Leaves in heater. How to clean?

[impster]

Greetings,

My wife's '95 touring has been parked at her job near pine trees for the past 6 months (her office building is surrounded by the things as is the parking lot). Although I've been diligent about cleaning them out of the engine bay / heater-fresh-air-inlet area, some have still apparently gotten into the heater system. We know this because at random times, the car will suddenly fill with the very strong odor of BURNING pine needles! There is no smoke in the car but you would swear that there is a fire!

Therefore, two questions:

Is there any possible fire hazard? Can the heater possibly get hot enough to ignite dried pine needles? I wouldn't think so myself but if you could smell the odor from the heater, you too would wonder about a fire.

And how in the dickens do you access where ever the pine needles may be accumulating. I've changed the heater filter beneath the dash and found a small amount of "debris". But is there somewhere else that leaves and crud may build up?

Thanks in advance,

Tony Fontaine
(who's wife is no longer allowed to park beneath pine trees! Not an easy thing to do in Maine!)

[Mr Project]

Hmmm....I haven't replaced my microfilter yet, and I don't have the ETK or Bentley here, but wouldn't the microfilter prevent any needles from actually getting to the heater core? (which is the only thing that should be a heat hazard) Or is the filter after the core for some reason?

[dave b]

Right before my sword went out, my car would smell like burning leaves. Since it was fire season here in LA, I thought it was from outside or perhaps some soot that had found its way into my system.

I realized my error when all of a sudden my air flow controls only worked on #4.

If this is indeed your problem, you're in luck. It will only cost you $11 to replace your sword.

[GS535i]

Right before my sword went out, my car would smell like burning leaves. Since it was fire season here in LA, I thought it was from outside or perhaps some soot that had found its way into my system.

I realized my error when all of a sudden my air flow controls only worked on #4.

If this is indeed your problem, you're in luck. It will only cost you $11 to replace your sword.

If I knew what a "sword" was, at $11, I'd probably buy two! So what is it? ... please.
Regards pine needles & trash in the heater inlet - a long story! In winter storage, for the second time, a small furry critter built a nest in the heater air intakes.
The double squirrel cage fans draw the junk inside, throw the cages out of balance, etc. To correct, the coolant tank, wire harness, firewall plate, plastic cover, flap valve linkage, and finally the fan assembly cover must come off. Then the clean up starts .... Allow 2-3 hrs.

[dave b]

The sword resistor controls the heater/AC controls. Without it, your only options are off and full blast.

On the earlier models it costs $100+, but the later models have the cheap version. I got my info from bruno's site at www.bmwe34.net (http://www.bmwe34.net).

[Bill R.]

resistor pack instead for the speed controls for the fan motor... What they use is various windings of resistance wire on these , its just a couple of coils of nichrome wire in different thicknesses for different speeds for the blower... When you run current through these nichrome wires they heat up like a cigarette lighter, usually not glowing but pretty hot.. I suspect that the pine needles are hitting this randomly and starting to smoke... I haven't heard of one catching fire yet but you never know.. You can do as you did and remove the filter and vacum that area out then you can remove the resistor pack which is on the opposite side of the tunnel from the air filter and vacum that cavity out, its much smaller than the hole for the filter though..the only other alternative is to remove the top of the blower housing in the engine compartment and vacum that all out..








Greetings,

My wife's '95 touring has been parked at her job near pine trees for the past 6 months (her office building is surrounded by the things as is the parking lot). Although I've been diligent about cleaning them out of the engine bay / heater-fresh-air-inlet area, some have still apparently gotten into the heater system. We know this because at random times, the car will suddenly fill with the very strong odor of BURNING pine needles! There is no smoke in the car but you would swear that there is a fire!

Therefore, two questions:

Is there any possible fire hazard? Can the heater possibly get hot enough to ignite dried pine needles? I wouldn't think so myself but if you could smell the odor from the heater, you too would wonder about a fire.

And how in the dickens do you access where ever the pine needles may be accumulating. I've changed the heater filter beneath the dash and found a small amount of "debris". But is there somewhere else that leaves and crud may build up?

Thanks in advance,

Tony Fontaine
(who's wife is no longer allowed to park beneath pine trees! Not an easy thing to do in Maine!)

[dave b]

That's what I meant....the newer cars have the cheaper unit that replaced the sword.

Here's the info from Bruno's page (with a photo from Bill R!):

http://www.bmwe34.net/e34main/maintenance/electrical/sword.htm

When I got my resistor from BMA it was $11 and required a little contortion and squeezing to replace.

[Tiger]

Vacuum in Microfilter area... change Microfilter while you are at it.

[632 Regal]

is there a way to use screen to keep the critters out of there like he mentioned or is that kinda ompossible. I understand hot needles and crap can get in but animals? Maybe the plastic screen is loose or missing somewhere? I cant picture it tho.

[theonew]

I haven't heard of one catching fire yet but you never know..

Mine just did, burnt up a bunch of the heater housing and surrounding carpet and cover, also caught my shoe on fire. Happened on the highway, it was pretty scary.

[Ross]

The '95 uses a resistor(s)to control fan speed so the burning you smell likely is.
Remove the microfilter and you should be able to get a vacuumm crevice tool in there. Removing the blower motor will get better access but way more work.
http://www.e32-schrauber.de/bmw/date...r_write_up.pdf
This might help for the latter solution.

[whiskychaser]

Mine just did, burnt up a bunch of the heater housing and surrounding carpet and cover, also caught my shoe on fire. Happened on the highway, it was pretty scary.
That must have been aweful. And remarkably quick if you didnt notice it until you shoe was on fire. Have you managed to find the cause?