Let there be heat..... Please

It's been about three years since I've had heat.

I spend about 75% of my time out of the country. I have a Tacoma that my son primarily drives. He was away at college and called saying it's smoking really bad. I happened to be home so drove the 80 up (about 3 hrs away) dropped it off with him and drove the Tacoma home. Took it to a couple shops including the dealership and all said rebuild or replace. I have just recently gotten the itch to do my own wrenching but outside of a couple oil changes on my dad's cars when I was a kid (including pouring 5 qts of oil down the driveway after forgetting to put the drain plug back in) I have no knowledge and therefore didn't care to hear what was wrong with it, just how long and how much to get it going again. There's a reason for this back story just please bear with me. I picked the cheapest shop and had them put a new motor in. Turns out they sucked. About a year later when I had it at the dealership trying to find and fix a stutter they said there were several gaskets missing, lines not connected, etc...

Anyway, after having to go back to the shop multiple times as it continued to smoke it was eventually running and not smoking too badly. Winter arrived and found out I had no heat (well, my son found out technically). At my next opportunity, several months later, scoured the internet and decided it probably needed a heater control valve (right term for the valve on the firewall?). Turning the dial to heat on the dash was very difficult - to the point of possibly breaking something so I decided to unhook the cable and see if it moved by hand. It did. Glad it worked but that means the problem is elsewhere. Had to go out of town so told my son to wear gloves till it warms back up.

Probably a year later I go out to take a look at it and the dial won't turn at all. Furthermore it looks like it has something like expanding foam oozing out around it. I know I need to pull the dash and find out wth is going on back there. The reason for all that back story is that I'm asking for help and being that the failure was immediately after the incompetent borderline criminal shop (they are real sketchy about even providing copies of the invoices for the work and refuse to give me ANY info about the motor they put in) touched it, I'd ask all to think outside of the box of the usual problems. I'm thinking the ooze coming out might be some sort of stop leak or other product they introduced into the system maybe?? I've been told by 2 places that it could easily be $1000 to pull and install the dash and that doesn't include whatever it's going to need to fix it. So I bought some plastic tools and I'm gonna do it myself.

Any tips, tricks, insight, guesses and /or links to useful threads would be most appreciated.

Sorry for the long post but thanks in advance.

 

Your best bet it seems would be to right all the wrongs from the first shop. They could have done anything.

So is this mainly about the heat not working? If your truck smokes, does it smell like its burning oil or something else, like coolant. The heater draws heat from hot coolant circulating through the heater core in the cab. They may not have hooked up the system correctly. The stuff behind the dash is easy to trouble shoot. It's all electrical and mechanical. Pull the bezel off and have a look at the control box.

 

That HVAV Control box is fully electronic. If the knob is problematic, chances are something is broken. That ooze is very strange, because there’s nothing in there that would produce that.

I would replace it. 1995-2000 units were cable driven, and 2001-2004 were fully electronic. Search for 2001-2004 HVAC controls.

I would also suspect other things, like the heater control valve itself.

 

The engine is all sorted out by the dealership. Temps are fine, runs well, just no heat.

 

Replacing might be better than fixing. Is that a single p/n I can look up on a website or multiple components? Pull the whole dash for that or does the old one slide out and new one slide in? Can probably answer this myself with a little bit of looking at it and internetting but if you know off hand......

 

Shit it's late...replace the control box first. It's pretty cheap.

 

It’s stupid easy. Two connectors, and a few screws.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283251261776

Your heater valve could be broken too. But I’d start with the control panel.

 

https://parts.toyotaofdallas.com/oe...jb21hJnk9MjAwNCZ0PWJhc2UmZT0zLTRsLXY2LWdhcw==

$153

 

Wow, is it that cheap new? Huh.

Doesn't look like it includes the knobs, buttons, or fascia, however.

 

You guys probably saved me days farting around with plastic pry bars and little broken bits of plastic. Control panel first as it most likely needs it, you know, due to the ooze. Then I'll go from there.

 

https://parts.toyotaofdallas.com/v-2004-toyota-tacoma--base--3-4l-v6-gas/hvac--controls

All the dash components...

EDIT: Pull the knobs then take a 90 degree pick and hook it in behind the faceplate and pull gently. Faceplate will pop off pretty easy.

 

If you want new parts check Toyota Dallas or Camelback Toyota in AZ. Their (Dallas) online parts department and prices are the shit. I do will call being local. I have gotten remanufactured (by Toyota) AC compressor and front calipers waaaay cheaper than other places. Include your VIN in the order so they can check the proper part number. They are VERY nice people working in there...

 

Thanks. I've bought some stuff from Camelback before (installing that in the next few days). I'll pm them in the morning to get the control panel, knobs, etc... Might have to hang out in the truck listening to music or something for a while. If this turns out to be $150 and 1 hour job that took me three years I'll never hear the end of it.

 

Thats frigging funny man, and I know the feeling...

Shhhhhhhhh no one has to know man....our secret. Just sneak a few beers in the garage with ya and fix a few other things too. I'm sure my dad never let me know he struggled with anything. Especially the easy shit, and for that he got his hero status. My kids will also not know of mine...

 

I don't think that $150 piece is all you need. There is an Amplifier piece that appears to complete the HVAC controls.

I'd buy it used in this case.

 

Side note, I think it's awesome you made him freeze. Lessons like that tend to stick with a kid. Like the time my AC broke and I sweat it out in the Texas heat for a few weeks before crawling to dad to tell him. Makes you appreciate nice things. So reality is, you did him a favor.

 

True, dig in there and see what's up...

 

Used is best in this case. You can't beat $110.

I sell them at $100 when I have them in stock.

 

Just for my reference later...

 

I wonder if somewhere along the line the control panel was broken and they glued the knob on so you didn't notice lol