E39 sounds like jet aircraft

Ralph,

That fan (auxiliary fan) runs whenever the AC is switched on, and in response to a thermostatic element in the engine cooling system. It's possible your thermostatic element (2 level switch) is kaput (German tech term for passed-on, dead, nailed to the perch..) and signaling that full fan is needed all the time. That would be my guess. When it's switched on with the AC, it isn't on full speed.. full speed only comes on in response to the thermo-switch.

A new thermo switch will probably fix it right up.

Oh - it sounds like a jet engine on full speed.. it's quite a fan actually.

Thanks - I'll see how much the servcie dept want to change that...which in the same month as 4 new Michelins on the 18" parallels was something that I was hoping to avoid by blaming the last lot for breaking it...

Just by way of a followup the dealer diagnosed a new fan unit at a staggering =A3187 + =A3210 to fit it. I explained that I couldn't really justify =A3400 to fix something that worked too well and got them to unplug it. Does anybody have any ideas how to fix this cheaply, or am I going to be spending the summer watching the temprature guage...

Well that quote probably equates to a =A330 (non-BMW) part and an hour's labour ;-)

Er! £187 for what exactly ---- labour in a BMW dealer = £100 hour A £10 relay = £40 BMW relay The A/C auxiliary fan in front of the Rad = £200 and that is Massive so a small fan as used on something like a computer Graphics card that usually coast £3.00 at a computer fair will be priced @ £30+

Sir Hugh of Bognor

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Intelligence is not knowing the answer but knowing where and how to find it!

Hugh Gundersen snipped-for-privacy@h-gee.co.uk Bognor Regis, W.Sussex, England, UK

Browse the Unix nerds site - John Burns... if no-one pops up here soon with the likely problems / answer

and / or find a good specialist - in your area - there's a list on John Burns site...

Nick