I Did It!!!!!

[Paul in NZ]

Good for you!Make sure you spend some of that saved 674 on your self!
The vent stepper motors are buried in the dash.If you look at shoguns posts he has made a few posts on where they are located.

[Venus4NU]

After talking about it for a couple months *I* finally replaced the blower fan in my car. I saw a couple post on here from people who were thinking about doing this - I am a female and had no problems doing it. Don't fear it - it really is not that difficult.

My problems started like so many I have seen on here. When turning on the fan it squealed but if you turned it on high it stopped. Slowly progressed to a growl that wouldn't go away - than only worked on setting 3 and 4.

First thing I did was searched this forum for everything to do with the blower and visited all links that were provided for me. Johan's and another one proved to be invaluable. Without both of those sites I couldn't do it. Johan's provided the step by step to disassembling everything to get to the blower. The other site provided some other tidbit information. All in all I did over the course of two days. On Saturday I worked for about one hour taking everything apart. The sun started going down and my toes got cold so I called it quits. Started in today right after church and had it done in about an hour. Probably about 2 1/2 hours total to do it - most of that time was wrestling with the blower as I had a hard time getting it to set in the housing firmly. My blower is now working on all levels. The biggest noticeable difference is lack of growling noise from the dashboard and the amount of air movement. At least twice the amount of air force as before. I suspect that my blower was going out way before I started to hear the noises.

So guys - if you are thinking about doing this just remember that this non-mechanical gal with a little help from my 15 year old daughter was able to accomplish this. Husband feels horrible that he couldn't help but he is laid up in bed with the flu.

I still have no air going through my floor vents. Any great links on how I can get my floor heat to work? Some had mentioned brushing and another stepper motors but I can't figure out where they are located or where to ever start looking. I would be happy if I could just rig them to open up for the remainder of the winter.

Again thanks to everyone who provides so much help and support. By doing this myself I saved $674 from what the BMW mechanic quoted me.

Venus~

[Dragunov]

Max respect to you Venus, never heard about wives fixing cars before. Double thumbs up for the ladies.

[nirvana19]

Ha, I haven't been able to accomplish it yet. Need to get the coolant expansion tank out of the way and change my thermostat and such and such. kudos to you though, I need to get mine done.

[bigtisas]

I wish my girlfriend can do it.

[Venus4NU]

Ha, I haven't been able to accomplish it yet. Need to get the coolant expansion tank out of the way and change my thermostat and such and such. kudos to you though, I need to get mine done.

I changed the thermostat a couple months ago. Very easy. Burbing the coolant, ummm think it is called bleeding, was the hardest. Just couldn't get all the air out. Over the course of bleeding it everyday for a week it finally was ok.

Brakes are next. My warning - break lining - is on. I checked the pads and they are low but not grinding or anything like that - So, that is going to wait until spring.

This was totally cool. I am a very girly girl. I have changed a tire in an emergency and *watched* the husband change oil. I've changed a couple thermostats but that has to be one of the easier things to do. Hmmm, I might get addicted to fixing things on my car myself.

V~

[Tiger]

Wanna do mine too?

[artguy]

...you're one ahead of me.

My fan is squealing too but with the snow, 20 degrees, no garage, and a shortage of $$$...mine will wait till later this year.

My temporary, cheap fix is to just turn up the radio and drown it out :D

WOW...she goes to church and likes to work on her e34...your husband is such a lucky man!

[Venus4NU]

...you're one ahead of me.

My fan is squealing too but with the snow, 20 degrees, no garage, and a shortage of $$$...mine will wait till later this year.

My temporary, cheap fix is to just turn up the radio and drown it out :D

WOW...she goes to church and likes to work on her e34...your husband is such a lucky man!

I don't know how important having actual BMW parts are to you - but I couldn't afford the BMW fan at the cost of $300 from the local parts store BUT O'Reilly's had a non BMW one for $125 with the exact same warranty. Thats what I went with.

The husband is very lucky in many ways *WINK*WINK*

[Nick.Hay]

Husband feels horrible that he couldn't help but he is laid up in bed with the flu.
Venus~

Yikes!! Not the "Man Flu"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o60GRjZXW6Q