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On the coldest day of the season my blower motor for ac/heat decided to stop working. It was working fine two days ago when I last drove. The blower would make squeaky noises for past month or so at low speeds. It wasn't that loud so I did not bother to do anything. I checked the fuse and it looks fine other then that I can't think of anything but to look at the blower motor and the resistor up close. I tried playing around with the ac/heat controls but to no avail. I hear all the vent flaps open and close when I change the settings but no sound is made when I turn the fan up or down.
I am really hoping that there is some quick fix for it so I can drive home in fridge cold weather with some heat. Please any help/advice or link would be greatly appreciated.
This is interesting. My ac/heat stopped working as well today and it worked yesterday. I have a 2013 hardtop. I played with the switches as well. Flaps are working, but obviously the compressor didn't kick in nor the blower motor. I had my heat temp set to highest and let the air circulation vent blow the hot air out when driving.
Sucks man. I am in NY and we are in our first snow fall with highest temperatures in the 20's. Luckily I have heated seats so I am keeping my behind warm. I looked into it last night it seems like my motor is blown, which is not unusual. There are three things that can cause a problem.
1) Bad wiring, no proper ground
2) Bad resistor (in many other car if the resistor is bad then the blower should work at highest speeds as the power from battery goes straight to the blower instead of resistor control the speed.)
3) The blower motor is bad.
Last, night I was able to touch the fan of the blower by removing the cabin air filter and shoving my hand all the way in. Some folks said that they pulled out small rocks and leaves out and the fan start to work. I tried to turn it by hand to see maybe some junk was stuck but that didn't work either.
I am not sure how to access the blower as some says that you have to remove the glove box while other places it said you can access it via the driver side. I haven't gotten a chance to get it open. I was hoping some guidance from folks here.
Should I be able to see my filter from the engine bay? There's this rectangular cutout that has rubber around the edge, the filter is going to get more dirty by having air flying in there than using my AC.
I brought it in for warranty. They replaced the blower motor. Now I have heat. However, I am not able to test out the AC system since it's so cold out there. I am at east coast as well.
For the one who has auto climate control, does your AC kick-in in such cold weather when u set to auto? It's like 17F out there right now. I know the AC normally on in AUTO at warmer temp. Any help would be appreciated.
Adding to this one....my '08 S started doing strange things a week ago. 30 degrees outside, heat temp at 70, I manually notched the fan settings up - nothing. For miles. Nothing. Turned all the way off, then back on, several times and it kicked in (woke up).
Today it was sub freezing, waited for heat/defroster to cycle so I could drive off (usually garaged but was outside last night). Engine warmed up and same thing - display showed fan power moving up, temp at 76, nothing. For over 10 mins. Drove on after scraping windshield clear. As I pulled into work, fan started blowing.
Sheesh.
Heading into dealer tomorrow to hopefully diagnose. Hope it's not major. Starting to question the reliability of this great car I've had for 6+ yrs. Low mileage too (under 29k) and love it, but things are starting to happen...
Dealer said Blower had to be replaced, AND resistor was also replaced. :(
Problem came right back two days later. Any tips/advice appreciated before I head back to dealer to find out if a) the parts were bad, b) they missed something, or c) something else is the root cause and I did not really need to have the two things replaced to begin with.
So after a very frustrating month I finally got the Blower Motor replaced and its working fine. Wanted to end this thread by some pictures I took as I did not find ANY pictures for model and share some lesson learned.
Here is what it looks like when the cover is off and where the Blower Motor Regulator is (not to confuse with Blower Motor Resistor). It is that white sticker on top left of the picture.
The Model/Part number for Blower Motor Regulator.
I had a bad "mechanic" who told me to get this replaced. After getting the replacement the fan did not come. In the processes of removing this he broke the locks so my original Regulator went to waste. To remove the Blower Regulator there is a big plastic lock thing on the side facing the seat. You can stick a small flat screw driver and pop it out nice and easy. Afterwords just discount the wire and you will have the regulator in your hand. The guy working on my car broke the plastic housing of the Regulator because he didn't know. I went to another recommended mechanic and he change the Blower Motor and all is well now. Hope this helps folks in the future.
xfarsightx you do realize that there was a service bulletin for insulating those hot pipes, don't ask the dealer as I didn't get anywhere until I called Mini USA. It took a month and a half to hear back from Mini USA but my foot doesn't get hot anymore.
Just thought I would bring it up given the thread topic is very close to what you're working of, spread the knowledge.
@wuttuptae sorry man but I dont have the instruction. From what I understand you have to take apart a lot of the dashboard to get to it. Its sitting right behind the climate control buttons but a little to the passenger side. Not sure if this could help but you can check the assemble parts over at realoem.com.
I got frustrated and paid a local mechanic to get the blower changed.
@Systemlord I never knew those pipes get hot as I never felt it or had any issue with it. I am assuming you are talking about the two silver pipes coming out right next to the accelerator? Are they AC related? If so then those silver pipes are covering the actual copper pipes for the AC system. Maybe I am wrong. I have the plastic cover on it but will see if it gets hot. Thanks.
@wuttuptae sorry man but I dont have the instruction. From what I understand you have to take apart a lot of the dashboard to get to it. Its sitting right behind the climate control buttons but a little to the passenger side. Not sure if this could help but you can check the assemble parts over at realoem.com.
I got frustrated and paid a local mechanic to get the blower changed.
@Systemlord I never knew those pipes get hot as I never felt it or had any issue with it. I am assuming you are talking about the two silver pipes coming out right next to the accelerator? Are they AC related? If so then those silver pipes are covering the actual copper pipes for the AC system. Maybe I am wrong. I have the plastic cover on it but will see if it gets hot. Thanks.
Those two pipes connect directly to the thermostat housing and your heater core. You turn on your heater and the heater core is already hot and ready to go, all you gotta do is turn on the fan. I live in a very warm climate and sometimes wear sandals when going to the beach and I could feel the heat blowing on my bare skin in a 20 minute drive, if you live in a cooler climate you might ever notice it.
@wuttuptae sorry man but I dont have the instruction. From what I understand you have to take apart a lot of the dashboard to get to it. Its sitting right behind the climate control buttons but a little to the passenger side. Not sure if this could help but you can check the assemble parts over at realoem.com.
I got frustrated and paid a local mechanic to get the blower changed.
Understandable. I can see the motor by laying on my back and looking up from the gas pedal, but getting to it from there seems difficult (but not impossible). Taking apart the dashboard entirely doesn't sound like fun, but I can't seem to find anyone who's done this job. Thanks for the info, though!
Understandable. I can see the motor by laying on my back and looking up from the gas pedal, but getting to it from there seems difficult (but not impossible). Taking apart the dashboard entirely doesn't sound like fun, but I can't seem to find anyone who's done this job. Thanks for the info, though!
Just to bring this to a close. This post explains the process. You'll need to move a controller box out of the way, and one of the torx screws is difficult to get at that holds the blower motor in place. But the good news is no entire dash removal. It's a lot of awkward contortionist work, though.
This job is not for the faint of heart. I'm halfway through - and regretting every penny that I now wish I'd given over to the dealership. I'm a decent backyard mechanic - but I pray to God I never do this job again.
I tried following the instructions on the above link and I WAS able to get the old one out - but I cannot for the life of me get the new one back in. So I went back to pulling the dash apart. I can't tell you which one sucks worse. My hat is off to anyone who's done this. And I'm not shy about these things - I rebuilt and installed an entire Porsche 928 engine - but THIS takes the cake. I have met my match! Yes - I believe it can be done. But if you don't have the Bentley manual, you probably don't really want to try taking the dash apart. The on-line instructions are thin, and pictures all but non-existent. (Trust me - you don't want mine.)
I end up ordering the blower fan from ECS Tuning and going to a local mechanic shop and had them replace. They did it fairly fast so I am guessing they had experience with it. Also the Bentley manual helps. If I had my own garage space I would invest in that manual to avoid insane amounts of headaches.
Glad you get fixed it.
I tried following the instructions on the above link and I WAS able to get the old one out - but I cannot for the life of me get the new one back in.
Yeah, I think that's why the guy who wrote those instructions put a smiley face after saying it's just the reverse of taking it out. It's a real pain, especially because of the angle and laying on your back while threading that giant blower through a rat maze. Sorry to hear that you're going through the dash. I just changed out the radio LCD, so I know a little bit of that pain.
(FYI, for anyone who has to change out the LCD panel for the radio in an R56 MINI BOOST CD CD73 model, it's the same part as BMW, but you'll find people selling the MINI part # for more because they can ... OPTREX (3231867) LCD, search for BMW CD73)
I end up ordering the blower fan from ECS Tuning and going to a local mechanic shop and had them replace. They did it fairly fast so I am guessing they had experience with it. Also the Bentley manual helps. If I had my own garage space I would invest in that manual to avoid insane amounts of headaches.
Glad you get fixed it.
Thanks for the order, there are two different types dependent on options.
I have both of these problems. thanks a ton on the information. Ive only owned my mini for thee days. Its fun to drive but think it was a bad purchase. the problems seem to go on and on.
It was working fine two days ago when I last drove. The blower would make squeaky noises for past month or so at low speeds. It wasn't that loud so I did not bother to do anything. I checked the fuse and it looks fine other then that I can't think of anything but to look at the blower motor and the resistor up close. I tried playing around with the ac/heat controls but to no avail. I hear all the vent flaps open and close when I change the settings but no sound is made when I turn the fan up or down. 
It's a real pain, especially because of the angle and laying on your back while threading that giant blower through a rat maze. Sorry to hear that you're going through the dash. I just changed out the radio LCD, so I know a little bit of that pain.
