I have received several inquiries as to what I'm working on as far as getting heat to the rear passengers. Even though my Fedex package is stuck in Memphis, I thought I would share my idea...as I'm fairly confident it's going to work.
So...on my 2018 X4, I mounted a 4" SPAL fan under the front two cup holders where the rear passengers sit. This worked VERY well because it is situated directly over the valve cover and it simply pulled heat out of the engine compartment. On top of that, I found 4 inch louvered vents that fit like a glove in the cup holders. Again, this worked very well...but it was a bit of a challenge to mount the fan.
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So this time, I have found two small 60MM fans that (after trimming the corners) should drop down into each of the two front cup holders. My plan is to just cut some holes out of the bottoms of the cup holders...wire the fans to switches...put the louvered vents over the top...and enjoy the heat! The SPAL fan was rated to 180 degrees and these are rated to 185degrees so, even though the engine gets hotter than that, I can't imagine the air directly under the cup holders will exceed that (NOT POSITIVE THOUGH...LOL!) The SPAL fan put out 145ish CFM and these smaller fans put out 44.5 CFM each. However, the mounting situation with the SPAL fan did not allow full air flow...so I hope to be somewhat close? Anyways, I hope to have the fans in my hand by tomorrow night and will at least run a power lead to them to see what kind of air they produce? If this does work, it's going to be a very simple and easy way to get some heat to the rear passengers!
The fans have 4 wires and I have been assured that I can simply run the red + and black - for a switched On/off config.
One concern I do have is that these are not waterproof. However, I'm pretty sure they are protected enough for this not to be an issue. If it is...I can alway do what I did before with the SPAL fan.
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So...on my 2018 X4, I mounted a 4" SPAL fan under the front two cup holders where the rear passengers sit. This worked VERY well because it is situated directly over the valve cover and it simply pulled heat out of the engine compartment. On top of that, I found 4 inch louvered vents that fit like a glove in the cup holders. Again, this worked very well...but it was a bit of a challenge to mount the fan.
So this time, I have found two small 60MM fans that (after trimming the corners) should drop down into each of the two front cup holders. My plan is to just cut some holes out of the bottoms of the cup holders...wire the fans to switches...put the louvered vents over the top...and enjoy the heat! The SPAL fan was rated to 180 degrees and these are rated to 185degrees so, even though the engine gets hotter than that, I can't imagine the air directly under the cup holders will exceed that (NOT POSITIVE THOUGH...LOL!) The SPAL fan put out 145ish CFM and these smaller fans put out 44.5 CFM each. However, the mounting situation with the SPAL fan did not allow full air flow...so I hope to be somewhat close? Anyways, I hope to have the fans in my hand by tomorrow night and will at least run a power lead to them to see what kind of air they produce? If this does work, it's going to be a very simple and easy way to get some heat to the rear passengers!
The fans have 4 wires and I have been assured that I can simply run the red + and black - for a switched On/off config.
One concern I do have is that these are not waterproof. However, I'm pretty sure they are protected enough for this not to be an issue. If it is...I can alway do what I did before with the SPAL fan.
9GT0612P4G001 Sanyo Denki America Inc. | Fans, Thermal Management | DigiKey
Order today, ships today. 9GT0612P4G001 – Fan Tubeaxial 12VDC Square - 60mm L x 60mm H Ball 44.5 CFM (1.25m³/min) 4 Wire Leads from Sanyo Denki America Inc.. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.
