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      06-15-2014, 08:55 PM   #1
Austinformedude
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A/C evaporator freezing over?!?

Now that it is warm out and I am running the A/C all the time, I am running into an issue on my 2013 328. Around town, everything is fine but after several hours on the freeway, the blower is working but very little air is coming out of the vents. You can hear the blower working, but almost nothing coming out of any vents causing the whole car to heat up. If I turn off the car and let it thaw out everything comes back to normal. Lots of water coming from the evap case when parked. I strongly suspect the evaporator is freezing over. There is supposed to be software and sensors to prevent this. Anyone else having this issue or found a solution? Taking a road trip with the F30 is not much fun when having to stop all the time to thaw out the evaporator.
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      06-15-2014, 10:04 PM   #2
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Check the refrigerant pressure it might be low on gas.
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      06-15-2014, 10:20 PM   #3
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Check the refrigerant pressure and check out the cabin air filter
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      06-16-2014, 07:38 AM   #4
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Normally this is because the flow of air is blocked, could be due to a dirty evaporator? Or filter. Or anywhere the air flow might be blocked.
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      06-16-2014, 07:44 PM   #5
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Thanks for the help guys. I know my cabin filter is clean, so next step will be to bring it in and check the system charge. I did drive 4 hours today in 98 degree heat with no issues. Today I left the fan speed up and turned the temp warmer. It seems to only ice over with low fan speeds.
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      06-17-2014, 01:40 PM   #6
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I strongly suggest you take it to your dealership. I do a bit of work with building A/Cs and icing over is usually a sign of a fault (or a sign that the system isn't powerful enough, but I think we can discount that).

Worse, if an A/C ices up that in itself can cause or exacerbate faults/coolant leaks. And if there isn't enough coolant in the system, the compressor will be working overtime and could burn out. You don't want that to happen out of warranty!
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      07-16-2014, 11:56 AM   #7
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Anyone knows if F3* still requires complete dashboard removal to replace AC evaporator and/or blower? This is one of the craziest repair on E39, E46(and many other cars as well) for $3k+(a 2-day job!!!), just curious if BMW engineers finally address this.
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      07-16-2014, 08:45 PM   #8
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I checked the gas, and pressures. Everything was fine. I found that by leaving the fan speed low AND the temp low (75 or lower) the evaporator will freeze up in about 5 hours with outside temps over 90F. I don't normally take trips that long though. I think what is happening is with the low air flow, the icing isn't getting knocked off the evaporator. Now I just run the fan speeds higher and no more problems. Still, I would rather have a lower volume of colder air versus a higher volume of slightly warmer air, but that is just my preference.
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      07-17-2014, 12:24 AM   #9
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I actually ran into the same exact problem! During the 4th of July weekend, I drove from NYC to DC and about 2 hours in, my a/c stopped working. I had it on the same setting as well (low temp and low fan speed). The blower still made a loud noise when I turn up the fan but no cold air came out until I turned off the a/c for a while.

I took it to a dealership in VA over the weekend since I didn't want to drive back up with no a/c (I had no idea that it was due to a frozen evaporator at the time). The rep and the BMW technician told me they charged the battery but could not find out what is wrong either and that if it happens again, BMW will replace the blowing motor for me.


Anyways, supposedly there is a BMW service bulletin for that frozen evaporator. I PM'ed someone to see if they can get it for me. If I get it, I'll send a copy to you too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinformedude View Post
I checked the gas, and pressures. Everything was fine. I found that by leaving the fan speed low AND the temp low (75 or lower) the evaporator will freeze up in about 5 hours with outside temps over 90F. I don't normally take trips that long though. I think what is happening is with the low air flow, the icing isn't getting knocked off the evaporator. Now I just run the fan speeds higher and no more problems. Still, I would rather have a lower volume of colder air versus a higher volume of slightly warmer air, but that is just my preference.
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      07-17-2014, 11:25 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by avatar220 View Post
The rep and the BMW technician told me they charged the battery but could not find out what is wrong either and that if it happens again, BMW will replace the blowing motor for me.

Anyways, supposedly there is a BMW service bulletin for that frozen evaporator. I PM'ed someone to see if they can get it for me. If I get it, I'll send a copy to you too.
Please post SIB if available. It looks like F3* design allows access to the AC/heater blower from a panel under the glove box, what a relief!
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      07-21-2015, 07:53 PM   #11
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TSB 64 06 13 just had it done on my 13 328xi - evaporator freezing.. changed evaporator temp sensor
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      07-22-2015, 01:04 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ft1330 View Post
Normally this is because the flow of air is blocked, could be due to a dirty evaporator? Or filter. Or anywhere the air flow might be blocked.
Ha AC wanna be for sure. Typically this is due to low freon.
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      07-23-2015, 02:54 AM   #13
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If you're going to be running it for hours, setting the fan to high will help prevent it from freezing up.
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      07-23-2015, 06:25 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rking117 View Post
Ha AC wanna be for sure. Typically this is due to low freon.
You mad bro?

What's your own expertise in vehicle AC? Your trailer home doesn't qualify.
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      07-23-2015, 03:35 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinformedude View Post
Now that it is warm out and I am running the A/C all the time, I am running into an issue on my 2013 328. Around town, everything is fine but after several hours on the freeway, the blower is working but very little air is coming out of the vents. You can hear the blower working, but almost nothing coming out of any vents causing the whole car to heat up. If I turn off the car and let it thaw out everything comes back to normal. Lots of water coming from the evap case when parked. I strongly suspect the evaporator is freezing over. There is supposed to be software and sensors to prevent this. Anyone else having this issue or found a solution? Taking a road trip with the F30 is not much fun when having to stop all the time to thaw out the evaporator.
Evaporator is defecto. Get it fixed at the dealership. I was talking to one of the dealer techs over a month ago and he said he swapped dozens of them.

Good luck.
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      09-07-2015, 12:46 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bimmerius View Post
TSB 64 06 13 just had it done on my 13 328xi - evaporator freezing.. changed evaporator temp sensor
I have the same problem and my SA says they need to relocate the sensor per the TSB to fix it. Do you recall how long it took to do the work?

Thanks.
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      09-07-2015, 03:05 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinformedude View Post
I checked the gas, and pressures. Everything was fine. I found that by leaving the fan speed low AND the temp low (75 or lower) the evaporator will freeze up in about 5 hours with outside temps over 90F. I don't normally take trips that long though. I think what is happening is with the low air flow, the icing isn't getting knocked off the evaporator. Now I just run the fan speeds higher and no more problems.
It's not the heat, it's the humidity. With an adequate combination of heat and humidity any AC will freeze up. Keeping the fan speed low makes it worse, as the compressor will never cycle off. Using the Max AC setting helps, because that recirculates air from inside the cabin that's already been cooled and de-humidified, instead of pulling in more hot and humid air from the outside.

I once worked at a motel that had inadequately sized window AC units. On an average day no problems, but when above 90 with high humidity they would build up literally a full inch of ice on the coils. The users in these cases always had the temp control set all the way down, which made the situation worse, as the compressor never shut down. The temporary fix was to simply turn the temperature up. The compressor would turn off, and the ice would melt. Since they did not have the ability to recirculate the air in the room there was no permanent cure except to replace them with higher capacity units that didn't have the compressors running at a 100% duty cycle to cool the room.
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      09-07-2015, 03:23 PM   #18
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What is your temp set at? This happened to me during my SC to Socal road trip in high humidity when I had the system on auto, fan speed 1 and 67F.

The next day, when things had a chance to (I assume) thaw out and the AC was working normally, I had good luck with the system on manual, fan speed 3 and 71F

I read elsewhere that setting the temp too low can cause some condensation in high humidity, and raising the temp a bit can help out

Thanks also everyone for the TSB number. The issue has not happened again since I made it back to Socal, even in 110F heat in the desert, but it is good to have the knowledge of the TSB around for the future
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      09-07-2015, 05:24 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nicknaz View Post
The issue has not happened again since I made it back to Socal, even in 110F heat in the desert
With very low humidity there's nothing to freeze.
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      09-08-2015, 11:19 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chazmink View Post
I have the same problem and my SA says they need to relocate the sensor per the TSB to fix it. Do you recall how long it took to do the work?

Thanks.
They were supposed to complete in one day.. but took them two days..
We had a loaner so something tells me they took their time..
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      08-01-2020, 08:34 AM   #21
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2016 328xi M  [0.00]
NO NO NO you dont need a new evaporater...common problem google BMW SI B64 06 13
repair bulliten and the shop does a firmware update. YOUR EVAP WILL STOP FREEZING UP
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      08-01-2020, 09:45 AM   #22
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Had the SIB done yesterday under CPO.

Had frozen up 2 hrs into a road trip. AC was on Auto @ 70 degrees, low speed w/outside temps 85-92 and humid (spotty showers).

'16 F31 328ix
42K miles

Next road trip in 2 weeks.
Will report back in.
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