I’ve been busy with other things (more of which later), but back to the Aircon retrofit………
The Final Stage
(?)
I had hoped the final stage was to be like the Tour de France , proceeding triumphant and unchallenged onto the Champs-Élysées in Paris and onto the victory rostrum.
Unfortunately it was anything but!
After waiting a couple of months to finally meet up with a fellow Z3 enthusiast, it turned out the Aircon fan from his scrap Z3 1.9 was not a match for my Z3 2.8
So, having made a healthy profit from my donor Z3 2.2 I felt flush enough to buy a new Aircon fan.
BMW want an extortionate (read criminal) £945.00 for one of their own!
I researched after market ones for several hours cross checking RealOEM part numbers and their superseded current parts. I finally ordered an NRF 74025, stated as suitable for a Z3 2.8: cost £136.00.
(How in all conscience can BMW ask £945.00 for the same thing?!)
I received it from our Post lady yesterday like a kid at Christmas. Excitedly I thought “ All buttoned by lunchtime”. And it should have been.
But how wrong I was!
A quick comparison with my existing shroud began the alarm bells ringing.
Whilst there were broad similarities, there were some very obvious differences. The shroud is much deeper top to bottom, though this is actually a benefit enclosing the complete condenser making it more efficient.
However I could see there was going to be an issue with a duct like add-on in the top right hand corner. When offered up to the car this duct was never going to allow it to move upinto position.
Having done so much research I did not want to give up on fitting it without more thought.
I checked the locating positions and it seemed to be broadly the same as my existing shroud.
My conclusion was I had four options:
1. Send it back - but that would still leave me looking for an alternative, with no certainty it would fit any better.
2. Try swapping the motor onto my shroud - but there was no guarantee it would fit
3. Buy a used one, but it would be 25 years old and have an indeterminate life expectancy.
4. Commit, and chop the offending duct off and hope I could then make the shroud fit.
I chose 4 !
Cutting the duct off was easy, and had no detrimental effect on the shroud or fan.
“Great”, I thought: it will now be straightforward.
3 hours later I packed up, tired, dejected and thoroughly p****d off with pattern parts that don’t fit. Like a table cloth that is too small no amount of re-positioning would make it fit
After sleeping on it, the thought struck me that it might be the brackets on the Nissen after market condenser that were out of alignment. However, a quick check this morning showed they were lined up nicely for my old shroud: so back to the NRF being the issue.
The main problems were that the fan attaches to the Aircon condenser but sandwiches a front brace between them on the 2.8.
(This brace is not fitted on 1.9s, hence why a shroud from it would not fit).
There are cut outs in the shroud perimeter flange to fit over this brace. This then tightly positions the shroud relative the cars chassis. However the shroud was not high enough relative to the fixings on the condenser.
To cut a longer story short, I had to cut a further 10mm from the shrouds top flange, remove some material from one of the lower condenser brackets and more from the shroud where it still fouled: then undo the condenser mounts to the slam panel, and fix the fan shroud to a “floating” condenser. Finally I used some judicious encouragement - ie brute force! - to push the shroud up to reach the slam panel fixings.
So tonight at 7.10pm after 2 days of my “unchallenged ride onto the Champs Elysees” I have finally emerged victorious: my Aircon system is completely installed……….
Or is it?…..
Before I can raise a glass to success, I will go to Kwikfit for a vacuum out, pressure test, and if all is good, get it charged with R134 gas.
Only once it is pressurised will I be able to check that the fan actually switches on and kicks in when required, and I get cold air on a hot drive.
Fingers crossed
…….
(To be continued……)
)
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