So I have been dealing with this A\C issue for the last 2 months or so. For a little perspective I live in Las Vegas so the summers here kinda suck. None of this happened last summer and it was just as hot last year as it was this year.
Here is
what is happening.... Under certain circumstances the A\C system will go into what I can only describe as "default" mode and turn the fan to the very lowest setting. The air coming out is cold but it's just barely there. I can press any button to change the airflow and nothing happens. Max A\C? Barely anything comes out. Full manual? Same thing... Try to move it to different vents? Nope, just a little cold air coming out the main vents. Sometimes when I get in the car and turn it on I can reach over and hit the Max A\C button and the fans will come on high like they are supposed to for about 10-15 seconds. Then "default" mode kicks in and the fans go to the slowest speed.
Here is
when it is happening.... The ambient temperature usually needs to be over 100. Say I leave my house, drive 15 minutes to my destination, let's say lunch. I have my nice 45 minutes to an hour lunch and when I go back outside it's 104 and the car has been sitting in the sun. I have a window shade in the front window. I jump in the car and turn it on. I like to keep it cold so I have it set on auto at 65 which makes the fan spool up within 30 seconds or so under normal circumstances. Under these circumstances the fan starts to spool up and and then something happens and I hear a fan in the engine bay go crazy and sound like a jet plane and then the interior fan goes to "default" mode and barely blows any air. Now after about 3+ minutes of the no air in the cabin and the crazy jet fan in the engine things settle down, the engine fan calms down and the interior fans spool up and all the buttons work again. So weird. But also imagine sitting in a 140 degree car for 3 minutes and no A\C. My wife uses this car to drive our granddaughter around so imagine how well that's going over....
It happens almost every time under these conditions, as long as the ambient temperature is high enough. If it sits out for 90 minutes to 2 hours or longer the problem does not happen. I think the engine compartment gets cool enough over that length of time for the problem not to happen.
It seems to me that the computer sees something amiss and tries to protect the car until the problem resolves itself. It's definitely something to do with the A\C system. Not long after it started doing this there was an update for the car. I mentioned the funky A\C and we decided to see if the software update would fix it. No luck. I brought it back and they diagnosed something with the fan and replaced that. No luck again. It literally happened 2 hours after I picked the car up.
Today I picked it up after they had it for 2 days so some corporate tech could check it out. Of course today was cooler than necessary to re-create the issue and they probably didnt follow my instructions anyway so they gave it a clean bill of health. I'm sure it will happen again in the next few days and I will be documenting it. I also plan on contacting BMWNA to see what can be done. I built this car just the way I wanted and I feel like for a $1200 a month lease payment I should have a car that works. That's all I want... And considering the fact that these conditions are present about 4 months out of the year I find that unacceptable.
Here are some videos for your viewing pleasure, hopefully you will agree with me or let me know how to fix it! Thanks in advance!!!
(Wow this is long... thanks for hanging in there!)
Working morning:
https://youtu.be/CqIYpcuCSFI
Working mid day:
https://youtu.be/NZ6i-VaNOkk
Not working evening:
https://youtu.be/OTiQwEIdUW0