Temperature knob is stuck

[ferris buehler]

Thanks man!

It's not the floor/dash/def selector. That has a different cable that adjusts the "doors" that direct heat flow.

But yes, I did disconnect the cable from the lever near the firewall (left passenger foot. Cable slides freely, lever is stiff. Any idea what that lever controls? Guess I'll be pulling the heater unit out over thanksgiving to see what is up.

[dogger]

OK, I think your problem is the center control - hot/cold - knob. That is the one that moves the cable that runs under the glove box. Among other
things, this cable moves the air inlet control linkage in the engine compartment which is the linkage a lot of folks have problems with.

The linkage is located on the firewall amidship near the cowl. To determine if the linkage is the problem, disconnect the cable from the linkage and
disconnect the other cable (under the glovebox) and manipulate the lever under the glovebox. If it moves easily, you need to service the linkage and
the cable in the engine compartment. If not, it's back to the drawing board.

dogger

[ferris buehler]

That is exactly the problem. The lever under the glove compartment is the one that is stiff.

The heater control valve (engine compartment near the brake booster) moves fine. It seems most people have problems with this, but mine is fine.

[dogger]

Sounds like the heater assembly. There may be a problem with the air inlet
servomotor or rust/corrosion going on inside the assembly.

Depending on how adventurous you feel, you could do some exploratory
inside the assembly to try and locate the problem - hope you like working
upside down.

Good luck with it.

dogger

[ferris buehler]

I was afraid you were going to say something like that, LOL. I was hoping for spray some lube in this hole.....

Oh well I have a long weekend now and honestly working upside down in a Tundra is way more comfortable than working upside down in my 72 Celica.

Thanks for the info and have have a good thanksgiving!

[jamessmith00]

I bought a 2003 Tundra last year. While looking the truck over, I noticed the a/c was cool, but not cold. I ask the dealer about this and I got some lame excuse about the compressor would not fully kick on because it was not warm enough outside. I let it go waiting for the summer to come and when the a/c did not fully kick on I started looking closer. I noticed the dial did not want to go all the way to cool. If I held it down on cold it would get real cold! So, I pulled the dash assembly and started looking. What I noticed was a fan type wheel that held the control cable (very flimsy looking). I also noticed that the cable had a small kink in it right on the end near the connection point. I followed this cable back under the passenger side dash and noticed a retaining clip held it.

I pressed out the cable to give it original form back and adjusted the cable at the retaining point under the passenger dash (allowed more room for the cable to be pulled).

Long story short, this worked fine during the summer months when I left it on cold and my A/C was great! However, my wife turned the knob too quick one cold day and I am back to square one. I suspect my problem is the kink in the cable. Since the fan type wheel moves the cable by either pulling (cold air) or pushing (hot air) I have no problem moving from hot to cold. I only have a problem when moving from cold to hot, this causes the cable to buckle at the kink and disconnect from the control arm.

I suspect either the previous owner or perhaps Toyota may have had a problem installing the cable, which caused the kink. Overall the layout is clearly a poor design.

My question is short of some junkyard purchase where can you buy a control cable for 03 Tundra? I dread going to a dealer but have been unable to properly identify the technical name or part number for the cable itself. I am in the middle of a blizzard and don’t particularly want to tromp through the snow and cold to uninstall a cable at the junkyard!

Thanks, this forum is great!

[sturomain]

thanks for all the great info. my temp control nob was sticking. i took a needle and put it in the temp control cable and squirted several suringes of wd-40 down there, it loosened up rite away.
great forum glad i found it.

2002 4x4 TRD tundra