system. I put two cans (24 ounces total in a system that takes 39 ounces!) into my poorly working a/c using a $20 gauge/can tap deal. I was an ASE Master Technician back in the day and know the risk of overfilling the system that I was running but I let the cheap bastard in me win.

The right way to do it is to find and fix the leak, change out the receiver/dryer, then suck the system down to boil out the moisture. After all that, put in the exact charge specified. Of course I did none of that but I should have (do as I say, not as I do! )

The thing is, after properly filling the system, you may find out that one of the pressure switches is bad. Then you get to drain the system, fix the switch, and redo the suck and fill job but that is just the nature of the beast.

Good Luck,

Brian

[attack eagle]

oh, and if you are in the US, you are probably playing with those over the counter r134 gizmos... and yours should be the better but badder r12 freon. Do NOT mix them.

IF some jerk wad did put r134a fitting on it then that could be the problem... the oils in a r134a charge are detrimental to the compressor seals IIRC. Adn they probably didn't pull a vacuum on it before charging.