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      04-06-2015, 11:37 AM   #1
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AIR CONDITIONER Rant (please give input on your system)

why is it that my plus $60-85K car has terrible air conditioning.

yes the air coming from the system vents are plenty "cold" but where is all the air....

i feel as if the system sounds like its working hard and blowing massive quantity of air but nothing....
i have all of the vents in the rear off and closed. side pillar and center.

i usually have AC on, 60 Degrees, Frontal Vents open only , ( dash vents side and center) and its never cool enough... so much heat from the front windshield, maybe because of the tint? 50% maybe the tint restricts UV rays, but collects more heat.

i need to have 4 or more bars of power on the system with sync on almost all the time, and it sounds way to loud to have only that amount of air...almost full power sounds like a freight train, and still, not enough air. and thats with 1 or 2 center vents directed straight at my head, which hurts your eyes eventually..

what settings do you use...
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      04-06-2015, 11:54 AM   #2
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I'm in the same boat. My X3 and now my X5 are pretty week in the A/C department. If you want a vehicle with good A/C, look Ford. If you want good everything else, BMW
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      04-06-2015, 12:50 PM   #3
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I had same issue with my M3, AC was never cold enough. All my other vehicles (non BMW) were much colder, even my wife's 10 year old Lexus had colder air than the M3. I did bring it in for service and they replaced the condenser, which made it better, but still not great.
My wife and I were worried it would be the case with our new X5, but we've been pleasantly surprised it was been okay. Granted, we haven't been in very hot summer temps yet, but so far I have to keep it around 70 otherwise it gets too cold. I do have all vents on (sync) as I find the entire cabin cools better with them all on versus just the front vents. And I do have to remember to switch the manual temp control all the way to the blue side.
There was a thread last year about the X5 A/C, and there were reports of a software update to improve it. Perhaps we have the updated software already with our recent build 2015?
I haven't even tried max A/C yet. I also have the Suntek CXP tint, so not sure if that may help a little.
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      04-06-2015, 12:58 PM   #4
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the best fix or the "answer" would be more vent air flow with less noise pollution.... so im guessing replacing an ac fan motor with a more efficient one? or would buying a honda be the answer?
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      04-06-2015, 01:02 PM   #5
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I also noticed the AC behaves fairly strange. There's hardly any air coming out at 1 or 2 bar setting on the fan. On 3 or 4 it gets pretty loud, but the amount of air coming out is not what you'd expect based on noise. Another strange thing is once I turn off the AC, a gush of really cold air would come out for a couple mins, colder than when the AC was on. Is that normal?
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      04-06-2015, 01:24 PM   #6
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I think there is a problem with F15 letting some of the engine heat come back into cabin. Even on not very hot days with A/C (or heater) OFF, I can feel there is some kind of heat in the cabin from lower section. I thought it was because I got a black BMW but I don't think it can make that much difference, at least in low 60's. I also noticed the dashboard gets extremely hot, unreasonably. Maybe dashboard doesn't get much hotter than other vehicles, but it does retain heat for a long time. My vehicles 10 years ago had hallow dash plastic (not solid/filled like BMW's) they used to get scorching hot, but they would get cool pretty fast too.

Is it possible that engine is letting some of that heat come back into cabin, coupled with weaker A/C makes it very difficult to cool the cabin?
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      04-06-2015, 06:37 PM   #7
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Are you guys using full auto mode or does the fan still seem weak if you manually direct the air to the top vents only? Full auto balances/splits the air flow right?
Hyde, I do notice that when the car is first started, there is a "puff" of warm air down by my feet. Always thought it was strange, but haven't noticed anything substantial as you describe.
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      04-06-2015, 06:59 PM   #8
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European cars generally have weaker A/C than Japanese cars because of some environmental mandate in Europe in regards to A/C refrigerant. Unfortunately it got carried over to the U.S.
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      04-06-2015, 09:57 PM   #9
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Have you tried opening all of the vents? The hot air in the whole car needs to be circulated and cooled. By closing the rear vents, you are limiting the overall capacity of the system to cool the interior of the vehicle.
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      04-06-2015, 09:59 PM   #10
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I appreciate this doesn't help the OP but I recall a discussion on the F25 X3 forum that apparently (ie I wasn't aware of it) BMW make a cold and hot climate version of the AC system (at least for the F25) with the "hot climate" version having greater cooling capacity. Living in Australia in a sub-tropical location (ie heat and humidity), I've never had any problems with the cooling capacity of the AC system on our F25 which has been on par with previously owned Australian designed and built cars. In contrast, the couple of Japanese cars I've owned have always struggled in the AC department.

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      04-06-2015, 11:07 PM   #11
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No problems whatsoever here. It is notably weaker in EcoPro as a default setting. Otherwise, it is cool and even without the AC on I am able to get a lot of fresh, cool outside air in, where my MBs would not do as well. The MBs bring warmer engine air in, when in fan mode.
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      04-07-2015, 04:23 AM   #12
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same for me. the air con sucks. my experience and observations are very much like yours in that the air from the vent feels more than cold enough, but i cannot feel any of the cold air reaching my body or my face. when its hot, i can actually feel waves of hot air around my face. its almost as if by the time the cold air blowing out from the vents gets to my face its warmed up again and is just pushing warm air on my face which is disgusting when its already so hot!
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      04-07-2015, 07:58 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cobra006 View Post
I also noticed the AC behaves fairly strange. There's hardly any air coming out at 1 or 2 bar setting on the fan. On 3 or 4 it gets pretty loud, but the amount of air coming out is not what you'd expect based on noise.
THIS ABOVE IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS TRYING TO GET OUT.

ever so eloquently
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      04-07-2015, 08:04 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oshiri View Post
same for me. the air con sucks. my experience and observations are very much like yours in that the air from the vent feels more than cold enough, but i cannot feel any of the cold air reaching my body or my face. when its hot, i can actually feel waves of hot air around my face. its almost as if by the time the cold air blowing out from the vents gets to my face its warmed up again and is just pushing warm air on my face which is disgusting when its already so hot!
then again another pending issue....i do believe my dash and windshield get abnormally hot....i guess its time for a thermometer

so yes, by the time the air hits my body and face it is in fact tepid.

so how could we get more airflow without going full power.

i think the idea of not completely cooling the cabin by shutting rear vents might be a part of the equation.

Does anyone know if it the front ac vents lose pressure when you open the rear, or is that my imagination? is there two separate fan motors
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      04-07-2015, 11:07 AM   #15
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Try this

Do NOT leave the system on AUTO.
Press the manual airflow selection buttons till you get just airflow out the centre (chest height) vents (Top left and top right buttons with lines pointing and little person. See pic)

In AUTO a LOT of the airflow goes to the foot well, windshield and window vents.
This drastically reduces the feeling of cold airflow, just as you have been feeling .


Give it a try, makes a huge difference in other BMWs ( Havent tried it in F15 yet bit should be the same). I hardly ever leave the system in Auto because of this.


Pic from another thread
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      04-07-2015, 01:52 PM   #16
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I had many bmws over the years the A/C is usually excellent I mean it and I live in Dubai very hot climate A/C never failed us. BUT big but here, I bought 15 M4 and the A/C weaker than our 535i which had really good A/C. We traded the later with 15 X6 and its similar to the M4. Not happy both are going for a check up
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      04-07-2015, 05:44 PM   #17
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My F15 ac is clearly not performing to the standard of my previous E70s.
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      04-08-2015, 08:08 AM   #18
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so whats the deal? is someone being cheap in the AC/Climate-Department? or is the HOT CLIMATE package, an attainable option after build? and Is it just a more efficient motor/ better refrigerant option?
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      04-08-2015, 09:28 AM   #19
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It's been too mild here in the PNW so I don't have real feedback yet, but the question still stands. Are you all using full auto mode where the system decides on the air flow distribution? Have you tried manually pushing the button to use only the center/face/body vents and the flow is still weak?
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      04-08-2015, 09:52 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doanster View Post
It's been too mild here in the PNW so I don't have real feedback yet, but the question still stands. Are you all using full auto mode where the system decides on the air flow distribution? Have you tried manually pushing the button to use only the center/face/body vents and the flow is still weak?
never use auto anything. always stick with manual, and ive come to think the face/chest vents work best when used alone. ie: the single arrow pointed at face.
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      04-08-2015, 12:38 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by X5Jouster View Post
so whats the deal? is someone being cheap in the AC/Climate-Department? or is the HOT CLIMATE package, an attainable option after build? and Is it just a more efficient motor/ better refrigerant option?
Hot climate package makes not difference to Air Con
It gets a bigger radiator for engine cooling (also included if you get the factory trailer coupling)(Also adds oil cooling on certain other models and different engine air intake)


The F15 X5 50i gets the exact same AC compressor as the 750i, so it should work well.

Any change your microfilter is clogged up ?
Does the airflow change if you put it in recirculate ?
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      04-08-2015, 01:42 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by E90Fleet View Post
Hot climate package makes not difference to Air Con
It gets a bigger radiator for engine cooling (also included if you get the factory trailer coupling)(Also adds oil cooling on certain other models and different engine air intake)


The F15 X5 50i gets the exact same AC compressor as the 750i, so it should work well.

Any change your microfilter is clogged up ?
Does the airflow change if you put it in recirculate ?
will test if recirculate helps airflow, and again, remember that the air temp is perfectly acceptable, its only the air flow. so yes, your filter clog issue may be the answer...

where do i access the microfilter? any idea?
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