I am so impressed with your tenacity at diagnosing this no cold air problem. My 06 Higlander hybrid has just the opposite problem. I took the HVAC control panel apart to repair the infamous rotary knob broken ribbon cable which affected both knobs. Success on fixing the speed and temperature rotary knob functions but still no hot air even though my temperature gauge shows normal water temperature which stays constant. I am going to remove the air blend actuator and observe it's operation as you did to try and determine if it's the actuator or it's control board. Update 12/01/21: I was able to introduce about 2 quarts of coolant into the reserve tank in several hot cold cycles so the coolant would be drawn into the main radiator. Magically the heat came back and the temperature control seems to control the temperature correctly. I am so glad to get heat back now that it is really cold here.

Great tutorial! Thank you for going to the extra effort of filming and explaining everything clearly.

Thank you, Sir! You saved my day! Went to Grismer and they recharge Freon and told me to pay $600+ to replace the passenger side blend door actuator ( 2.8 hours labor fee plus $200+ actuator). I got my own actuator out in 15 mins. I believe Grismer expects me to pay their employee's lunch and the time they spent on lunch.

You posted your video on Aug 2021 and you got $125 down the drain without fixing the problem. Now, May 2023, I got $180 down the drain and my ac still not cold. My crooked so-claimed mechanic didn't even know that part is actually called "blend door actuator". He called it "motor" 🙄. Can you believe it !!! Thanks for all of the details and close up footage in your video. I will try to fix my ac.

Great information, I needed heat asap. I detached and forced opened the blend door while searching for the best deal on the new part…TOASTY😊

Did not realize the blend door actuator was that simple to remove. Looked a lot more complicated when I was down there. Might have to try and remove the plastic thing like you did.

Have a 2003 Highlander that's a beater. The solder joints on the ribbon cable on the main dash controls are notorious for going bad and are fairly expensive to replace/repair. ***switching this blend door is this video up manually will give you heat and then switching down will bring back the cold ac*** you are just manually doing what the thermostat is supposed to do. I've been switching like this between seasons and does the trick.

Thanks for this! I’m going to go check mine out right now. I don’t ever need heat in south Texas. 🤣

THANK YOU KIND GENTELMAN rICK! YOU ARE MY HERO IN THIS FINE DAY!!! you have saved me hundreds of dollars! bless you brother!!

Heat wasn't working. The arm poped out and was stuck on cold. Fixed it after alot of frustration. Thanks.

Thank you so much it work great watch this video guys this guy know what he talking about thank you bro 🎉🎉🎉

Thanks for the video. I think my problem is going to be caused by intermittent connections on the temp control pot. Will know and report back tomorrow.

Heya, mine is cutting out and blowing warm whenever I turn a sharp corner,, thanks for your video, very helpful!!😊

Very good video. I don''t know if this will fix mine or not but it shows me where to find the blend air door motor. My heater won't blow hot/warm and the lines going to and coming out of the heater core are both hot. I've also inspected the electronics and there's nothing wrong. The only thing left is the blend air door and I'll look at that tomorrow. Thanks for the video. Great job!!!

Did the new circuit board fix it? I'm having the same exact thing. When I disconnected the blend door actuator my ac works. But when its plugged in, the ac wont even engage.

I have a 2012 Toyota Highlander and the shop is telling me my driver's side blend door actuator is bad. They say they have to remove the entire dashboard to get to it and want to charge about $1,100 to fix. Did the 2005's not have a driver side actuator - only the one behind the glove box? I'm trying to determine whether they are being reasonable. Thanks

I have an '02 Highlander Limited. My a/c blows cool on low fan but when I turn the fan speed up, it blows lukewarm on the driver's side and status cold on the passenger. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. Note: my model has 3 blend door actuators and my a/c panel is more digitized than the model in this video.

Hate to break it to you but I'm pretty sure your problem was the ribbon wire on the knob to board and your repair with the heavier gauge wire messed up your board. You should have saved the ribbon and reused it. Would have saved you a lot of trouble. The heat selector knob on those are prone to coming loose once loose they tend to break the ribbon. Over all though your video is good and helpful especially since there is so little on Highlanders on you tube.

Are there two actuators for the driver’s side and the passengers side? Because my passenger side blows cold but drivers side doesn’t.

Hey! So what ended up being the fix for this? Thank you!

Same problem here with mu camry 09 xle... replaced compresor and still blows hot air

+My heat is not as warm on the driver's side as before. My mechanic replaced the door actuators last summer. Any suggestions??

I had the same problem and i bought the the console part the temperature control and still didn't cool. I asked a friend and immediately looked under the front and he showed me where the condensor was leaking. I ordered it and had it replaced and charged with Freon and it worked !!!!

In an effort to restore the ac on my 1999 avalon my heat is not as warm on the driver's side. Any s

Thx

I had clicking noise behind the center of the dash. Now it isn't clicking, but no heat to either side. The fan is blowing strong both sides and the AC blows good. Just no heat.

How did you drop glove box

I have a 2003 Toyota Highlander. A/C stop to work. I noticed that when I start the car and a/c on, the light switch is blinking, looks like a/c compressor work for seconds and stop and the light begin to blinking. Is it a Relay or what. Thank you

You said you paid $125 for nothing, but keep in mind, the mechanic told you what the problem was, so the $125 was well spent in my opinion. If you did a better soldering job on your old panel you would have solved your issue. At least you gave it a try. A used panel might have the same issue with the ribbon cable so keep that in mind as well. Good luck.