E30 Blower Motors

I know they suck. It seems like every E30 I've ever been in had a squeaky one, a bad one, or had one replaced. My '90 325i's blower motor is starting to make really bad noises. It's cold and the mrs. isn't going to be happy if she loses heat. Is there a cheap fix? My interchange at work shows that '84-'89 with a plastic fan and '90-'93 E30 fits, but I've seen ebay sellers say that Z3 blowers also fit. Anyone ever used one? There's a local salvage yard with a low mileage Z3, and if it will work I'd rather use that than an old ass E30 blower that's probably going to crap out on me in a few months.

i dont know... but i want to!

i'll be following this thread......

Mine does this hilarious thing. When it's turned off, sometimes it whines while cruising... but goes completely silent at WOT.

I checked bentley and did a visual inspection and I haven't been able to locate any vacuum operated hvac stuff.

Really strange.

Lemme guess... the blower motor on an E30 is like a Volvo 240? They started with a blower motor hanging on an assembly line and built the car around it?

Ian F wrote: Lemme guess... the blower motor on an E30 is like a Volvo 240? They started with a blower motor hanging on an assembly line and built the car around it?

They're actually not too bad to change, they're just massive pieces of junk. Mine sounds like a blender that's being fed live birds and small rodents.

First thing to do is to make sure there aren't any live birds or small rodents caught in the blower. They can pick up leave and twigs as well.

The heater blowers on e30s are actually quite easy to replace, theres a cover on the firewall you have to remove but then they're right there. It only takes a few minutes.

It is possible to lube the bearings and quiet them down, at least for a while. You can use WD-40 to flush out the dirt and dried gunk in the bearings, but afterwards you need to drip in some real oil for long term lubrication. I made the blower in my e28 go for a couple more years before I had to replace it by doing this every few months.

its the price tag of a new replacement that makes it hard......has anyone found them for less than $200?

Tischer BMW has new blower motors listed for $68.66. There are other online sources that will probably give you similar prices - I haven't priced blower motors with them but http://blunttechclassic.com/ is one good source for OEM parts.

I need to clean out my HVAC system. I did that in a cabriolet I owned for a few months and it made a huge difference to me.

Maybe I'll pop out the blower and start there. Is the heater core easy to get to? I wanna give it a once over with a pressure sprayer (not washer!)

stuart in mn wrote: Tischer BMW has new blower motors listed for $68.66. There are other online sources that will probably give you similar prices - I haven't priced blower motors with them but http://blunttechclassic.com/ is one good source for OEM parts.

Where? I went to their website and the best I could find was $309.49.

itsarebuild wrote: its the price tag of a new replacement that makes it hard......has anyone found them for less than $200?

No kidding. I just put a blower motor in my mom's 1990 Subi wagon, and it was $32 for a new (actually I think it was a reman, but can't remember for sure) blower. I'm looking at $50 for a used one for the E30.

16vCorey wrote:

stuart in mn wrote: Tischer BMW has new blower motors listed for $68.66. There are other online sources that will probably give you similar prices - I haven't priced blower motors with them but http://blunttechclassic.com/ is one good source for OEM parts.

Where? I went to their website and the best I could find was $309.49.

Look here, nine entries down the page: http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=getJointLocator&siteid=214672&chapter=&sectionids=9,0&groupid=10074&subgroupid=60140&make=3&model=325&year=1990&catalogid=1&displayCatalogid=0

There appears to be two styles, one labeled as "inlet aluminum" and one labeled as "inlet plastic". I don't know what the difference is or what cars have which style...Murphy's law probably means you need the "inlet aluminum" one.

I actually think mine has the plastic inlet! Nice find! Thanks!

stuart in mn wrote: First thing to do is to make sure there aren't any live birds or small rodents caught in the blower. They can pick up leave and twigs as well. The heater blowers on e30s are actually quite easy to replace, theres a cover on the firewall you have to remove but then they're right there. It only takes a few minutes. It is possible to lube the bearings and quiet them down, at least for a while. You can use WD-40 to flush out the dirt and dried gunk in the bearings, but afterwards you need to drip in some real oil for long term lubrication. I made the blower in my e28 go for a couple more years before I had to replace it by doing this every few months.

I kept the one on my E28 running happily for years with a few drops of Redline gear oil in the bearings every now and again.

If the E30 unit is a squirrel cage type like the E28 was, one useful trick was to glue a couple of round respirator filters on the inlets to keep crud out of the system (and dirt out of the bearings).

If you put gear oil on the bearings of the blower motor, how do you keep the smell of rotten garbage from blowing directly into the cabin of the car? There's nothing worse than the smell of gear oil.

I use regular old motor oil to lube the bearings, and never noticed any particular smell. It only takes a few drops, you don't want to put too much in there.

awesome tip on the blower source. thanks stuart!

fyi, i ordered the $68 blower motor listed and got a response e-mail indicating that the $68 part has been discontinued and replaced by a $298 part. i cancelled it.....

the search for an affordable blower motor continues.........

I had a feeling it was too good to be true.

No one has any input on the Z3 blower?

I know they suck.

Actually they blow.

Looking on Realoem.. if this is your part realoem

16vCorey wrote: then it does interchange with the Z3 part

16vCorey wrote: I know they suck.

Actually they blow.

If this is your part on RealOem then they do interchange with the Z3

Well they have to suck to blow.

mad_machine wrote:

16vCorey wrote: I know they suck.

Actually they blow. If this is your part on RealOem then they do interchange with the Z3

Cool. Now I just have to look at mine and figure out with one I have. At least this page has nice pictures so I can more easily determine which one I've got! http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partgrp.do?model=1123&mospid=47309&hg=64&fg=15

has anyone tried spraying white lithium grease into the hub? aside from the annoying sounds mine at least works! and the x3 blowers seem to be the same price as the e30 ones so i'm still stuck....

stuart in mn wrote: I use regular old motor oil to lube the bearings, and never noticed any particular smell. It only takes a few drops, you don't want to put too much in there.

My first thought would be sewing machine oil.