Calsonic Kansei CSE613C Air Conditioning (Aircon) Compressor – BMW

If CSE613C is the number on your compressor label or on your garage’s report, this page is written for that unit. Other compressors, and the wider range of air con work we carry out, sit in our air conditioning repairs section.

How does a failing CSE613C show itself in a BMW?

Do not expect a dashboard warning. The CSE613C usually fails without lighting anything up, and the first clue comes when you press the air con button: either nothing changes, or something starts to sound wrong. Which of the two you get depends on how the compressor has failed.

• Nothing happens at the clutch. The air con is selected, but the clutch on the nose of the compressor never pulls in, so the compressor sits still while the engine runs.
• Warm vents after a regas. Fresh refrigerant has gone into the system and the cabin still gets air no cooler than the air outside.
• A grind with the air con on. Pressing the button brings a grinding sound from the front of the engine that is absent while the air con is off.

Each of these points somewhere slightly different. Grinding that comes and goes with the button is the most telling, because it ties the noise to the moment the compressor is asked to work. A clutch that stays still may be the compressor itself, or a compressor that is simply never told to engage, which is why the checks further down matter before anything is unbolted.

Could something other than the compressor be to blame?

Before anyone condemns the CSE613C, have a garage confirm that the compressor really is the part letting the system down. Several faults elsewhere produce the same warm vents or the same motionless clutch.

• Not enough refrigerant. A charge that has leaked away through a pipe, a joint or another component leaves the cabin warm while the compressor is perfectly sound.
• No power reaching the clutch. A blown fuse or a failed relay means the clutch is never energised, however healthy the compressor is.
• A pressure switch doing its job. When system pressure sits outside its safe window, the switch stops the clutch engaging. A low charge is one way to trigger it, and the result can look exactly like a clutch fault.
• Air not reaching you. A blower or flap fault can hold back cold air that the system has produced properly, or mix it with warm air on its way to the vents.

Our guide to common air conditioning problems and their solutions goes through those wider faults in more detail. Once they are cleared and the symptoms are still there, the CSE613C becomes the likely cause.

Why does the CSE613C stop working?

Age is the background to almost every case. The BMWs listed further down were built from 2004 onwards, so any CSE613C still in service has been through a very large number of journeys and switch-ons.

Heat adds to that. Mounted on the engine, the compressor shares its heat cycle, warming up and cooling down on every drive, and squeezing the refrigerant generates heat of its own on top.

Losing refrigerant does more harm than warmer air. The charge also carries the oil the compressor depends on, so a system running short moves less of it around, and the compressor works drier than it was designed to — possibly well before the driver notices any change at the vents.

The clutch engages and lets go every time cooling is called for, and that steady cycling wears it. Contamination rounds off the usual causes: moisture or particles that have found their way into the circuit pass through the compressor whenever it runs.

A CSE613C that seizes can also leave debris in the pipework. Cleaning the circuit is therefore part of fitting the replacement, done by your garage so the new compressor does not begin work in a system still holding what the old one shed.

Which CSE613C faults are repaired, and which need a new compressor?

This is the question that settles everything else, and the failure fixes the answer rather than preference. A CSE613C leaking refrigerant from its own body, or one whose clutch fails to engage, is repaired and goes back on your BMW. A CSE613C that has seized, or snapped its shaft, is beyond repair and is replaced.

On the replacement route, all three options go on the car without modification. Tell us which you would prefer through our contact page, with the registration, and we will match the unit to your BMW.

Your garage’s work is much the same either way: the refrigerant is recovered before the compressor comes off, and the system is recharged once a compressor is back on. After a seizure, cleaning the circuit is added to the fitting. What changes is the compressor that goes back in and the warranty behind it.

What happens when your garage posts the compressor to us?

For a leak or clutch fault, the car never leaves your garage; the compressor makes the journey on its own.

1. Book it in online

   Fill in the repair form with the registration, the number from the compressor label and a line on what the air con is doing.

2. Your garage prepares and posts it

   They recover the refrigerant, unbolt the compressor and send it to us securely packed, with a note of the symptoms.

3. We prove the fault

   On arrival, the leak or clutch fault is confirmed before any repair is carried out.

4. Repair, then a second test

   After the repair the compressor is tested again, and it has to pass before it is sent back.

5. Same compressor, back to your garage

   Your CSE613C returns with a lifetime warranty on the repair. Your garage refits it and recharges the system, a normal part of putting any compressor back on a car.

Which part numbers belong to the CSE613C?

The CSE613C does not always carry the same number on its label. These are the part numbers we have seen on it; if yours is missing from the list or can no longer be read, send us the registration and we will check it against the car.

Which BMW 1 Series, 3 Series and X1 models use it?

The table lists every BMW we have recorded with the CSE613C, by model, engine, build dates and chassis code. All of them are petrol: the 116, 118 and 120 in E81, E82, E87 and E88 form, the 316, 318 and 320 across E90, E91, E92 and the E93 Convertible, and the X1 E84.

Where a row has no end date, the table records only when fitment began. If your BMW is not listed, the number on the compressor label is the better guide; add it to the repair form and we will confirm the match.

Calsonic Kansei CSE613C: your questions answered