markrunder 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 (edited) Hi guys. Haven't been on this forum in a long time. My old username is mark247 and for some reason it just aint working, so I've made a new one. I recently bought a cheap 320i e30 as a daily driver. It's was produced in 12/87 and is a facelift with what seems to have the retrofitted air con. The heater core and heater valve seem to be pre-facelift era (just for context). One issue I'm having with the blower resistor. The current resistor smoked up the other day while driving, so now the fan is either off or on full. It seems some previous owner and done some dodgy mod and the resistor was hanging in the engine bay near the battery. This is what the old resistor looked like, it doesn't look very original. Anyway, I thought it was just be a matter of rerouting the wiring back to where the resistor should be behind the firewall panel and getting a replacement. Turns out that is not the case as there is no room for it in there for it. To make matters more confusing there is a resistor that is accessible from inside the car that looks like this (pic below). I thought this one should be doing what the one by the battery was doing. I did get another resistor, the normal looking facelift type (see BELOW picture) and plug it in under the hood by the battery where the old one burnt out. Everything now works but it is not safe as they get pretty hot and need good airflow. I'm just confused as to what to do? Why are there two resistors? To be honest I just want my fans to work properly so any suggestions would be great. I'm stumped. Cheers for your help. Edited April 5, 2014 by markrunder Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
e30ftw 410 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 That's the retrofitted Aircon. I'm not sure how much of it is OEM, But mine had the exact same as yours. Your best bet would be to plug those 4 spade terminals into the new OEM Resistor, instead of playing around with that wiring. I took mine all out when I removed A/C and now my blower doesn't work at all, it was also powering my windows so I had to re-wire those. Not sure how it's wired in and what happens with the original wiring, But you will see extra wiring around your battery, to the front aircon and fan, into the cabin where the ECU loom fits through the firewall and across to the fusebox with a relay. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
markrunder 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 (edited) That's the retrofitted Aircon. I'm not sure how much of it is OEM, But mine had the exact same as yours. Your best bet would be to plug those 4 spade terminals into the new OEM Resistor, instead of playing around with that wiring. I took mine all out when I removed A/C and now my blower doesn't work at all, it was also powering my windows so I had to re-wire those. Not sure how it's wired in and what happens with the original wiring, But you will see extra wiring around your battery, to the front aircon and fan, into the cabin where the ECU loom fits through the firewall and across to the fusebox with a relay. Cheers for the reply. Plugging the spades into the 'new' OEM resistor like my final pic shows make it work. But it seems my fan motor is slightly different making there be no place to clip it in where this type should go. I was considering just plugging those wires into the resistor that is already in there (ref second pic) as when I unplug it currently it seems to make no change to the fan or air con. I just hope that won't somehow cause a fire. Edited April 5, 2014 by markrunder Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_ethrty-Andy_ 2132 Report post Posted April 5, 2014 maybe someone with a prefacelift can post a picture of the resistor pack type they use, maybe there is space for that in there? Im convinced your car has a prefacelift heaterbox in it, but without having seen a prefacelift like that, i couldnt say for sure. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
