Thank you for doing this video, it was very helpful. I was able to do a 2006 by just removing the center knob and leaving everything in place. Used a long fine tip soldering pencil, fine electronic solder, wearing a headlamp on my forehead and reading glasses. Worked through the small curved opening above the wires. Used a very small screw driver to carefully position the broken end of wire over the solder pad on the board and then quickly applied a small ball of solder to the pad and wire, was able to get each of the 3 wires first try. The center wire was still connected but re-soldered it anyway. You do need a steady hand and the right iron and solder. May not be the best method for everyone but it can be done and only takes a few minutes.

I just did this today, too. I used some wire I had(did all three) instea of re-using the ribbon. So, six solder joints re-done later and I put it in. It worked. What a miracle. Thanks, for posting this. It gave me the knowledge and courage to try it. Also, the high replacement cost of the whole unit gave me I-have-nothing-to-lose courage.

Thanks for posting this. Fixed mine today after watching this video. Dealership wanted $1200.00. Fixed it myself for about $5 for new solder.

DIY Brian you ROCK!!!!! This fixed my AC problem. Easy fix once the issue is diagnosed. Thanks for the video!

I just completed this repair just as you describe! It was easy except for stripping and re-soldering the short gray ribbon cable. That was difficult at my age! Thank you so much for your very helpful video, sir!!

just fixed the same problem on my 01 highlander. Removing and installing is a job anyone can do, but had my brother in law do the soldering as he has experience in that area . the cost of a new unit from my local dealer is $1400, so well worth doing it yourself.

Brian you have saved people so much money with this video. Thank you. First time doing precision soldering, this took my quite a while to get it right with how fragile the wires were in my veichle . But eventually got it fixed. Cost me about $50 for soldering iron, multi meter, and refrigerant.

My Aunt wants me to thank you for posting this . she was told the repair would be $450.00 i told her i would look into it for her as i am the family's go to repair person . this was the first video i came upon and you were right on !! All 3 wires were broken . after taking some time i was able to fix it . biggest issue was clearing the holes so the wire would go back thru. From both of us thanks for the Info/Video !!

Just fixed the temperature control in my highlander using your video. Thanks Bri 🤙🏼

I had the EXACT same problem with our '02 Highlander. You perfectly diagnosed and showed me how to fix it. The hardest part was getting the solder out of the circuit board holes- I heated up a heavy-duty sewing needle and it worked like a charm. THANKS for helping people to fix instead of waste!!!

Been dealing with this issue for 15 years lol...but honestly this should have been a recall...THANK YOU!

Thank you so much for this video! Like most that have commented, I had a friend help me with the soldering. But everything else was very easy to do. I saved $1200 because of this video!

i have the same problem with my 2005 highlander, now I know to fix it thnks for the video very helpful,.....

What a great video! Both knobs on my 2005 Highlander are malfunctioning. Dealer wants way too much to fix, so happy I found your video!! You give great and clear instructions and make it look as if anyone, regardless of experience can do this! Will post again once I fix mine. Thanks again!!

Thanks for the DIY video! You have helped many people repair their temperature control unit controls! Thanks again!

Thank you so much! Been struggling with min not working for a couple years and the dealer wanted 1200 bucks!

Hi thanks for your guidance. Fixed it as instructed and it worked. Only thing I couldn't do is the soldering. So I google electronic repair shops. Had to pay 40.00 to have them fix it.......again thanks and as easy as you showed. Took them just a few minutes to repair.

Great video! Thank you! Just repaired a 2006 Highlander, and it was exactly as you described. Thank you for taking the time to make this video!

First, thanks! Your diagnosis was spot on. Kept turning from hot to cold arbitrarily. Took 30 min to take apart as your steps were exactly right. The ribbon was broken just as suspected. Since I don’t have the tool to remove the solder easily I just stripped the wires and soldered them to the stubs on top. Worked perfect. This saved major expense. Even refurbished controls are not cheap and the new control unit is like $1200. You wouldn’t realize it’s something this simple if you had not posted this video. Thanks

You are the MAN 👍. Did everything on this video of yours and it was a awesome fix🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. My mom was happy with what her son did 😉👍. Thanks for the awesome job video.

Thanx man - I fixed mine with your instructions and now it will ice up my wind shield. 2 thumbs up!

My Toyota dealer wanted $1500 to fix my intermittent climate control on my 2006 Highlander. I followed the instructions on this video (my ribbon cable was broken in two places, just like in the video) and in less than two hours I fixed the problem. Thank you DIY BRI!!

Excellent video. I have a 2004 Highlander and had the same problem. Your video helped me fix the problem and now its working great. Thanks.

My car got no heat and it was fixed . Thanks a lot! I dont know how much it would save me but at least a few hundred

Bri - Appreciate the video. Exactly what I needed to see to fix my climate problem on my 2004 Highlander.

I had the same problem on my 2006 Highlander Hybrid and fixed it after watching this video. Thanks so much for posting this video. It saved me a lot of time fooling around trying to find out what is the cause of the problem ( hot-cold, hot-cold) . The only difficulty was trying to get those three wires back into the circuit board of the temperature switch which was a little tricky because you have to get the three wires aligned at the same time so they can be introduced into their respective holes. Other than that it's not difficult. So thanks again for a great useful video !!!

This video is great! Went to harbor freight got a soldering iron and solder for $10. Had everything back together and running normally in a hour. Thank you!

Thank you very much for posting this. Very good explanation of the process and the fix. I used your video to guide me step by step. You saved me a bunch of money. Thank you very much!

Just wanted to say thanks for doing this precise video. Exactly the problem and exactly the fix.

Thank you for the video , I just fixed my Highlander ..now ac finally works. Only took me an hour start to finish...I put 3 new wires in it instead of dealing with that short gray stock wire.

I have the same problem with my 2004 Highlander and have been putting off having it fixed because the dealer wanted almost $1000K to fix it (most of it was for the aftermarket part.) My Highlander has 340,000 miles on it (yes, that's right, and still runs perfectly.) But I clearly don't want to put a grand into it for this. But it is getting colder and with this video I am confident I can do this myself. This was very instructive and I'll let you know how it turns out! Thank you.

This is the best video I've seen to address this issue. I've found as a temporary measure, you can sometimes move the control all the way to hot/cold a few times and it will then work where you set it. If you're like me and feel confident in your ability to remove the unit from the car, but don't think you could pull off the soldering, there are online businesses that will repair the unit and ship it back to you for under $100. Be warned that some of them say they won't work on yours if you've already attempted the repair yourself.

Thank you Brian. I tried to solder 1st time in my life and it worked. I mess up with wire lock clip while pulling up and break it (might be very old). I use hot glue to hold wire in the clip board and it work well. Best way is open the clear plastic at the back and release wire at the top side. Now both heat and AC are working perfectly.

Thank you. Was able to do most of it myself. Just got someone to sodder it and now it works perfectly.

Hey man i never comment on yt videos but i just wanted to say thankyou so much for this great tutorial you saved me a ton of money and time!

This is the perfect video, and it made this fix a breeze. I cheated by taking a shortcut - soldering wires on the reverse side of the boards with the mini pot board still with knob attached (I didn't even touch the ribbon after verifying it was severed on two lines). Thanks for the detail, I also upgraded the stereo whilst I had it apart. So good having a big audio upgrade and temp control back!

Brian - thank you sir!!! Look me up when you're in Austin, I'm good for a steak dinner for your great diagnostic help!

Very useful video. Helped me fix my problem without a mechanic. Thanks.

Fantastic video. Lots of good information here. Thank you!!

Thank you so much. That solved the problem.

You just saved me a couple grand! Thanks so much!!

Perfect video, this was exactly our issue. We didn’t have any extra wire or a desoldering tool and the soldering iron was not great but we got it back together at $0.

Thank you! You saved me a lot of$$$

Thank you so much I have got a 2002 Toyota Highlander by watching this review now I can fix my my control to cut it cold and hot thank you so much and give a thumbs up to you

Thank you so much for the nice video i fixed my highlander today.

Great video. Going to make this repair this weekend before winter sets in.

Thanks so much! Exactly what my problem was. You saved me a big check to the mechanic. You rock.

Thanks. Had this problem with 2 Highlanders. Both are now fixed. Great Video.

Hi Bri, this video worked like a charm. Thanks for the knowledge share. Amazed it was the textbook ribbon breakage. Thanks again

To: DIY Bri, You were 'bang on' in diagnosing my heat/cool problem. Your video was really well done and made the disassembly easy. The trickiest part was cleaning the old solder out or the holes as I didn't have a solder vacuum. I'll be looking for your videos for future repairs. Thank you ! ! !

Thank you for sharing appreciated

This fixed my issue. Took the assembly to UBreakiFix and they did the soldering for me! So excited to have control of my temperature in my car again!!!! Thank you DIY Bri!

It s wonderful video, thanks alot I followed the video fixed it and it worked!

just the fix I was looking for. Thanks.

Worked like a charm...thanks a bunch!

Excellent video and breakdown of the repair. Thank you for this video and the tips.

Excellent video. After seeing a few of these videos I would suggest soldering 3 bypass wires directly on the two boards (6 solder points) without even removing the small potentiometer board. An easy solder job and just allows you to abandon the crappy ribbon altogether. Your video was awesome. Very thorough and clear! My 04 Highlander has not done this yet but I am guessing it will any day. Thanks for the great video!

EXCELLENT VIDEO !!!!

I was fiddling with the knob for months, until it got too hot outside. I watched your video, took mine apart and re-solder the 3 wires. At my age, I had to use my phone's camera zoom to inspect the welds. Then I tested continuity before slapping together. Your video improved the quality of my 40 min commute- used to freeze my butt off in the winter and sweat like crazy in summer. Not anymore, thanks to your well explained video.

I have this exact problem, but now it's already trouble shot with solution to boot! Thank you sir.

That was great! Thank you so much

This video is still saving highlanders (or more accurately their drivers)! Thank you!

Perfect video thank you

I would of added some hot glue on the ribbon to strengthen it after soldering it. To me it's apparent that during normal use, these connectors rock ever so slightly back & forth over time. Thus causing the wires to become severed after so many cycles of back and forth action. Strongly recommend to glue that ribbon after this repair & also the one next to it that controls the vent settings. Cheers!

I have similar with my 04 highlander. I really appreciate the input. Mine is doing even more flaky things so I actually got a refurbished control head. I was going to pay to have someone do the work, but dang it looks easy when I don't have to actually open up and solder. Your stepping through the removal, the connectors, and re-assembly sound priceless. I am kinda sorta OK mechanically usually enough to get myself in trouble. Hope I don't break the face plate taking it off. Seems like about the only thing I could screw up. I'll report back.

Thanks for the information

Thanks ,I repaired mine last night about midnight and I just wanted to drive my car. I have been suffering intermittently. There is another guy that shows the same repair so I watched him also. But in reading the comments someone suggested to remove the plastic window, because it makes it easy to remove the ribbon. But I also found that the ribbon can be removed from the top white lever as well and it makes it easy.

Great video! Fixed the heat in my 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid for less than $15... Be patient with the soldering...

Great guide. Thanks !

Very well explained ! thanks man

Awesome video!! Super helpful! Thanks!

Good Info!! Thank you!!!

Been about a year since I did this fix and still going strong!

Thank you very much. You saved me lots of money n time

Great video explained real good tks

Thank you! This helped me a lot!!!

Fantastic. You saved me $1,300.

Very Helpful, Well Done, thank you. You were right though, soldering the wire was a pain, but worth it get control of the heat/AC back.

Thank You!!

I had to drill out the holes to get the old solder out. Was kind of worried about that doing damage but it's all done working great, so far. Happy and warm now!

Excellent!

thanks for the info.

Dude thank you SO MUCH. Just got a used 05 highlander and was able to fix my AC by fixing this ribbon disconnect. Not only that but I find out the radio was disconnected from the antenna so I fixed that too. :D

Thanks a lot DIY Tips.

Great job!!!!!!!!

AWESOME JOB

Followed your instructions to the T. I tried to do the soldering and got one of them working, that was not going to work. I took it to a tv repair guy charged me a couple of dollars and walllllllaaaaa! Thank you for helping contribute to my retirement.

Thanks solved problem!

awesome!!

Good to see that the inplix has new instructions to save my money and energy to build it.

Good job

Thanks 💯

Thank you

THANK YOU!!!!!!

thank you for your video

Just subscribed, I have a friend whose highlanders heater is having issues. It blows heat on the drivers side, but the passenger side is cold air, and it's winter time. I sent him this video, hopefully it is a soldering issue. I'll let you know if he fixes it. Good video!

thx great stuff

Good video

Thanks so much!!! Saved me a couple hundred $$$ if I had sent in my panel for repair, or $1200 for a new one. A few tips: Get a good fine-point soldering iron (

Good and thorough video. I have a limited edition with the auto control. the fan control went out but the temperature knob still works, but now it is starting to go out also. I'm guessing that it is probably the same knob issue that you addressed in this video??? I think i'm going to attempt this repair. Thanks!!!