Climate Control Fans / Airflow Weak?

I'm going to say it's BS. I just can't imagine they purposely cut the flow in half from LO to 60°...then "designed" it to restrict more the farther up in temp you set it...

 

I agree. The service advisor agrees with me too.

 

I love my truck, but I hope they fix this issue. It feels to me as though when you turn the fan all the way to high, the blower actually tries to blow more air, but the system becomes "airlocked" and there is something preventing the excess air from coming out the vents. When it's set to LO and fan on high, the ac is relatively quiet and there is good airflow. Leave the fan on high and bump it one degree to 60, and the air output cuts in half and the system gets much louder.

The heat is terribly frustrating, and I am not throwing darts, but if its designed this way, then it's clear the engineers never worked a day outside during the winter in their life. When you have been outside for several hours, and you can't feel your hands, it sure WAS nice to get in the truck and crank the heat on high and feel your hands again in a couple of minutes. Now, I just get to enjoy numb hands on a 30 minute ride home. if it was not for the seat heaters, I would have to throw on an extra layer for the ride home. Where as before I could remove a layer and be comfortable on the ride home.

If I paid 20k for a vehicle, I probably would not care as much. But for those of us who use a truck you know for truck things and work and such, saving the environment is less important than having a functioning heater. I drive 30 minutes to work in the cold a.m. hours before the sun comes up, and it takes 15 minutes for the truck to become remotely warm. It is stupid. I have to put on a jacket to keep from freezing on the 20 minute ride.

 

For what it's worth, if you put it on defrost it blows pretty hard.

 

Fan knob, Vent location knob, and temp knob, best setup you can make, but not expensive enough for Toyota these days

4Runner

 

When the 22's first started coming out, I read many reviews (and on youtube) that people were complaining about the heated steering wheel being weak. My 2023 Tundra is the first vehicle I've ever owned with a heated steering wheel but I can tell you, I have no complaints. It gets nice and warm. So I wonder if Toyota made some adjustments on the 23 model? Additionally, my last Tundra had heated seats but they didn't get near as hot as the seats on my current tundra. About 95% of the time, I can't keep it on the highest setting.........my butt can't take it. Therefore, it baffles me that they "designed" the HVAC system (at least the heat) to perform the way it does.

 

I'm going to the dealership again today. I have a buddy that's a tech. We're going to change some options in Techstream (seatbelt chimes... etc). He has a new TRD PRO and on the lot they have a base model SR5 with single climate control. I'm going to test both models and see if they work the same way as mine as does. We're going to go thru all the Techstream options to see if something can be changed. Will report back ASAP.

 

Still following along because I’m hoping there’s a way to improve, but the more cold Utah winter mornings I experience in the truck the more I think there’s a fundamental delay in the engine heating up

I have about a 15 min commute and if I leave the house with temps at about 5-10deg F, the engine temp gauge just plain takes 5 minutes to get off of the C line and another 5 minutes to be 1/4 of the way to H.

Once this happens, the airflow does increase and warm air flows. I think there’s probably a gate that restricts airflow until the engine is warm. If I try to manually increase fan speed and hit the “mode” switch to blow air out of the upper front vents, the air is still relatively cool until the engine warms up. (Note that the air is a totally fine temp and airflow is solid for windshield defrosting so I don’t have any issues there)

tldr I think the engine just takes a while to warm up and the fan is conservative until that happens. Push the engine harder and it will warm up faster

 

That's weird. Doesn't make sense really. Do you have it set on "auto"? The temp of the coolant shouldn't have anything to do with the fan speed. Maybe try putting a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator to restrict airflow thru it on those cold mornings. Might warmup faster...

 

I"m in Montana and last month we had several days below zero... one day was -34. Truck had no issue starting, however the vents continue to be a major issue. Sometimes I have to remote start it twice (10 minute limit each session). I took it into the dealership many times... last time we conducted a comparison with another 2022 Tundra. That one performed similarly (poorly). I feel for the engineers behind the HVAC technology in the new Tundras - I imagine they have been slammed with a long list of ongoing complaints.

NOTE: if I have the defroster ONLY on full blast - then the fans have plenty of air flow power. All other selections (floor and face vents) barely blow air. And finally, my HVAC has whistling noise also. Will call the toll free number on Monday.

 

Seems like they're all like that.

 

We just bought one of these last April. Wife got a 2020 Highlander in 2021 and had it for about 8 months. After that, the ridiculous nannies, the odd 'hitch' shifting, the hesitation when punching the gas, the lack of visibility, etc.....she was done.

I finally told her "I never pull rank like this on you, but I'm going to MAKE you drive a 4Runner." She didn't think she needed one because it was 'too rugged.'

Until she drove it, and then parallel parked and backup parked it into spaces in no time flat. I was shocked. She looked at me and said "I WANT ONE." LOL

It's not the fastest; it doesn't have the most features, doesn't have a futuristic console etc....and that's WHY she wanted it. She's had it for 9 months and loves it just as much as the day she bought it.

The best part is that she told me prior to purchase, "I don't think I want to do anything to it."

That lasted about a month. Now she wants to do all sorts of stuff do it.

 

Yeah I hope they don’t screw the forerunner up with the new gen. It’s perfect right now 4.0 5 speed…

 

You can hope and pray all you want bud. 4.0 isn't gonna pass the fuel economy bar. They'll change it too...

 

Agreed. It'd be nice to have a bit more pep, and a bit more MPG, but there's no way in HELL I'd sacrifice the reliability.

 

I am having the exact same issue. Mine goes a little further. I have the AC on driver at 64 and passenger at 72, and it’s pumping out hot air! I purchased and infrared thermometer at Home Depot and the heat on the feet got up to 140 degrees. That was on the side set to 72. Took to the dealer several times being told there’s nothing wrong although I have many many videos showing the issue that happens daily.

have you ever noticed the air in the back blows harder than the air in the front in the scenario you posted?

 

What does setting it to off do?

 

Fair warning…complete conjecture. We’d need to investigate and find the thermostat under the hood to have proof.

So after more reading, my experience seems to be that the heat is severely limited until the engine thermostat kicks in. If there’s no coolant going to the radiator then of course there won’t be good heat and I have a hunch the fan is looped into the engine thermostat too.

Given your incredibly cold temperatures, I wonder if the engine idling with remote start isn’t getting up to temperature and therefore the thermostat isn’t enabling the heat nor the fan. It’s possible Toyota has the thermostat set to be more in the 200deg F range or above for efficiency and emissions and so it takes longer to reach that temp

 

My current GMC Sierra Duramax 3.0 restricts fan speed until the truck is warm enough to blow cold air. It's actually nice...But this engine heats up in about 90 seconds sooooo.

 

I can’t wait until Toyota addresses this bs..

 

I was driving up a hill after a cold morning start, the fan speed changed shortly after I passed ~35% engine operating temp (if normal complete operating temp is 50% on the gauge) it was severely limited before it reached that temperature and started blasting once it hit that point.

 

Brought my capstone in today for the digital dash recall and informed them that my vent whistles when the fan is set at certain speed and temp is set at a certain setting. I was extremely disappointed when the technician sent me a video where he compared it to Capstone getting some work done and told me that this is “normal”. This CAN’T be normal. I’ve never owned a vehicle or been in a vehicle where the HVAC vents whistles at a certain setting and be considered as “normal”.

…Right???

 

I recently did a 500+ mile drive with temps ranging from 10 to -13F. Plenty warm inside, with the setting on defrost + feet, set to ~65F inside. Never had any visibility issues due to windshield fogging at fan speed 1. I started with recirc on, but after I'd been driving a while and the engine was warm, didn't see the need for all the extra fan noise.

I don't have any issues heating up the cabin during the winter. I turn on defrost + feet, recirculate (because why start with cold air, when I'm trying to make it warm, when I can use warm air and make it warmer?), level 3 or 4 for fan speed, and set heat to 80-85, depending on how cold it is outside. I usually turn the fan speed to 1 after five minutes, and I have to reduce the temp to ~70 not long after. I'm looking forward to seeing how well the AC works this summer when we hit triple digits.

I just thought it might be helpful to offer a dissenting experience in an otherwise gloomy thread.

 

On the phone with Toyota Corporate. Logging a case with them about the issue. We might need to get everyone to do the same thing in order to get this escalated. My dealership said it’s the same as the other tundras and said it’s most likely a design flaw and since there is no current recall they cannot and will not do anything.

I will report back any results I get with Toyota Corporate.

 

So it looks like we need to hammer them with called and generate enough tickets that gets them to notice.

Call Toyota corporate 800-331-4331 opt. 7 opt. 3

you can reference my case# but have your own generated. 230327002214

Explain to them you are having the very same issue with very low air flow on high when using heat manually to the front vents.

I explained that on AC or cold it blows hard with high air flow just not on heat.

 

I have a 2022 TRD pro and I am having the same issue, on low it blows really well and the higher the temp the lower the air pressure. I have called Toyota and created a case number. I hope everyone is calling so they can resolve this quickly

 

So, just from my experience with 3 Toyota vehicles that have auto HVAC controls, I've experienced this will all of them. I keep mine set at 70° - 72°. When the cabin starts to warm up or cool, the fan speed does decrease causing less air flow. I don't know at what temp you were testing this at, but it makes sense that the HVAC controls throttle back the blower speed as it approaches the set cabin temp.

 

One other thing I just thought of, in our '21 Sienna, thru the radio, there is a setting for ECO Climate. Is there something similar on the 3g?

 

Having driven a 3rd gen for a week, I thought it was just that particular truck that had a seemingly lackluster AC but now I see it's just another 3rd gen "characteristic".

My 2016 literally blows the AC out of that 3rd gen away. I had to turn the temps down to 60s and drive around for 10 min before I felt comfortable.