1. Home
  2. General Toyota Forum
  3. '04 Sienna rear climate control problems

'04 Sienna rear climate control problems

I have an '04 Sienna LE that I bought new in the Spring of 2004. I think there is something wrong with the rear climate controls, but the dealer says there isn't.

Yesterday, it was rather warm and my son was all the way in the third row. He started complaining that he was hot. I turned the dash control to cold, but he was still hot. I reach back to feel the temp of the air coming out of the rear vents, but of course it's coming out of the floor board registers. So I reach back behind my head and press the rear control's vent button and the air coming out of the vents is hot as hell. Huh? I look to see that the rear temp control is set to hot. I turn it to cold and everything is fine, but I'm not happy because what good is having a control on the dash if it doesn't control the whole vehicle. And you have to damn near wreck the van because you're reaching behind your head. The dash control was never set to REAR either, but it seems that the rear controls were controlling the rear temp and airflow.

We have taken it to the dealer about this before and was told that everything is working the way it should. This doesn't make any sense to me at all.

The way I understand it is supposed to work, when the front control is set to REAR, you can independently control the rear temp and air flow using the rear controls. Otherwise, the front controls control temp and air flow for the whole vehicle. Isn't this the case? Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks,

-Trent

Reply to
mohead
Loading thread data ...

In our Sequoia, setting the front control so that the light on the "REAR" button is illuminated means that the controls on the front dashboard controls both the front and rear HVAC together, which sound like the opposite of what you are thinking.n Turning the REAR button off means that they are independently controlled.

You can confirm this operation by turning the REAR button on and setting the temp in the front and seeing if the rear temp matches.

Reply to
Ray O

Ray,

Thanks for your response. Your Sequoia sounds very logical.

In the Sienna, the rear control is not a button, but a setting on the rear fan speed knob (the settings are OFF, REAR, LOW,MED, HIGH). How it works now is that you can turn this knob and control the fan speed of the rear climate system. If you select the "REAR" setting, the only way to control the fan speed of the rear system is to use the rear, ceiling mounted controls. That's cool.

My beef with this is that you can't control the temperature of the rear air system or even whether it is a/c or heat, vent or floor registers from the front controls. You can only control the fan speed from the front. This seems wrong to me. I would like to think that when the knob is set to REAR, you can control everything with the rear ceiling-mounted controls. BUT, if it is not set to REAR, you can control everything from the front.

Please, could anyone with a Sienna chime in here? Is there something wrong with my van?

Thanks,

-Trent

Reply to
mohead

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.