'04 Sienna rear climate control problems

I have an '04 Sienna LE that I bought new in the Spring of 2004. I
think there is something wrong with the rear climate controls, but the
dealer says there isn't.

Yesterday, it was rather warm and my son was all the way in the third
row. He started complaining that he was hot. I turned the dash control
to cold, but he was still hot. I reach back to feel the temp of the air
coming out of the rear vents, but of course it's coming out of the
floor board registers. So I reach back behind my head and press the
rear control's vent button and the air coming out of the vents is hot
as hell. Huh? I look to see that the rear temp control is set to hot. I
turn it to cold and everything is fine, but I'm not happy because what
good is having a control on the dash if it doesn't control the whole
vehicle. And you have to damn near wreck the van because you're
reaching behind your head. The dash control was never set to REAR
either, but it seems that the rear controls were controlling the rear
temp and airflow.

We have taken it to the dealer about this before and was told that
everything is working the way it should. This doesn't make any sense to
me at all.

The way I understand it is supposed to work, when the front control is
set to REAR, you can independently control the rear temp and air flow
using the rear controls. Otherwise, the front controls control temp and
air flow for the whole vehicle. Isn't this the case? Has anyone else
had this problem?

Thanks,

-Trent

<mohead@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:1141675769.054368.92850@j52g2000cwj.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
>I have an '04 Sienna LE that I bought new in the Spring of 2004. I
> think there is something wrong with the rear climate controls, but the
> dealer says there isn't.
>
> Yesterday, it was rather warm and my son was all the way in the third
> row. He started complaining that he was hot. I turned the dash control
> to cold, but he was still hot. I reach back to feel the temp of the air
> coming out of the rear vents, but of course it's coming out of the
> floor board registers. So I reach back behind my head and press the
> rear control's vent button and the air coming out of the vents is hot
> as hell. Huh? I look to see that the rear temp control is set to hot. I
> turn it to cold and everything is fine, but I'm not happy because what
> good is having a control on the dash if it doesn't control the whole
> vehicle. And you have to damn near wreck the van because you're
> reaching behind your head. The dash control was never set to REAR
> either, but it seems that the rear controls were controlling the rear
> temp and airflow.
>
> We have taken it to the dealer about this before and was told that
> everything is working the way it should. This doesn't make any sense to
> me at all.
>
> The way I understand it is supposed to work, when the front control is
> set to REAR, you can independently control the rear temp and air flow
> using the rear controls. Otherwise, the front controls control temp and
> air flow for the whole vehicle. Isn't this the case? Has anyone else
> had this problem?
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Trent
>[/color]
In our Sequoia, setting the front control so that the light on the "REAR"
button is illuminated means that the controls on the front dashboard
controls both the front and rear HVAC together, which sound like the
opposite of what you are thinking.n Turning the REAR button off means that
they are independently controlled.

You can confirm this operation by turning the REAR button on and setting the
temp in the front and seeing if the rear temp matches.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

Ray,

Thanks for your response. Your Sequoia sounds very logical.

In the Sienna, the rear control is not a button, but a setting on the
rear fan speed knob (the settings are OFF, REAR, LOW,MED, HIGH). How it
works now is that you can turn this knob and control the fan speed of
the rear climate system. If you select the "REAR" setting, the only way
to control the fan speed of the rear system is to use the rear, ceiling
mounted controls. That's cool.

My beef with this is that you can't control the temperature of the rear
air system or even whether it is a/c or heat, vent or floor registers
from the front controls. You can only control the fan speed from the
front. This seems wrong to me. I would like to think that when the knob
is set to REAR, you can control everything with the rear
ceiling-mounted controls. BUT, if it is not set to REAR, you can
control everything from the front.

Please, could anyone with a Sienna chime in here? Is there something
wrong with my van?

Thanks,

-Trent