I found one on ebay for $150 (new), heat controls work like new now
Not as good as free repair but much better than $800 dealer fix.
elliotra - I would take it apart and look at the three wires coming off the temp switch - it could be causing your issue. If the 3 wires are intact Carefully put it back together.
thanks wizzer, i've been meaning to post here, but i forgot. i did the fix and it literally saved my life. i had to go to reno nevada for an emergency on 01/01/08 new years day. and a day after i was there, a blizzard hit!!. the heater was the only thing that kept me from freezing because my 2002 highlander got stuck in the snow for 2 hours due to traffic on 80. the windchill and snow combined made the weather feel like 20 below!! the sleet and snow slamming at the windshield at 50 mph and were standing still on the freeway.
i did the fix a week before i went to reno and IT SAVED MY LIFE
THANKS WIZZER, I OWE YOU MY LIFE.
i did go to toyota and they were charging me $750!! for parts only.
And to think that Toyota says this is not a safety issue.
Would you believe that I called the dealer back and talked to someone who was going to check on something for me and I have not heard back from them.It was been two weeks now. I called again and left a message, still no call from them. I guess they really DON'T care. This was a local Dealer in Sylacauga, Al. not where I bought my car, but were I had it looked at.
Update, I called again and talked to the owner of the dealership and they are refunding me the 42.00 charge. I still think that Toyota needs to address this issue, but I'm not so sure that they will.
Last edited by disneymom03; 02-25-2008 at 06:13 PM.
Thanks for all the great info and pictures Wizzer!! You are WONDERFUL and this site is a lifesaver! Can't believe Toyota wants more than $800 to fix it and acts like it has "never happened before" when there are so many out there/on here who have run into the same problems! I really want to give Toyota a piece of my mind, I love my car and nothing really has ever really gone wrong other than this (172,000 miles on 2002!), but for something this lame to happen and cost so much to have them fix...it is crazy!
Thanks again for saving us so much $$$!
This thread must be getting hits galore...and will be alive for many years to come.
It is just amazing that Toyota manages to get by the 3year/36K and never has to warranty this A/C Heater control unit. Which is OBVIOUSLY a defect.
Now, if Toyota had gotten bombarded with this issue while under warranty and they had to eat all of these, yu can be dam sure that they would have Revised this part.
This makes people think twice about buying Toyota these days.
I am sure by now someone else addressed your problem but I just wanted to let you know what we did when the heat control on y 2003 Highlander worked basically the same as you are describing. We got the suggestion off this website and until yesterday we were really happy with the repair.
My husband took all three knobs off, snapped off the frame for the heater unit, pulled out the heater control unit, disconnected it and took it to an electronics guy to weld. Over time the weld which controls the heat switch breaks. You can usually tell this is the case by removing the knob. The "bolt" is probably lose indicating that the wires need to be welded in order for it to work again. It cost us $15 to fix it ourselves, thanks to the wonderful help we got from this website.
First post, I joined here specifically because a friend has a 2004 Highlander and the heat stopped working last week, and would only come on very sporadically. Logged on here and found this thread almost immediately, and sure enough, when I pulled the heat control knob it was loose behind it. Pulled it all out, and bingo, the ribbon cable had broken off on 2 of the 3 wires. Cut it off, soldered on some new wires, and everything works great again. And she's delighted because Toyota had told her the part was $800, and that didn't include labor.
Thanks, great site, and as it looks like I'll be maintaining this vehicle in the future, I'll be sure to share anything I come across in doing so.
Hello everybody unfortunately I found this site too late and went ahead and had my Toyota dealership fix the problem. I ended up paying over $900.
I asked for the old AC Panel back and when I inspected it, the problem was exactly as described here with the knob getting loose and the 3 wires detaching. This was a simple solder fix so why does Toyota have to replace the whole unit? I feel like such a chump and I am just wondering if I should just let this go as a very expensive lesson. Any advise from here will be greatly appreciated.
Hi I have a 2002 Highlander which has 48,000 km on it and the heater is also doing what you have all discussed. I talked to our local dealer and again they said about $1000.00 for the heater control unit. I basically said I would rather go without heat than pay this. Why did I spend $43,000 off the lot to have a vehicle which is such a poor design. I will take the unit out and try to fix it myself. This is the first time I have had any issues with this suv, but I certainly am thinking about ever buying another Toyota.. too bad I thought they gave good service that was fair,, but I am certainly wrong. I even gave the technician the fix that you have here, and they still said no I needed to replace the unit, and I am sure they never even looked at the back of the unit. I have also contacted Toyota Customer Service and am taking this to their review board, and I agree that this should be a recall because I live in Northwestern Ontario and if you have been up here when it is 30 below you will freeze, and certainly the windows will not defrost, so this is an issue of safety..
I will let you all know how I make out with this problem. Contact the customer service department and complain... maybe we can get a recall if they get tired of us...
Hello, I am very interested to see what happened to your complaint. I also had the same problem and forked over $900 to Toyota. I asked for my old control panel back and sure enough it was those 3 loose wires in the back. I am also thinking of filing a complaint but I need to find out how many people paid for what looks like a dealer scam to me!!!
Thanks Don. If you could post pictures on where to do the soldering, I'll give it a shot. It will save me about $900. Thanks. Jim
Quote:
Originally Posted by dfluitt
Hi Wizzer. The Toyota dealership here in Santa Rosa California charged me $55.00 to diagnose my Highlander's heater problem. They said they would have to order the part and I could bring the car back next week to get it fixed. I asked him how much it would cost and he said that he was embarassed to tell me that the heater control unit was going to cost $681.00 dollars to replace. After I picked myself up off the floor I asked him if that included labor. He said the labor would be another 165.00. The total to fix the car? 55 + 681 + 165 = $901.00!!!! And this doesn't include tax...
I did some research last night and came across this site and your post. It took me all of one hour this morning to pull the control unit out of the dash, open it up, solder in three new wires, and put it all back together. It works Great!!
I took my wife out to the movies tonight to celebrate the money we saved. I think the most satisfying part will be tomorrow when I call the dealership to cancel the appointment to have the car worked on.
Thanks again for your taking the time to post your Highlander experience here.
I took several pictures of the insides of the heater unit showing the before and after of the broken wires and the fix. I can post them here if anyone wants to see what the circuit boards look like and where the wire needs to be soldered.
Thanks again.
Don
Interesting thread. One suggestion, if you are going to get the panel out to solder the wires, do yourself a favor by duttaping the wires to the motherboard. That provides additional resistance to movement. Just a suggestion.
I just wanted to add my name to the list. My 02 Highlander had the same problem with the same diagnosis from the dealer - $47.00 fee to tell me it would cost almost $900 to fix. After reading this post all I had to do was tighten the center knob last night and so far it works like the day I bought it. If anyone else reads this you might want to check the knob before taking off the panel. Thanks everybody!
My wife told me our '02 Highlander had the same intermittent heating problem. I noticed the temp control knob is wobbly-a little bit loose compared to the other two knobs. I'm planning to try and fix it this weekend following the tips from this forum. I will try to see if the nut is loose first before pulling the entire panel off. Thanks Bruce and everyone else for the useful tips.
Re: Heater quit... sort of
Re: Heater quit... sort of
Linear Mode
