FIXED** Directional buttons on climate not working.
 

The directional buttons on my heater controle don't work. They light up, but air does not change vents. It always comes out the front vents. I really need to get this fixed so I can defrost the front winshield and warm my toes from time to time.
I have just replaced the heater controle unit in hopes of fixing the problem, but that only fixed the turning off and on gremlin problem.
Is there another controle module, or linkage that I need to check, replace, or fix that you know of?
John
jmaxvill@hotmaill.com
1996 318i 4dr

Spoke with dealer and he said the climate control needs to be programmed.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?

No. it sounds like the ihka unit is bad. the control unit. or a stepper motor, but the control unit is a common problem.

FIXED
 

Took it to the dealer and the climate unit is working fine. It turned out to be two vacuum hoses that became disconnected. It seems that the vent direction is powered by a vacuum motor. I'm not sure where the two vacuum lines were (under dash, under car, in engine bay), but it's fixed now. Only cost me $230 grrrr, damn dealers!

He did say that my blower motor is cutting off intermittently. Said I needed a new blower motor at $500 installed. I'll just wait till it completely gives out before I even consider this job.

$230 ouch.

The blower is acomon problem and it is usually the resistor pack or coil pack. Do a few searches and you will find several threads. One as recently as this week.

The motors also cut out intermittantly when the brushes are worn and not making good connection with the commutator.

I pulled my fan out and and soldered in a new set of brushes. Just took them down to the local Jcar (radio shack) and got them to match up a set.
The fan is relitivly easy to remove on an E36 the Bentley shows the jpb step by step. This saves replacing an otherwise good fan and saves $$$!