Brand new 328i, AC fails on highway for ~hour

three28i · 08-03-2015, 08:55 AM

Hello All,

Very excited to be a part of this group.

I have a brand new 2015 328i. On the day I took delivery I took a weekend road-trip. Car functioned fine except for on day 3 on the ride home. 90 degrees outside, full sun, highway speeds, about 2 hours into a 3.5 hour trip the AC stopped cooling. Even turning on MAX didn't "kick in" like it should have - almost like it was a fan problem. It was really hard to tell if the air coming out of the vents was cool at all since the fan wasn't blowing much.

Note from my previous car training I had the AC system on Manual recycle. My passenger read the manual and we mucked with trying Auto recycle, turning max on and off, etc. Eventually it started cooling again after less than an hour of acting this way. Not really sure what started it working again.

The only thing that seemingly could have caused it was the passenger set the temp on that side of the cabin to 66 (from default 60). Not sure if that triggered something or if that's just how the AC works in that case? We may have set it back to 60 when it started working again. I forget now.

Anyway, since then (a week ago now) it's worked fine with no other problems but no long-distance highway driving either.

As I gather more data eventually I'll bring it in to get it checked out but wanted to post here to see if anyone had any similar experience.

Thanks for any advice!

strig1 · 08-03-2015, 09:40 AM

Mine did a similar thing. Was a 2 hour Drive last October(In texas so still hot) and about halfway in the AC stopped cooling and was only blowing hot air. When i got home i turned the car off and let it rest overnight. Next day AC worked fine and now its been like 8 months no problems.

three28i · 08-03-2015, 01:14 PM

Interesting, thanks for the response. I'll mention it to them at the first appt obviously but interesting that it even happened at all. In my case the car never cooled down before it started working again (we kept driving!) but who knows...maybe it was an engineering decision to work that way to avoid engine overheating, etc.

EDIT: After seeing this thread I wonder if I just had it in some strange mode that I didn't understand yet.

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1152507

crono06 · 08-14-2015, 08:03 AM

Did you happen to be driving in Eco Pro mode?

mtbnole · 09-20-2015, 06:20 PM

I had this same issue and they did a pretty extensive repair per a service bulletin. Now a week later the ac sometimes won't come on at all. I think something is loose possibly. Very annoying considering it's 95 degrees here this weekend.

alautowarehouse · 11-04-2015, 01:49 PM

I am having the same issue with my 2014 435i. A/C will not blow at desired fan speed while on a trip for 2+ hours (after changing from manual to auto and max a/c). Extremely frustrating as they are not able to duplicate the problem in service. My car is in service for the 3rd time for this issue. Any updates on the issue? The service foreman told me they are seeing this issue more often in 12'+ BMWs.

08-03-2015, 08:55 AM	#1
three28i Registered 1 Rep 2 Posts Drives: 328i Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: US iTrader: (0)	Brand new 328i, AC fails on highway for ~hour Hello All, Very excited to be a part of this group. I have a brand new 2015 328i. On the day I took delivery I took a weekend road-trip. Car functioned fine except for on day 3 on the ride home. 90 degrees outside, full sun, highway speeds, about 2 hours into a 3.5 hour trip the AC stopped cooling. Even turning on MAX didn't "kick in" like it should have - almost like it was a fan problem. It was really hard to tell if the air coming out of the vents was cool at all since the fan wasn't blowing much. Note from my previous car training I had the AC system on Manual recycle. My passenger read the manual and we mucked with trying Auto recycle, turning max on and off, etc. Eventually it started cooling again after less than an hour of acting this way. Not really sure what started it working again. The only thing that seemingly could have caused it was the passenger set the temp on that side of the cabin to 66 (from default 60). Not sure if that triggered something or if that's just how the AC works in that case? We may have set it back to 60 when it started working again. I forget now. Anyway, since then (a week ago now) it's worked fine with no other problems but no long-distance highway driving either. As I gather more data eventually I'll bring it in to get it checked out but wanted to post here to see if anyone had any similar experience. Thanks for any advice!
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08-03-2015, 09:40 AM	#2
strig1 Private 8 Rep 76 Posts Drives: 2014 328i Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Houston Tx iTrader: (0)	Mine did a similar thing. Was a 2 hour Drive last October(In texas so still hot) and about halfway in the AC stopped cooling and was only blowing hot air. When i got home i turned the car off and let it rest overnight. Next day AC worked fine and now its been like 8 months no problems.
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08-03-2015, 01:14 PM	#3
three28i Registered 1 Rep 2 Posts Drives: 328i Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: US iTrader: (0)	Interesting, thanks for the response. I'll mention it to them at the first appt obviously but interesting that it even happened at all. In my case the car never cooled down before it started working again (we kept driving!) but who knows...maybe it was an engineering decision to work that way to avoid engine overheating, etc. EDIT: After seeing this thread I wonder if I just had it in some strange mode that I didn't understand yet. http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1152507 Last edited by three28i; 08-03-2015 at 07:10 PM..
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08-14-2015, 08:03 AM	#4
crono06 Captain 127 Rep 764 Posts Drives: 2013 335i and 2018 X3 Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Toronto ON iTrader: (0)	Did you happen to be driving in Eco Pro mode?
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09-20-2015, 06:20 PM	#5
mtbnole Second Lieutenant 54 Rep 290 Posts Drives: 2014 328i Msport Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: SO FL iTrader: (0)	I had this same issue and they did a pretty extensive repair per a service bulletin. Now a week later the ac sometimes won't come on at all. I think something is loose possibly. Very annoying considering it's 95 degrees here this weekend.
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11-04-2015, 01:49 PM	#6
alautowarehouse Registered 3 Rep 4 Posts Drives: 2014 BMW 435i Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Texas iTrader: (0)	I am having the same issue with my 2014 435i. A/C will not blow at desired fan speed while on a trip for 2+ hours (after changing from manual to auto and max a/c). Extremely frustrating as they are not able to duplicate the problem in service. My car is in service for the 3rd time for this issue. Any updates on the issue? The service foreman told me they are seeing this issue more often in 12'+ BMWs.
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