Bmw635

How do I get it to open like you guys? Mine works but it either close or open only 45degree. Not nearly the 15degree I want. It's manually adjust to max opening. TIA.

Rob Edwards

Peter-

There's a rubber cover on the cooling flap motor, if you pull it off there's a white (-ish) **** that allows manual adjustment (there's a similar **** under cover on the top of the headlight motor, so headlights can be deployed manually if necessary). You can unplug the motor at its connector, then manually set the flaps wherever you want. If they won't open 'enough', you could undo the actuator arm from the lever connected to the flaps and ziptie the flaps wide open.




Pic of the whole pivoting mechanism:

dr bob

In Rob's picture, the connecting link has 1/4"+ of threads exposed at either end. Mine only has one or two threads on either end, leading me to the question about the 'open' angle. If I lengthen the link as the picture shows, my angle of attack will be less (flaps closer to horizontal).

Looks like that little link is just snapped over the ***** on the crank at the top and the intermediate transfer piece at the flap end. Might just pop that link off and see if there's adequate travel available to lengthen the link without binding the mechanism.

I'll report back...

Bmw635

I thought about popping the balljoint like Dr Bob's idea but afraid of breaking the brittle plastic socket so I'll remove the bolt so it will be original in case some one want to put it back.

Thanks Rob for the white **** pointer- now I know both. Thx.

dr bob

So using Rob's picture as inspriration, I removed the bottom balljoint from the flap linkage, and pushed the linkage to it's extreme most-open position. Which "turns out" to be not very far at all from where it was set. I was able to add a few turns to make the connecting rod longer, but not really enough to make the adjustment worthwhile beyond knowing that it's pretty much as far as it's going to go. I opened the flaps all the way, then backed out a couple turns to leave just a little slack room.

Big test is a romp up through the central valley in 100º+ temps, on the way to the car's new home in Oregon. Full report when I get there.

dr bob

I did actually take the nut off that bottom balljoint and remove it from the linkage, rather than trying to pop the plastic socket off the ball. FYI, the nut is 7mm, and it's aluminum so a magnet won't help you pick it up when you drop it. The two washers are steel though. I used a small thin ignition wrench (don't remember the size) to hold the ball stud under the ball to keep it from turning.

If you aren't going to adjust it, and I didn't get enough movement to make that worthwhile, I'd just use the **** to move the motor so the little crank arm is straight down full extended, and pull the fuse so the motor won't turn.