Welcome to Tech Talk, where our resident BMW tech Nick Owen answers all your pressing BMW technical questions, frustrations, and issues. Have a question for Nick? Email him at techtalk@roundel.org. Let’s get into it.
2022 840i Coupe A/C Issue
My 30,000 mile, 2022 840i Coupe has developed an A/C issue. The dealer has it now for analysis, but it “could” be the evaporative cooler. Is this a normal matter for a low-mile car with meticulous records and servicing? Hoping it can be fixed under CPO which runs out May 1. And makes me wonder about my 2022 X5 with 55,000 miles.
Any thoughts?
Patrick Ongena
Things like this can happen, but it’s not exactly “common.” However, I’m sure if you did a Google search you would find that BMW had some issues with A/C evaporators since late E7X and E9X models. Some have a known pattern failure, however some do not. In your situation it seems you have a one-off and if you have the CPO warranty then whatever is the cause of the issue should be covered. This is a situation where you might want to consider an extended warranty once the CPO runs out. Same for the X5.
E46 Follow-up and an E46 question
First, a follow up.
As a fellow 2004 E46 owner, I read Louis Thelen’s NLA Door parts question with interest. To your answer, I’d add that there are dedicated BMW boneyards. The good folks at RecycleBMWs.com, for example, recently found me a surprisingly nice set of Shadowline rain gutters for my 330i, which I think may also be NLA. They spend all their time ripping Bimmers to bits and cataloging their finds. I’ve made several purchases from them over the years, and I think they may be offering free shipping these days.
Now the E46 question.
My car is a 2004 330i ZHP/6MT. It’s equipped with both rain-sensing wipers and an auto-dimming interior mirror. I don’t especially like this mirror (and I understand that they have an ugly failure mode), and I’d like to know if it can be straight-up replaced with a manual-dimming mirror? Does the presence of the sensor for the wipers make that somehow impossible? Will removing the automatic mirror set a trouble code since the car’s expecting it to be present?
Andrew Saboe
Thank you for that reference. I’ll definitely keep them in mind.
For the ZHP, the auto dim mirror and rain/light sensor are on different circuits, so if you want to put in a manual mirror assembly you can. I’ve bought used auto dim mirrors in the past and every time I plugged them in, they would fail. Manual is the way to go.
