[335dlci]

Originally Posted by BB_cuda

Not a BMW tech and 335dlci is a great one.

I have read of other makes having the following thing happen and unsure if BMW engine ECU does this per programming.
My step daughter has an older 2006 Toyota RAV4. She looses engine coolant and eventually the AC compressor no longer turns on. I theorized that the ECU wouldn't let AC turn on due to protecting engine from overheating. On two different occasions, I have added coolant and her AC started working again. This was at 3 pm in the Texas heat too. Again, unsure BMW does this in their ECU programming but go top off engine coolant for good measure. Hope the test drive to DMV in northern part of parish worked out.
We have family in New Roads, LA. (Point Coupee Parish)

ty cuda

[Tomnavigator]

BB_cuda thanks for the suggestion. I still have not driven my car since servicing the a/c. I am retired and also taking covid seriously because of age, and cancer treatment just before covid hit. It may take a couple of weeks to find out if the a/c servicing fixed the issue since the problem does not occur unless the car has been sitting overnight and it is a very hot day. I could have a coolant issue because I recently changed out my water pump and thermostat (preventative maintenance not due to failures). I believe in PM before failure and my 335d has 90k. I bled the system after changing the water pump and thermostat, but may not have gotten all the air out of the system. Are these cars difficult to get the air out of the system?
I bled the system by opening the air bleed vent where the return line goes back into the coolant reservoir and let the car run for a few minutes until only coolant returned to the reservoir. Is there anything else I should have done?

[Tomnavigator]

Drove my 335d today. First drive after car sat outside overnight for four days without starting it. The battery is kept on a trickle charger. The outside temp was 91. The A/C did not work again until I got to the same location where the a/c starts working. I am always within a couple hundred yards from the same spot in the road when the a/c kicks in. I have a thermometer in the a/c vent and can see the temperature start changing.

So far here is what I have done to get the a/c working right.
I have registered the battery. This did not change anything.
I serviced my a/c by removing the freon and adding a new charge by weight using a triple beam balance with a 0.1 gram accuracy. This did not change the way the a/c is working. However, the air coming out the air vent is a few degrees colder.

Neither of these things changed the long delay before the a/c starts working. anything. The car still blows hot air for about four minutes before kicking on. Today the outside temp was 91 and the air coming out the air vent was 123 degrees. You can feel the temp of the air drop significantly when the a/c kicks in. I can feel the temperature of the air blowing on my hand change about 6 to 8 seconds before I see the temperature of the thermometer react to the air temperature change.

I just put a stop watch in my car. I am going to time how long my car runs from the time I push the start button until the a/c starts working to see if the time before a/c starts working is the same each time. I still think the issue is caused by an engine computer. I am always near the same spot in the road when the a/c starts working

BB_Cuda, I live out in the middle of nowhere between Lake Charles and the Texas border. What area of Texas do you live? I have one son that lives in the DFW metroplex. Another son that lives in the Austin area. My wife's family all live in Tyler county TX. I am now going to check out air in the coolant lines. I am somewhat doubtful that this is the cause because it seems to me the the ecu would allow the a/c to run for a minute or two right after startup until things heated up. Then the ecu would shut off the a/c. My car is just the opposite. The a/c does not run for the first few minutes, then the a/c runs like normal the rest of the day and works fine when you come out of a store and restart the car after the car sits a few minutes or a few hours. The only time the a/c acts up is the first start after the car sits a few days and only acts up when it is hot outside (over 90 degrees). Once the a/c starts working, it comes on within a few seconds of starting the engine every time the car is started and will continue to work like normal until the car sits for a few days.

NOTE TO EVERYONE: I will investigate anything you suggest that could cause this problem even if I am skeptical. Within reason of course. Even if a stick of dynamite makes sense to me, I will probably not try that one. If you take the time to suggest something to me, I will try to implement the fix you suggest. One thing I have learned about BMWs is that these cars don't always make sense to me. It may take a week or so to try some fixes. Hurricane Laura destroyed my solar panels and I am in the process of rebuilding my solar array so I work on my BMW when I can. Old age and heat permitting.

[Tomnavigator]

Drove my 335D today. 93 degrees. No A/C for the first 3 minutes 32 seconds. Then A/C worked fine the rest of the day. I am going to time how long the A/C takes to kick in for the next few times I drive the car to see if the time is constant. I agree with BB-Cuda that I think it is an ECU related programming issue of some sort.

[Tomnavigator]

Drove my car again today. Outside temp 91. air coming out a/c 102 degrees. I monitored how long it takes for the a/c to start working with a stop watch. I start the stop watch when I push the start button on my car. The stop watch showed 5 minutes 3 seconds before the a/c started cooling.
I checked the time it takes for the a/c to start twice. One time it was 3 min 32 seconds. The second time it was 5 minutes 3 seconds. Therefore whatever is keeping the a/c from working when I first start my car is not time related.

The next thing I am going to try is monitoring the voltage of the car. I will be putting a voltmeter in car to see voltage reading for first few minutes to see if a/c comes in some relationship to voltage. After I monitor the voltage, I will monitor the coolant temperature to see if there is a relationship between the coolant temperature and the a/c coming on.

[A321]

Does your A/C, ever produce ice cold air? YES or NO ?
(Whether it’s after 10 minutes, or 45 minutes of driving?)

what did you Nav, on ?

[Tomnavigator]

Thanks for your questions. Almost all of my trips are local trips to the nearest town. Usually 10 minutes to 15 minutes from start to destination. I have my a/c set on 67 degrees on the auto setting. The a/c blows hot air 100+ degrees (temp of car) to 130 degree air from the time the car is started for at least 3 minutes and usually around 5 minutes. You can feel the temp of the air coming out of the air register suddenly drop in temperature after the car has been running for 3 to 5 minutes. There is no doubt in your mind when the a/c has started working. The temperature of the air drops quickly over 40 degrees in a minute or two. I have not timed how long it takes for the temp to drop once the a/c kicks in. But it is at least as fast as any of my other cars. Four or five minutes after the a/c starts working, the car is comfortable. The a/c will then work like normal the rest of the day. When you restart the car after going into a store, the a/c will be blowing out cool air within a few seconds of the engine starting (within 10 or so seconds) If you let the car sit for an hour or two and restart the car, the a/c will work like normal. The a/c only acts up after sitting overnight.
I have multiple cars and keep all on trickle chargers all the time. I take the BMW off the trickle charger. Get in. Start the engine. Start my stop watch and drive off. I have timed the a/c delayed start three times now. The times are 3 min 32 seconds, 5 min 3 seconds, and 5 min 0 sec. This is the length of time from when the engine is started and I can feel the air temperature of the air coming out the center air register dropping in temperature. I feel the temperature drop with my hand quicker than the dial thermometer I have in the air register can show the temperature is dropping.

[Tomnavigator]

It is now cooler in southwest Louisiana. The air conditioner still does not come on for the first 5 minutes. I think I was wrong about this happening only in hot weather and it actually is always this way. Whether or not the outside temperature is hot or cool, the air conditioner does not work for about 5 minutes. I just noticed it when the temperature got hot outside and I was miserable in the car until the a/c started working.
I have been timing it for the last couple of weeks with the outside temperature in the upper 70s or lower 80s and the a/c still does not come on for around 5 minutes (fan blows like normal just not cold air) time varies between 5 and 6 minutes. I have tried putting the a/c on "MAX", tried putting front defroster on, raised and lowered temperature setting, and turned a/c on and off several times. Nothing works. I just have to wait until it decides to start. This only happens the first time the vehicle is run after sitting overnight. The a/c works like it should the rest of the day. I can return home and drive the car two hours later and the a/c works fine the second time I run the car.
This does not make sense to me. I wonder if it is an emissions cheat thing and my car is stuck in emissions testing mode where the emissions test mode prevents the air conditioner from running until the car is up to full operating temperature.
I know I am grasping at straws. But, I have tried everything members on this forum have suggested and nothing has fixed this problem.

[kbsilver]

We're all grasping at straws. It seems as you found it may be related to engine being up to temperature. Are the condenser/radiator fans coming on when the A/C is not running that first 5 minutes? As the compressor does not have a clutch it offers no information unless you start measuring the signal that controls the output of the compressor.

Has a dealer looked at this?

[Tomnavigator]

I keep the a/c on all the time and don't turn it off until around Feb (south Louisiana temp) when it gets cold outside. I checked the fan in August when someone suggested I check the compressor clutch (there isn't one compressor runs all the time). I checked for the a/c clutch and also looked at the fan to make sure it was on. It was.
When my a/c finally starts it runs great. The air temp will drop into the 30s coming out the center vent. Now that the outside temperature is lower, the time the a/c takes to come on is longer. I have had it take over 6 minutes for the a/c to come on. I think my a/c has been acting up for a long time but it took the high summer temperatures for me to notice (when I was baking).
I am going to have to connect my foxwell to my obd11 port and monitor temperature of the coolant to see if the a/c comes on at a specific coolant temp. I am not looking forward to this because it takes the foxwell about 5 minutes to start up. I hope the obdii port does not go dead while the car is cranking because the foxwell gets its power from the obdii port and the foxwell will reboot (another 5 minutes) and may not be up and running before the a/c starts working and I find the coolant temp. Life would be easier if BMW had a temperature gauge in these cars.
I have worked on my cars all my life and don't take my car to dealerships once the warranty runs out. I'm 66 years old and have not had any of my vehicles worked on by anyone other than me in my life other than warranty work. The last time I took my car to the BMW dealership was about a year ago for them to replace my DEF tanks under the extended warranty. At this time they also replaced my footwell module. My a/c problem could have started with this dealership visit and I would not have noticed because of the cool fall temperatures. I was treated for cancer late 2019 and was just recovering from radiation treatment when COVID hit. I have taken social distancing seriously because of my compromised immune system and have quarantined for the last year. I don't drive anywhere other than for food. This a/c problem is extremely frustrating for me. I have never had a problem with a car I could not fix. This a/c problem is licking me. But, I never give up.

[Tomnavigator]

Because of my COVID quarantining, I only drive my vehicle about once a week and I have 5 vehicles I drive. I really think the best place for information and help with my a/c problem will come from the members of this forum. I performed carbon cleaning on my car this last March, replaced my thermostat, and water pump. I worked on all the other problem areas of the car to make it more dependable. I did some work on the DPF system, SCR system, EGR system and swirl flaps to make the car dependable. I fixed all the issues I could find with these systems and now hope I won't have any error codes from these systems for a while. If I can resolve the a/c problem I will be happy with the car. All the work I have done is paying off. My fuel mileage has gone up almost 20 percent. I now get 37.3 mpg by the DMW mpg computer in the carfor the last tank of fuel only local driving no long trips (my normal driving to town to get food, doctor, medicine, ect). My last tank of diesel was all to and from town 517 miles on the tank and 14.66 gallons to refill. 35.3 mpg calculated for the tank. It took me 6 weeks to drive the 517 miles.

[604x5]

If you left out the excessive irrelevant details I might be inclined to read your replies and assist with your repairs.

[Tomnavigator]

Drove my bmw today to check a/c. Outside temperature is 83 degrees. Foxwell showed 23 degrees celsius upon startup. Drove for about 5 minutes (did not time it) before a/c came on. A/c came on at 58 degrees Celsius (136 degrees Fahrenheit). I'll check this again a couple of more times over the next few days to see if the coolant temp is the key to a/c working.

[BB_cuda]

Tomnavigator- I live south of Houston.

[brenden1207]

Ive noticed this in mine as well, will be checking out the battery

[Tomnavigator]

Drove my car yesterday after the car sat for two days. The a/c came on like it should (within first 15 seconds after startup. This is the first time in a long time that the a/c started up immediately.

sbrenden1207 I am sorry to hear you have this problem. The fix is illusive. But, I am glad my car is just not possessed. One day I will stumble on the fix. I will post it her to benefit anyone else that has the problem.

BB_Cuda - Not much land south of Houston. I'll be going to MD Anderson in November for checkup.

[Tomnavigator]

Last week I drove my car with outside temp in the mid 80s. The A/C did not come on until the coolant temperature got up to 58 degrees. The temperature of the coolant got up to and remained at 90 which is right were the thermostat is supposed to control it at.

I drove my car twice this week with the outside temperature in the high 70s and low 80s. Both times the A/C came on within 20 seconds of the car starting.

[Tomnavigator]

The saga continues. It is now regularly in the 90s outside and my a/c never comes on for the first few miles after I start the car. My BMW's air conditioner still does not cool for about 5 minutes when I first start the vehicle after it sits overnight. Yesterday I drove the car. It was 95 degrees outside. The inside car temperature was 120 degrees (thermometer in the center air duct outlet). I was over three miles from the house when the air coming out the air register started cooling down below 120 degrees. Here are the things I have done to
the car to get the air conditioner working correctly:

1) Pulled a vacuum on the a/c and replaced all freon to ensure correct charge.
2) Put a new battery in the car last week and registered the battery. I charged the battery on a trickle charger for two days before installing it to make sure it was fully charged.
3) I have tried turning the a/c on and off multiple times. Putting it on max cool. Starting the car with a/c off then turning a/c on.

The car does not cool for several minutes no matter what I do.

I understand the a/c compressor does not have a clutch like most cars and instead uses a variable input voltage to engage the compressor and the compressor output is controlled by the supplied voltage More voltage means more compressor output.
I am giving up on trying to determine what is causing my a/c to not work for about five minutes when I first start the car. I have been trying to figure this out for over a year and don't care anymore. I just want a/c when I start the car just like my other cars. Not five minutes later after I am experiencing heat stroke.

The fix I would like to do is to install a 12 volt jumper wire to the a/c compressor with a switch to manually activate the compressor. I will start out by flipping a switch to supply the voltage needed to engage the compressor for the first five minutes. Once I confirm this works, I will build/install a 5 minute timer that activates a relay to provide the 12 volt input needed to entergize the a/c compressor. Does anyone know if the a/c compressor uses 12 volts to engage it or a lower voltage? I don't want to burn out something by supplying too much voltage.

[BB_cuda]

Originally Posted by Tomnavigator

The fix I would like to do is to install a 12 volt jumper wire to the a/c compressor with a switch to manually activate the compressor. I will start out by flipping a switch to supply the voltage needed to engage the compressor for the first five minutes. Once I confirm this works, I will build/install a 5 minute timer that activates a relay to provide the 12 volt input needed to entergize the a/c compressor. Does anyone know if the a/c compressor uses 12 volts to engage it or a lower voltage? I don't want to burn out something by supplying too much voltage.

I can't directly answer your question but have an idea. What if you connect to the leads going to your compressor and get a reading of what the voltage is once those 5 minutes are up? My idea is using needles poking through jacket of wires. Use alligator clips running to multimeter. I know the compressor is way down low on a 335d so getting leads run would be a PITA.
I make this suggestion having no idea of the number of wires going to the compressor. If it is indeed only 2, perhaps trace the harness wires back up to a more convenient probe point.

Having stated the above, will the compressor come on if just sitting in the driveway for 5 minutes. This is an older thread and wasn't planning to reread. Best of luck!!

[lnxguy]

There's gotta be a reason why the AC isn't kicking on. Any outstanding errors/codes?

[E.Murray]

Just following along and sympathizing. Our heat index has been in triple digits the last few days and will be like that for at least another week. My car does exactly the same thing as yours. It takes about 4-5 minutes before I get any cooling no matter what kind of road I'm on. After that, it blows cold and is pretty consistent (a little warm in traffic, but not bad for an 11 year old car). I've also tried several things and had no luck. I'm hoping you find the answer! No doubt it's another outcome of the idiotic electronics in these cars (hoping the engineer in charge of all the stupid warnings and lights at BMW got fired )

[Tomnavigator]

BB_Cuda Thanks for the suggestion. I will splice in wires to the compressor and check the voltage. I will then be able to use the wires to supply the correct voltage when I install my work around fix. I have researched the BMW a/c compressors and I think the 335d has a variable a/c compressor that uses a pulse width modulator to control a solenoid that varies the a/c compressor output. A pulse width modulator supplies 12V but varies the percent of the time it supplies the voltage from 0 percent to 100 percent of the time. So at a 50 % pulse width it would turn on and off the voltage hundreds of times per second and have the 12V voltage turned on to the solenoid 1/2 second every second. At 75 % pulse width it would turn on and off the voltage hundreds of times per second with the voltage on for 3/4 of each second. If the BMW is controlled this way, I can install a wire that supplies 12V and it would be like the pulse width modulator is asking for 100% output from the a/c compressor. This would work without any danger of harming the a/c compressor. I would just need to have a timer circuit to turn off my jumper wire after 5 or 6 minutes so the car can control the a/c once it decided to turn the a/c on.