Hi Paul,
Sorry, I just saw this. You're right, I think this is the dreaded profile gasket. As the leak only shows up in winter and I mainly only use this car around Albuquerque, I've decided to just live with it.
The Green m42 ti, I bought in Denver in 2014. I bought from a younger guy in his early 20s at the time. I sold the car in 2017 to a guy in Oklahoma to make room for a manual E46 Wagon.
I missed the ti so much, I replaced in in May, 2018 with a Titanium Silver, 1998 318ti Msport. I'm slowing going through it. After doing a 250 mile trip in it yesterday with no AC when it was 106 degrees out on the return, I'm not trying to troubleshoot that.
Do you know much about how these systems function on the ti? I diagnosed the clutch on the compressor as not engaging due to too low of refrigerant. Refilled to 35 psi on the low pressure side and now the clutch engages correctly, but I still have hot air at the vents
