Hey,

Long time lurker here, I have an issue with the climate control on my R56, I have the manual climate control (most of the threads I could find were all about the automatic climate control) and the blower does not work on any of the lowest 3 speeds but it works normally on full speed. Has anyone experienced this or could point me in the right direction? I am hoping it's the switch and not the blower motor at this point.

 

I think your problem is the final stage resistor pack. The way your fan works is symptomatic of that problem.

 

I was able to get to the blower motor resistor. On the R56 it's under the cover in the drivers side footwell. I pulled the resistor pack and tested continuity and resistance across all 4 of the pins. Sure enough looks like it has failed. The replacement is in the mail now.

 

I am glad you seemed to be able to diagnose the problem. I am dealing with a R50 mini. Not sure yet what the problem is, but ordered a final stage from www.rmeuropean.com. I hope that's the problem and not the blower motor itself, but I will know in a few days. Let me know if your blower is working after replacing the final stage. Thanks.

 

All,

It's easy to fix your issue and never respond back; This is the part I ordered...

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...entifier=79800

This part may also be correct and is cheaper; I cannot verify because it's not the item I purchased but I have been really happy with ECS on other items and their customer service is great.

http://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2007-C...ical/ES176529/

The Autozone part was the exact replacement for the R56 resistor pack, I had a hard time finding a manual to locate the the unit but it's in the driver side footwell up near the blower motor. If you get a light up there it's actually pretty easy to see as it's the only electronic part on that side and it's not even behind a panel, It's a pretty decent sized component. It is recessed into the blower assembly and just pulls directly out. I did a simple remove and replace and I was back in business. Kind of an expensive item but well worth it to get all of your fan speeds back.

 

I had the same issue (07 R56 S, fan blower started to only work on high setting, manual AC controls), read everything above and had already ordered my replacement resistor part from PartsGeek.com. It was only $44 plus shipping and is made in Germany. my Part # for 2007 S, non-convertible, manual AC was:64-11-1-499-121. I don't recall how much shipping was, but it was reasonable.

It generally installed fine and fixed my problem, EXCEPT, there are 2 little catches that hold the white resistor part in and they go into two recesses cut into the white plastic. But, for some reason, the little recesses on my new part were not in the right place. I got my Dremel tool out and added two new recesses in the same location as on the old part and voila! It snapped right in and now I have 4 fan speeds again! Don't cut them too deep into the edge or the little catches won't "catch".

The resistor component was indeed behind the drivers side panel, on the "Transmission tunnel" side, next to the accelerator pedal. Two Torx screws to get the panel out, then look WAY back and up to find a 4 wire connector that you have to push the release connectors to pull out. Then, pop out the old white resistor part and put the new one in the same way. Make sure you don't accidentally switch the old and new parts around (I almost did that by mistake) and put the same faulty old part back into place. The white restistor part has two internal slots that two mating little columns on the side of the black 4-wire connector slide into, so everything has to go in with the correct orientation or you can't push the black 4-wire connector into the white resistor part.

This is likely more info than you'll ever need, but my wife always told me I talk to everyone like they're a 5 year-old. I figure, I don't know what you don't know, so I'll just put it all down and you throw away the extra info.

Thx for the prior helpful advice on this topic. I'm sure I saved $200 to $300 doing this myself and it was a 10 to 20 minute repair (although you have to stand on your head to see into the spot and you MUST have a small flashlight, to see anything at all.)

By the way, when my symptoms first started, I was SURE it was the blower motor going out, because it worked on the other 3 speeds, but it squeeled in most of them. Those are CLASSIC symptoms of blower fan bearings drying out, which quickly results in the need for a new blower fan (very difficult to replace in many, many types of cars, simple in others). When only high speed worked well and the other 3 stopped working altogether, it felt more like the resistor failing. And, when I read others experiencing that and saw the $45 part cost, it was a no-brainer to at least try it. I'm happy it turned out the way it did. Mini-cooper dealer repairs are just WAY too costly. I LOVE driving my S, but I dread when it has an issue too complicated for me to fix, and I've completely overhauled many Chevy engines, so I'm not a novice around car-wrenching. It seems like it's always a $1000 bill for something that would have cost $350 on my Dodge or other cars.

Sorry for the side-rant. I don't post things very often, so it just seemed like an opportunity to vent a little.

 

I just followed your ECS link and I see the price is even lower than at PartsGeek. That's good. I was happy to see the PartsGeek part was made in Germany and I'm not sure where the ECS part is made, but they're a good parts company, so should be a good part, I would think.

I hope this isn't a part that just keeps failing every X years. But, I don't plan to have the car another 7 years so, hopefully I will be ok with this one replacement. I don't like having to do the same repair repeatedly on any car, other than things that are SUPPOSED to wear out repeatedly, like tires, brakes, belts, wipers, etc.