2021 Tacoma- is Off REALLY Off ?

It doesn't appear that the heater really shuts off... Today I was driving and it was a mild day , and I thought I shut off the heater...see image , yet hot air was still coming thru the vent ?

Am I missing something ?, having to make sure the temp is on LO before shutting it off seems pretty stupid

 

I believe it's because you don't have the recirculate button pressed. It is still letting in fresh air so you still get that flow through the vents. Just a thought.

 

Outside air. Hit the recirc button to close outside air from coming in.

 

These trucks don't have any sort of physical barrier when the fan is OFF. So air may still get pushed through the HVAC into the cabin by the forward motion of the truck, even though the fan is off.

 

I would agree this is the likely cause. My previous 2007 4Runner had the same thing when I turned off the fans. In the 4Runner it didn't matter if I had set the AC or turned the temp down before turning off the fans.

 

I noticed the same thing with my new Tacoma.

 

The things people complain about LMAO.
No vehicle is sealed tight, even when everything is ‘off’.
Take a moment to think about why that might be.

 

Let Darwin sort it out.

 

How do so many people not know about the recirculate button?

 

This is actually one of my favorite features of the truck and I was surprised to discover it.
All the older vehicles did this before air conditioning was a standard feature.

As long as the vehicle is moving you can have ventilation from outside temp to heated coming in without using the fan.
If you want to stop all flow I believe you can push the recirculation button with the fan off. (...and sit there and be stuffy...)

 

It is possible to make an adjustment to solve this.

In the warm weather turn the temperature down to a level at or below your comfort level. Then turn off the heat/fan. That produces the effect of not heating the incoming air as you drive.

This is because what’s actually happening is you’re getting draft over the heat exchanger and it is blowing through the fresh air vents as you drive and if the heater’s last setting was warm air you get warm air. If the settings are lower than ambient you get ambient.

 

Ya have to have some fresh air. You wouldn't want to be hauling around trash bags full of gasoline with out any fresh air.

 

1.) I know about the recirc button 2.) I am not complaining, I was asking if I was missing something as when it is pushing heat when I don't want it is annoying . When I have it on HI and press off... and recirc is not on then it pushes heated air ... when i do the same thing yet the temp was set to LO then it pushes cooler air (acceptable since today it was in the high 50's) so I just get used to not having any outside air... sooooo when I press off why isnt the heater shut off, and then I would expect it to push outside air in, yet NOT heat the air.

 

The heater is simply another small radiator in the dash that coolant is always flowing through. If the truck is warm and air flows through it into the interior then the air will be warm. There is no turning off of the heater. As mentioned before you can adjust the temp down to close the mixer doors beforehand which may help.

 

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They all have parasitic draw to a degree

 

It is a feature not a fault.
You are getting outside air -- from outside temp to heated without having to use the fan.
Observe the fan symbol on the OFF button, it doesn't indicate system off - just the fan, the temperature control is separate.

 

There is what’s called a blend air door in your evaporator box and when you shut off the fan but don’t change the temperature settings the blend air door stays in the last position it was set. You have fresh air coming into the vehicle passing over the heater core which heats the air and comes out of your vents. If you change the temperature settings down before shutting off the fan that blend air door will direct the fresh air away from the heater core over the evaporator and won’t heat the air.

 

Friday

 

Personally, if I dont have an exact setting I want I just hit the auto button and let it ride.