[frym7805]

This site was of great help. Just fixed this exact same problem on my 2002 Highlander. Had no heat, everything else worked. Family froze (8 and 9 year old) in cold rainy weather from Laredo, TX to Austin, TX (wet, rainy in mid 30s). Took the knob off and sure enough the lock nut was loose, took the control unit off and one wire was frayed through all the way, another was mostly frayed, or maybe totally frayed. Soldered them back on, after separating them to lessen stress, and all is good now.

Before I did this I called Toyota directly to see what they would say. They had no knowledge of this and gave me usual runaround. For those of you living up north I can see how this can be a real issue. What a lame thing to go wrong!

Rear side door handle came off in my child's hand a few months ago. Had to take the whole panel, and lock assembly off to get to the torx head the screwed it down. The screw had backed off either because it was not tightened enough or locking compound was not used. Dealer wanted to charge 95.00 just to take the panel off. Read how Toyota has had to "pull back" due to quality issues, boy ain't that the truth! I don't expect these petty (yet potentially very expensive) problems on a car with only 57,000 miles on it. This is the wife's car, so it does not go mudding, simple 10 mile round trip suburban commute.