Climate Control Pod - burnt connection FYI

For a month or so, the lights on the right side of my climate control unit has been out. I did brief searching and discovered if I tap on it, the lights will come back on. Loose connection, no big deal. I'll take the controls out someday and look at it.

Two night ago..... My truck won't start. Everything else is 'on' (per say) but a lot of clicking (and clicking in the dash too) - not enough high end power to start the truck. Today - I take the truck into the Toyota dealer to check the battery and the entire charging system. Everything is good.

Driving to work later today - I turn on the A/C....No cold air. Now what?
I'm playing with the controls trying to get cold air. Nothing. And then I had this brain fart.....TAP on the climate control unit...and whalaaaa....I've got cold air!!!

This forced me to open up the climate control unit and this is what I see:



I'm almost willing to bet...the reason my truck wouldn't start the other night was due to this *short* .... My husband works with electronics & circuit boards...so I'm hoping he can open this thing up and take a look at what's under all that plastic.

Just wanted to give you guys an FYI. If the lights in your climate control aren't working..... you might get a similar experience I had.

I'll let you know what I find.....
I did find a really nice PDF for diagnosing the climate controls
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41091131/2012 TACOMA CLIMATE CONTROL.pdf

 

I also work with electronics and this is the result of a loose connection ( resistance ) acting like a heater. If you could clean up the connector and get it to fit tighter on the pin or spade you should be OK.

 

My husband took some things apart, cleaned up the connections and greased 'em. The male connector looks fine - missing some of its shiny silvery coating (down to copper). The female connector, he can't extract without the right extracting tool. Anyone familiar with what he needs?

Wire extracting/insertion tool specific to Toyota? And or...what crimp end he needs to replace (if needed)?

 

I'll have to check mine, same lights out on the right side of controls symptoms.

A paper clip or jewelers screwdriver or pick won't work?

 

Maybe.... I'd rather buy the right tools if we can. Considering, this is the wire harness end. Don't want to take any chances of screwing something up.

My husband might actually have the tools/parts where he works, just need to know which kind. Apparently, there are tons of different types of extraction tools.

 

I need to find a set of the flat finger style spark plug gap tools and modify those. I deal with all kinds of these connectors.

 

That is what I normally use ( carefully ).

 

My climate control 'lights' still aren't working - and with a little tap on the side, they come on again - same as before.

I felt adventurous today and decided to try and open this thing up. A bunch of screws & tabs..... I was able to see the backside of the circuit board, but that's as far as I dared to go. There's a ribbon connector from the board to the harnass and I didn't want to take any chances of pulling this thing apart. Afterall - it still works.

This is probably the same contract manufacturer who built the circuit board in the overhead console. Poor quality solder joints..... Unfortunately, I couldn't get in there enough to see it.

Looks like I'm gonna be shopping for a new/used Climate Control unit. The last thing I want/need is to keep 'wondering' when this will short out again.
Holy mother of god....Local Dealer quoted NEW: $730
partznet NEW $561
Ebay USED $150 and up

 

I took a chance here - spur of the moment decision. I just ordered a Used climate control panel from this place:
http://www.ranchotoyotatruckparts.com/

$100 for the part...$15 shipping with 90 day guarantee.

I hope this doesn't end up biting me in the ass later. I'll let you know how it goes. This is the cheapest I've found for a used panel.

 

Are you gonna open up your original further now? Could you post pictures if you do?

 

That's funny...I was actually thinking of that. If this replacement works, I might give it to my husband to take to work. They have a guy who does that kinda thing.

Dunno...depends on what kinda mood the husband is in.
We'd have to make a write-up (if possible) but I can't promise anything.

 

My left side lights were going out on my 09 that I just traded in, a little tap on the left side and they would light right back up. Never a problem with the air or any other climate related item that I noticed.

 

Sorry so late on this.....

I actually tried opening things up....and got to a point where I couldn't go any further. There's a ribbon cable inside there that you can't 'see' the ends of it.

I talked to my husband and he mentioned that 'ribbon cables' (especially smaller thin ones) are extremely sensitive and impossible to repair or even take off. Because they have so many 'connection' points on the board that any little movement can break the leads. ??

Oh well...I'm happy with the used part I'm running. It's doing good so far.

 

I had a similar incident with a 2000 TRD 4wd tacoma yesterday. I replaced the stock stereo a few months ago and the lights on the climate control did not work after I closed up everything.

So a few months later (yesterday), I open up the dash to see if anything is loose, check the bulbs and I did not see/find any issues... I button things up and the truck does not start...??? Just clicks from the starter. I charged the battery for a little while but the same thing.

Eventually got a jump to see if it was the battery and the truck started fine. Drove to get a new battery, no issues. (It was at least 4-5 years old) Then this morning I noticed that my left headlight went out...? Coincidence? (And the 2 climate control lights are still off).

I'm not sure what the connection is between the climate control and the battery? (If there is one) A short in the unit should not drain it.

 

What was the final solution for this? I have the exact same problem and also swapped out the AC control panel and it's still doing it.