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Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Discuss your latest mods or ideas, and anything to do with the BMW X5 (E70).
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celica

Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by celica » Fri Nov 07, 2014 9:18 pm

Noticed in recent cold weather, when I turn the car on there's a faint humming motor noise from centre console area

If I turn off the climate control by turning fans down and off it stops

Anyone else get this

I don't drive the car much as my wife uses it, so can't comment whether it goes away after awhile

But not noticed before?

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Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by Chodda » Wed Nov 12, 2014 10:51 am

I get this too, but never noticed it until the one day I drove without having the music on....
Doesn't bug me as I take no notice of it anymore....
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celica

Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by celica » Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:03 am

[quote="Chodda"]
I get this too, but never noticed it until the one day I drove without having the music on....
Doesn't bug me as I take no notice of it anymore....
[/quote]

I don't drive the car often as my wife has it

But I don't think its all the time

Does go away if I turn the fans off so assume has to be related?

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Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by Graeme » Thu Nov 13, 2014 5:28 pm

When I had an E53 the climate control gave trouble!  After replacing hedgehog 3 times to no avail, the dealer discovered that there is a small fan, like in a laptop, to cool the climate control processor and circuit board that was fitted behind the heater and other switches at the front of the dashboard.  It had stuck and when the processor overheated it cut out, so the heater stopped working and the car got cold on cold days - a b***** nuisance!  A squirt of WD40 or similar cured it FOC, otherwise the replacement unit was about £400

I don't know if the E70 has a similar arrangement because in the past 6.5 years of use, touch wood, mine has not given the same trouble as the old E53 .  If there is a small cooling fan there, it could make a noise at times.

Just a thought...

If your climate control is working properly, why worry!!!

Best wishes,

Graeme

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Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by X5Sport » Thu Nov 13, 2014 5:51 pm

There is certainly a little grill/vent beside the left hand temp controller.  Could that be the input for the cooling air as you describe?

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Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by Graeme » Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:35 pm

I believe, but stand corrected if I'm wrong, that this grill allows air in from the cabin to the sensor that sends information to the temperature control unit.  I was told a long time ago never to cover it over with sweetie bags etc!

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Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by Horizon » Thu Nov 13, 2014 8:30 pm

[quote="Graeme"]
I believe, but stand corrected if I'm wrong, that this grill allows air in from the cabin to the sensor that sends information to the temperature control unit.  I was told a long time ago never to cover it over with sweetie bags etc!

Graeme
[/quote]

+1, I always understood it was to blow sample cabin air over the temperature transducer on the climate control unit.
I imagine duel zone climate needs 2 sensors, I think some manufacturers put sensors in the ducting to each Zone to control this VW do, as I've seen a retro fit post.
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celica

Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by celica » Mon Nov 17, 2014 12:37 am

I only tend to use the car on weekend as my wife uses it more so in the week

Was having a play
So turn the climate control off it stops
So I played with the temperature

It seems to get worst at anything over 20degrees
Faint humming and pulsating noise from somewhere

Will get garage to have a look

celica

Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by celica » Mon Nov 17, 2014 12:41 am

[quote="X5Sport"]
There is certainly a little grill/vent beside the left hand temp controller.  Could that be the input for the cooling air as you describe?

Richard
[/quote]

Could you put a pic up
Can't quite picture it
It does sound like its coming from the left a bit more

celica

Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by celica » Mon Nov 17, 2014 10:04 am

Good call on the pollen filters
But as it only does it at certain temps I'm thinking it might be the climate control fan itself
Where mentioned it pulls cabin air in to control etc

I've got some electrical cleaner spray and wd40 but not sure where to start

I found this link to show how to get the climate control unit out, is it worth me investigating the unit itself?

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp3uIM77Fiw
Where's a good place to get trim tool?

celica

Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by celica » Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:17 am

It's been a year and didn't get to the bottom of this noise

So to recap my heater makes a humming constant noise when above around 25degrees and between 22-25 there's a faint pulsating, thumping noise

Below 21 degrees it's faint and goes away more the lower the temp

Here's a video of it
More apparent at 30 seconds onwards

Warning - need volume up to hear!

Image

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Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by JimmySpeed » Mon Nov 23, 2015 8:10 pm

Hmmmmm.... that doesn't sound right to me. Sounds like something caught on a fan as it spins perhaps, but I wouldn't know where to start looking. You can buy a used climate unit on ebay for around £120 so if thats the problem not too hard to sort.

Perhaps free the climate unit from the dash but leave it connected (so hanging out of its hole) and put your ear right on the top of the unit to identify if its the unit or not?

celica

Re: Faint motor humming noise with climate control on

Post by celica » Wed Nov 25, 2015 9:05 pm

Any ideas would help

On the list maybe when funds allow as I need to change the nav disc reader too

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