Why is my E30 different?

[steve3smart]

My fan blower would only start on full speed and then I could slow it down. Finally it stopped  working all together. I discovered the fuse had melted and research led me to the fan resistor. Great, an easy fix, however when I removed the firewall panel my car is different. I am assuming the large black plastic is some kind of cover. It's well and truly solid. I'm guessing the next step involves a hammer unless anyone has seen this before.

[DesktopDave]

I can honestly say I've never seen anything like that! I'm not sure how you'd go about fixing that, unless you pulled the entire HVAC box out from inside the car. It's not impossible but involves removing most of the interior.

[keflaman]

What market was your car built for? Is it possible you have some sort of special HVAC "air particle separator" system?

[deansweet]

Almost like a secondary shield?
You can see where the cover is pushed out for the bands that hold the cover on blower?


Wondering if somebody installed one from another generation of BMW?
I'd take that over to my local BMW shop and see if they can recognize where that may gave come from bc I would almost 100% guarantee you the guys in the shop have never seen this?

[steve3smart]

Thanks for the replies. The car was imported to Taiwan from the United States. I've search high and low trying to find another cover like this.  I went to a junkyard and saw 2 cars, just as they should be in the diagram above. I hope I can prize this cover off. I really don't want to take the dash out just to replace the resistor.

[keflaman]

Have you entered your VIN on RealOEM or BMWfans.info to get some specifics on the car? Are you sure it's an E30? I don't mean that as a smart-ass remark. I bought a 1983 320i when I lived in Spain and since the E30's first year of sales in the U.S. were '84 models I thought I had an E21. It was some time before I realized my mistake.

[steve3smart]

With no luck on the internet I decided to cut the plastic cover in half. After cutting along the top I cut a triangle section from each end and prized the front part free. The rear section was rotated over the fan covers and pulled out.  All this work was to replace the fan blower motor resister, so imagine my surprise when it turned out not to be there. After more searching I found the resistor in the drivers side foot well. Now at least I don't have to take the dash out.

[DesktopDave]

Post a part number, if one is printed on that cover. I wish my resistor pack was that easy to get at!

I did take a look at RealOEM...seems like it's a pretty late production car with the microfilter cover? I didn't know they made these...but they're listed as available after 9/89. RealOEM is a little unclear...could be the microfilter housing or the rare automatic HVAC system. PN 64111394090

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=BA73&mospid=47325&btnr=64_1719&hg=64&fg=35