2011 Highlander: dual climate control and air door actuator problems

My 2011 Highlander blows cold air on the passenger side, while the driver's side and rear vents blow hot air (when heat is desired in the vehicle). The vehicle always starts in AUTO mode on the climate control panel and is locked in AUTO mode for about 3 minutes. Only then can you turn it off, or change out of AUTO mode. I don't think it used to do that. Also, after a minute or so after turning the car on you can hear something like a door door closing in the front panel.

I've not found anyone who has had this issue. In the meantime I use the defrost feature so the cold air on passenger side blows on the front window, and not directly on the passenger. The dealer say $400 to take of the panel and maybe fix the damper assembly area manually, or $3000-$4000 to change the computer control unit. Yikes.

The DTC code is B1441/41 Air Mix Damper Control Servo Motor Circuit (Passenger Side). The techs notes were "inspected blend door and found not moving".

Does anyone have any ideas or run into this problem or heard of it before?
Thanks in advance,
Andrew

 

Well, you have it diagnosed pretty good.
Possible remedy is to pull fuse for control unit but, if the blender door motor is kaput - it is kaput, unless it's just loose connection.
They are not that hard to get to.. Take glove box and center console out.. you should clear enough plastic to be able to get to blender door and motor.
Sound you hear is exactly that - blender door moving. Which is good sound.

 

Unfortuntaley I was unable to figure out how to get the glove box out, never mind the center console. I'm quite the nube. I need to leave it for now. Thanks for you help.

 

Ok....where do I find the blender door and motor. What is the centre console? Is that the unit around the glove box?
Thanks so much, I am determined to get this done.

 

I've downloaded repair surge documentation but I cannot find the blender door location?

Is it close to the air mix control servo motor? I can't see it in any diagrams, I mean I can't see the blendor door unit? It is high?

 

I am not sure about your particular vehicle so this suggestion may not be of any help.

Most of the doors and controls are vacuum operated. Check the manual to see if this is the case for you. Then download a diagram of the blend door vacuum system and start under the hood checking all vacuum lines and there is usually a vacuum reservoir canister either under the hood or the dash or hidden in the wheel well behind the inner fender. You could have a vacuum hose that got brittle and broken or disconnected.

This is a very common problem with Ford vehicles and I have dealt with it in the past and did save a friend a lot of money in labor just by installing a tee fitting to redirect vacuum. Check YouTube as there are several very good videos on this. Search “ford ranger stuck on defrost”. I know it’s a different vehicle but will give an idea of what I’m talking about.

Again, I realize that this may not be your particular problem.
Whatever the outcome I’d like to know how you repaired it. Please post the solution.

 

Chrysler products are famous for such problems. Their air distribution scheme uses a box with multiple passages for inside/outside air, face/feet/windshield distribution, heat/cooling the air, etc. Plastic doors in the passages are positioned depending on the heating /cooling control selection. DC motors, controlled by a computer, position the plastic doors. The computer determines the plastic door end positions by looking for a rise in motor current when the door stops moving because it is at its end positions. Over time the plastic door socket, engaging the DC motor shaft, cracks and the plastic door takes a position determined by gravity. In your case, the cause of cold air to the passenger when heat is selected. I would consider getting the door replaced. It is not a DIY task. I would not consider replacing the computer before I got more info. Is the condition your heating/cooling system obtains on start-up normal? Does the system repeat if you turn the heating/cooling off before you turn the car off? You will not get heat before 3 minutes anyway, so is the inconvenience worth 4K dollars. Good luck.

 

Whenever the Highlander has been turned off and has been sitting for say 5 minutes or more, or overnight, and you restart the truck, the hvac will always restart in AUTO mode. There is no air blowing from any vents while the system is in AUTO mode. You cannot get the hvac out of AUTO mode by pressing other buttons. After about a minute, the hvac system will return to the previous setting it was in prior to the vehicle getting turned off, and blowing cold air on the front passenger side.

If you turn off the truck, and start it again after 1 minute or so, the hvac system will start in the previous setting prior to turning off the vehicle.

I’ve tried disconnecting the battery to reboot the system, didn’t change anything.

If I press the defogger button, the defogger fan comes on. If I press the defogger button again the unit lights are AUTO and A/C, and the air blows out at your feet. If I press the defogger button again, the unit goes back Max air blowing out the defogger vents with driver side warm, passenger side cold.

How about taking out a fuse to disable the a/c feature for the winter? Do you know if that is possible?

Thanks guys for your help.

 

What happens at restart if you have turned HVAC off before turning vehicle off? Without a schematic, can't tell if other loads are on the A/C fuse. If the A/C fuse is identified on the fuse box cover, remove it and see if something needed doesn't work. If yes, reinstall fuse.

 

When I turn the HVAC off before turning the vehicle off, then when I turn the car on the HVAC goes into AUTO mode and after 1 minute the HVAC turns off. So, the HVAC returns to the setting it was on before the car was turned off.

 

I was able to see the servo motor on the passenger side and it is not moving when I turn the dial to increase the temperature. The servo motor on the driver side is moving when the temperature dial is moved. The amplifier sends the signal but for some reason the servo motor is not responding. We tried to manually move the levers to perhaps move the damper door but it didn't work. So we are stuck. Thanks for you help. If and when I solve it I will post the solution.

 

It's been a cold winter. The 2011 Highlander heat on the passenger side is still not working. It's really odd that the Heating/AC unit is in auto mode for about 1 minute when the vehicle is turned on. Then you can hear some noise and a flap closing. Then you are able to push and use the buttons but there is not heat on the passenger side. Does anyone know why the AC/Heating unit is stuck in AUTO mode for about 1 minute after the vehicle is turned on?

I don't recall any of that previous to my problem.

Thanks

 

Ok. One dealer says for sure it is the harness and wants up to $3000. Another dealer says they want $5000 - $7000. Wow! Really? So I'm going to go a few other places and get some quotes and take it from there. The defrost isn't working, the MODE button is not working properly, and there is no heat on the passenger side. Sounds to me like some loose connections on the harness.

 

Ok. So a non-Toyota mechanic said that the way it is these days, the ECU (Electrical Control Unit) has to be reprogrammed by a Toyota dealer as most mechanics aren't going to buy the tools necessary to do the programming. And even if it is the control servo motor or something like that the non-Toyota mechanic may be out of luck as he may still have to reprogram the Toyota software. My issue is the the passenger side blows only cold air, the defrost doesn't work on either the drive or passenger side, the MODE button isn't functioning properly, and the a/c heating unit is stuck in AUTO mode when you turn the car on. Highlander 2011 Limited with unlimited heating/ac issues. No solution on the horizon other than to take it to the dealer and see what they say.

 

Alright so I brought it into a mechanic. They took out the actuator and installed the replacement, Part #604-907, you can't buy the original anymore. The one the mechanic installed doesn't work. So it may be the harness. There is a technical service bulletin out on this part, but I haven't seen it. Will try to get it from the mechanic. This is definitely a known issue to Toyota.

 

My 2011 Highland Passenger side Air door mode actuator is fixed. I pick up the car today at noon. They installed Part # 604-907. But the first one they got was a bum one so they had to order another. They take apart the dash, install the part, and then have to put the dash back together 75% in order to test the part. Now they have to put the entire dash back together again. Big job. $1200 for the fix.

 

My passenger side blows only cold air. Toyota Canada (1-888-869-6828) can't tell me what the problem is. They say "We don't know about the repairs. Talk to a service manager at a dealer." Well, I have, with 3 of them. Three different dealers, three different answers. no conclusive diagnosis. They want from $2000 - $7000 to fix. One said to sell the vehicle as the harness and all sorts of other things will go wrong with it. Maybe he is right. They offered my $10,000 for it. It has 188,000 km, and is worth about $17,000 on the market.

The part an outside mechanic installed is Part #604-907. It failed. They got another one. It failed. Now they ordered the HVAC box from Japan to see if that will work.

Did anyone fix their Air Door Mode Actuator/Control Servo Motor problem. Does anyone else have this problem? How did you fix it?

 

I posted some info on another thread, but I now know what fails so I made a new thread with the specific issue. Passenger side blows only cold air, door actuators act randomly, sometimes the defrost works, sometimes it doesn't.

My passenger side blows only cold air. Toyota Canada (1-888-869-6828) can't tell me what the problem is. They say "We don't know about the repairs. Talk to a service manager at a dealer." Well, I have, with 3 of them. Three different dealers, three different answers. no conclusive diagnosis. They want from $2000 - $7000 to fix. One said to sell the vehicle as the harness and all sorts of other things will go wrong with it. They offered my $10,000 for it. It has 188,000 km.

A mechanic installed part #604-907 and it failed. That the Air Door Mode Actuator. He bought another one, it failed as well. Now he ordered the HVAC box, including heater core from Japan, and we are going to try that.

If you have this problem I recommend calling the above number and lodging a complaint and keep your receipts.

Anyone else have this problem? What are the symptoms?

Anyone have this problem and fixed it?

Thanks

 

Threads combined. Title changed to better reflect the problem.

I wasn't following this thread but I just read thru it now. We don't normally recommend another website to go to but you need to check at a place like Toyota Nation where there are nothing but Toyota members.

I had a mobile electronics service center for many years and have seen many problems similar to yours. A wiring service manual is usually needed as guessing won't get to the heart of the problem.