BMW E90 DIY A/C Blower Service

2007 BMW E90 N46B20

Mileage: 61k km

Been suffering from this squeaky sound when ever we change speed [accelerate/decelerate] or turning the car. I’m suspecting the blower bearing need oiling or greasing.

An example of the squealing sound is found here, only difference is for mine, I only hear the squealing when taking corners or changing speed:

Thanks to a head up by BCM Club Guest Kimi Yap, I took the plunge to take the AC blower out for servicing.

1. Slide the front passenger seat backwards.

2. Locate the 2 Torx screw under the dash and remove them.

3. Slide the dash bottom panel out. The the Item 11 in the following figure. Sorry the one in the photo is left hand drive, mine is right hand drive..

4. Now you can squeeze yourself into the footwell and look up.. haha! [~Kinky]. Figure out a way to pull the vent duct out. There’s a metal clip, I just pulled hard.. Nope, it’s not broken..

The vent duct item 6 in the following photo. Again, sorry for the LHD orientation.

5. Once the vent duct is out of the way, you see item AC Blower [Item 1]

Location “A”: Remove the wire connector

Location “B”: Suppose to be a screw point to secure the AC Blower BUT no sight of screw?!

Location “C”: A tab where we need to slightly pull/press the tab down towards the footwell with one finger and another hand rotate the AC blower counter-clockwise. Viola! The AC blower just FALL out.

6. Flip the bottom cap open to oil it.

7. Oil from the top too.. check out the dirt on the fan blades. So I decided to clean them, u can use vacuum cleaner, brush but I use water..

Just beware don’t let water wet solenoid. To be safe, I use hair dryer to blow dry whatever excess moist to prevent rust to the motor components.

8. Reinstallation is just reversing the steps.. but I added a screw at Location “B”

Before:

After:

Breakfast after a satisfying morning DIY..

The end..

Avanza’s 4th Battery

Used the car on Saturday morning, but failed to start in the same evening when we want to drive out for dinner. I got the following replacement.

The translucent shell on the MF battery allows us to check water level.. too bad no ready stock for NS40, had to settle for this NS60 replacement.

Age of car: 6 years 4 months

Mileage: 167,000km

Some useful Youtube collection

1. BMW Front Brake Rotor Replacement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3spy5jtvXo

2. BMW M52/M54 6-cylinder Valve Cover Gasket Replacement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww8qc3Y4BxA

3. BMW Power Steering Fluid and Filter Reservoir Replacement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Gp1vNgOLc

Will update when discover new useful clips.

Avanza: DIY Squeaky Drum Brake / Brake Dust Cleaning

I just found this in my archive. It is a procedure to clean our rear brake dust because when it cumulates, it created squeaky noise. This job was done in October 2010.

Tools needed:

1) Wheel opener

2) Size 12 bolt

3) Brush

4) Size 12 wrench

5) Car jack

6) Rubber hammer

Loosen (not remove!) the wheel lug, jack up the rear, remove the wheel, use the size 12 bolt to screw in for pushing the hub cover out

Hint: Secure the all 3 others wheels from rolling because to perform this, you must release the parking/hand brake. If not, the parking brake will grab on tight to the hub cover and you wouldn’t be able to remove the hub cover. This is not a front wheel drive vehicle, so the front wheel will roll freely if we lift the rear.

The rubber hammer is to knock the hub to loosen it while screwing in with the size 12 bolt.

This is how the rear brake internal looks like. You can clearly see the rear brake shoe still appears to be very thick. This is at above 100k km. Original 6 years old brake shoe, never replace before.

This is a close up of my humble tools. Check out the hub cover on the left, there a tiny hole for the size 12 bolt to screw in, that’s how we force the hub cover out.

Check out the amount of dust I managed to dust out.

To  put the hub cover back, just put it back in and fasten the wheel.

Hint: Jack one rear wheel at a time because the other rear wheel needs to remain on the ground. The transmission selector set to ‘P’, the other rear wheel will help secure the car from rolling. Still, for extra precautionary measure, use objects like bricks to block both front wheels and the other rear wheel from rolling. When jacking, do it slowly and monitor the car for the slightest rolling if any. Can be potential safety hazard if this is not observed.

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoy my write up.. till next blog update, Adios!

Avanza: DIY Repair Transmission Mounting

A recent change of transmission fluid has led me to inspect the transmission mounting while I crawled under the car, and I’m suspecting it has cracked.

I also noticed an occasion knocking sound from the central cabin tunnel when going through bumps.

So I came across this epoxy adhesive which is perfect for the job.

It has 3 types, 4min, 5min and 90min and each can withstand 3 tons, 3.5 tons and 4 tons respectively. I think 90 min is too long, hence I picked the 5 min variant. The entire car doesn’t even weight 3 tons..

Going under the car again and yes, the black clean line is created due to rubbing, meaning there are movement between the top plate and the 2 rubber support blocks, which shouldn’t happen unless the section has cracked or broken.

This following photo is taken from the rear, notice the same black crack lines between the V-shape top plate and the 2 rubber blocks? Oh! That’s my pet taking her nap in the back ground..

Found a jack point, it’s at the flywheel housing, at the joint where the transmission is connected.

After jacking the transmission up, the gap between the top plate and the 2 rubber blocks are clear!!

Since the gap is not wide enough for me to apply the epoxy adhesive, I had to remove the mounting. 2 size 14mm bolts at the top and 2 size 14mm nuts at the bottom, to be accessed through the bottom cross beam. Look at the following picture after ripping off the 2 sections.. The 2 sections are supposed to be moulded together.

Here goes nothing.. mix the epoxy with the hardener.. the mix is actually hot, an increase in temperature due to the chemical reaction.

I only apply one side, the top plate. Then slide the top plate over the rubber blocks.. I need to act swift because I only have 5 min before the epoxy harden even though it takes hours to fully cure.

Installing the transmission mounting back to it’s original location.. Hint: Put in the top bolts first before tightening the bottom nuts because the top bolts do not have free play while the bottom has.

Slowly lower the jack..

Hint: I lay some old newspaper under the jack to distribute the weight because I worry I might crack my tiles.

Viola!

I think the past 7 years, 160k km of flying over speed bumps and uneven road have finally taken a toll on the transmission mounting.. but fear not, after tonight, flying continues.. !!!

Thank you for reading. Comments are welcome!

Avanza: DIY Power Steering Fluid Replacement

Hand wash pump, stick it into the power steering reservoir and pump. Be careful not to pierce the strainer inside the reservoir. This is not a perfect method because:

1. The insert of the hand pump too hard, can damage the metal strainer netting in the reservoir.

2. The hand pump suction is not powerful enough to siphon out debris in the reservoir. After I siphoned out the fluid, a peek with a torch light revealed that there’s debris inside the reservoir.

The next time I do this, you should see some improvement to my method.  

Check out the fluid color. On the left is from my 1 day old partial drained transmission fluid, taken out due to overfilled. On the right, is the one taken out from my power steering reservoir. Dirty eh?!

Still the power steering fluid appear less dark comparing to the transmission fluid. Planning for a full drain in 20k km time. Stay tuned!

The 3L partial drain of transmission fluid is really hopeless!

Thank you for reading..

Comment appreciated.