Retro Fitting Aircon to Z3

[Cobranut]

Hi,

Has anyone out there either fitted or had fitted Air Conditioning to their Z3...I was wondering if realistic, likely cost etc.....my 2.8, 1998, does not have it and their are and have been occasions when it's been too hot for top down and unbearable with it up....this happened a few times driving in France and these days getting as hot here in UK....thankyou for thoughts.

 

[Stevo7682]

Its potentially doable wouldn't be that straightforward though as a fair number of parts required though some will be harder to obtain and time and cost will be a factor.
Probably dashboard out as replacement heater box from air con model required then switches probably some wiring additional loom ( most likely plug play ) air con pipes around half a dozen bits compressor with brackets additional tesioner for belt double belt crank pulley additional electric fan and associated components.
These are just the things i can think about straight away.
Had a quick look on real oem as my late pre face-lift 2.8 model does have aircon.

You will need all this plus more.



Potentially a donor car would be easiest way to accomplish this as like i said good number of bits required .
Stephen.

 

[Cobranut]

Thankyou for your reply....that looks a lot of parts and I suspect cost....I tried in car fans but dont really work....just whirl the existing air about....

 

[Althulas]

If your car is a keeper it would be a big job and I should imagine the parts list would mount up to a bit but if not sell it and buy one with instead.

 

[MickyG]

It can be done, and has now BEEN done: and all at a profit!
I bought a Z3 2.2 facelift donor with aircon: stripped it all out and swapped it over to my Z3 2.8 pre facelift: by selling loads of other parts from the donor my sales exceeded the purchase cost by approximately £1,000 !!

There was a lot of time consuming research.
The physical work itself is not too difficult - the worst part is having to remove the complete dash, and later re-fit it!
The wiring will already be in your car: the components all swapped over, including the compressor from the M54 onto my M52TU.
I fitted a new drier (everyone advised these are useless once the system is opened up to the atmosphere) - if you do go down this route check the drier fittings - there two types: a multi shouldered one, and a straight sided one - ask me how I know!
From experience, make sure the auxiliary fan works in the donor. Mine didn’t and caused me more problems than the rest of the entire swap!
Edit:
After all the hardware has been retrofitted, leak tested, and re-gassed it will, as a factory non A/C car, require the Vehicle Order in the EWS to be recoded to include S530A (Airconditioning option) and synced with the ECU/DME so that it recognises it has Aircon and will allow the compressor and auxiliary to kick in.
When I’ve worked out how I’ll let you know!
(Currently running the Aircon by by-passing the DME control).