[Zenith63]

Hey,

Having an issue with my 2007 e93 climate control. The IHKA control panel seems to be behaving normally, in that all buttons work, I can notionally adjust the temperature up/down, if I turn the AC on/off I can hear the engine note increase/decrease as the compressor starts, if I change the fan speed the fan increases/decreases as expected.

The issue is that I get no air from any of the vents in the front of the car (windscreen, footwell or face). The vent in the back does have air coming out however. When I turn the fan up to full speed there is a fairly serious vibration in the dash and a deep sound not dissimilar to a helicopter. I removed the cabin filter and I can see that the external flaps are open and the fan is spinning as normal, so my read of the vibration/sound is that the fan is trying to force air through closed flaps.

When I adjust the air output settings from the IHKA control panel, in the past I would hear the various flaps open/close, now there is nothing no matter what I choose. Choosing internal circulating air also does not cause the external flap to move/close.

I took the IHKA control panel out today and removed/reseated the two connectors on the back, all seemed OK and no obvious damage. I also checked all fuses that seemed like they would be relevant.

Any ideas? I got a DCAN cable from BCables a few months ago, but tbh (despite working in IT) I couldn't see much on the CDs beyond getting the basic connection/driver in-place, not sure if I am missing something or what to even look for if I got this working .

Thanks for reading!

[Zenith63]

Just for anybody coming across this in future.

Again the issue was that none of the motorised flaps seemed to operate, even though the IHKA control panel APPEARED to be working as expected (ie. all the buttons/LEDs worked). Normally you can hear the flaps move when you power on the car but I didn't hear that, and there was no air coming out the vents but the blower was running as normal (but making a horrible sound as it blew air against the closed flaps!).

I thought I'd chance getting a new IHKA control panel as I found one on Ebay for €20, it wasn't the same part code but looked identical. It arrived yesterday, plugged it in and voila, I could hear the flaps opening/closing and since then my climate control has been working perfectly. Not sure if the old control panel is actually faulty or if it had just lost the coding for the stepper motors, but either way buying the new control panel at that price is about the cheapest fix there is on a BMW .

[Walletsr]

I am having a problem where my passenger side is getting very little air flow it feels like the flapper is closed and minimal air is getting by. Is this similar to what you experienced? Do you know of a way to test the flappers? I stuck a flexible rod up the vents and tried to find the flappers but was not successful.

[Zenith63]

Yes I guess that is the same, though in my case none of the flaps were moving anymore. The stepper motors are controlled over a single pair of cables (a bus) from the IHKA unit, so I think it's unlikely that the IHKA unit has gone faulty in your case, otherwise you'd expect all motors to stop I think.

So could be that some debris has blocked the flap, or could be that that stepper motor is shot. Not sure your car, but according to the BMW manual you can replace all stepper motors without removing the whole dash. Though note you will need to get the motors 're-coded' to the IHKA unit if you replace one, so it's not too easy to do yourself at home.

[Walletsr]

I was thinking of taking one from a flapper I know is working it and putting in place of a broken one to validate the error. Would I have to recode the one that is already coded to my car?

[Zenith63]

I would assume the motors (or the IHKA) remembers the addresses even when powered off or disconnected, so I cannot imagine a recode would be necessary if you move the motors around. But honestly I know nothing about that side of things, so just taking an educated guess. Doesn't sound like you have much to lose to be honest, if you get a new motor you'll probably need a recode anyway, so whether you have to recode one or two at that point makes no difference. I'd try it!

This is well worth a read through if you have not seen it - http://www.meeknet.co.uk/E64/06%20Cl...ctions.qxp.pdf