BMW L7 Dashboard And Air Doors
I own a 1986 BMW L7 (735). The problem is two fold. First, on the dash board there is a knob that control the A/C temperature. To the left is a knob that controls the fan speed. When I turn on the fan speed knob, air will blow into the passenger compartment and then it makes a noise similar to a door closing and the air will stop coming in. This will go off and on and with it goes the air circulation. BMW L7 Dashboard And Air Doors The dealer tells me that the entire dash board must be removed in order to diagnose the problem and at least four (4) hours are required to remove the dash board. Is this the only way to access and repair this problem? The second problem is the dash board lights. The light is very dim even with the dimmer knob turned all the way to bright lighting. The fuse seems to be okay and so does the control knob; therefore, it appears that some of the bulb(s) are burned out. Again, is removing the dash board the only way to replace burned out bulbs? If you can answer these questions and/or provide a solution other than removal of the dash board, I would be most appreciative. Of course, if removal is the only way, oh well!
Cars & Trucks - BMW - L7 - 1986 BMW L7
Answers & Comments
The dash will have to come out for the A/C prob to check the stepper motors and wiring. There are about 6 motors back controling different flaps to control direction of airflow. Once you get the dash out, turn on the car and start working the climate control to see what motors and flap are doing what. Once you see what's happening or not happening, you will know what to do then. about 4 to 5 hrs to take out dash fix prob reinstall dash.
The dash does not have to come for bulbs. For the cluster, you may have to drop the wheel if it does not adjust down far enough to remove the cluster. Drop the lower dash under the wheel, one of the bolts is left hand thread to hold the wheel up, two wery small screw hold the cluster, it slides out. One hour at most; two if no experience doing it.
It sounds like one of the vent doors has come off it's linkage. If this is the case, then some disassembly will need to be done to get the HVAC box out to find out which door it is, what's broken and repaired. The instrument cluster will need to come out to replace the bulbs, not the whole dashboard. But of course if they are going to pull the whole dash, by rights the only extra expense in replace the instrument cluster bulbs would be the cost of the bulbs themselves.