Weird ac issue 2008 highlander (auto, air conditioning, driver, sensor)
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Symptoms of low refrigerant usually are not selective like that as all of the air is cooled through a single evaporator. That said, it never hurts to have your pressures checked as that is routine maintenance of AC systems.
I think your real issue may be with the blend doors. Do you have dual zones? One easy thing to try is this: With your auto climate control engaged, start at the coolest setting and SLOWLY... SLOWLY.. move all the way up to the hottest setting and then the same all the way back down. Sometimes the blend motors get out of synch and this is quasi recalibration for them.
Not the evaporator. That would not cause cold air on only one side of vents.
You more than likely have dual controls that adjust temps on each side. The electronic temp. control actuator that controls the driver side vent is defective. Very common problem.
Fairly easy and not expensive to replace. Google temp. control actuator for your vehicle. There are several actuators under there that control air blend, temp control and airflow.
Does your Highlander have dual climate zone controls? That would have been the most obvious one.
IF IT BLOWS COLD FROM A VENT, AC IS WORKING FINE.
Hence, if you have cold coming out of a vent or set of vents and warm out of other vent/vents, it's air flow control issue. Blender doors. Or, if you have dual climate control - my 07 Camry does - it's either operator fault or it's broken.
Symptoms of low refrigerant usually are not selective like that as all of the air is cooled through a single evaporator. That said, it never hurts to have your pressures checked as that is routine maintenance of AC systems.
I think your real issue may be with the blend doors. Do you have dual zones? One easy thing to try is this: With your auto climate control engaged, start at the coolest setting and SLOWLY... SLOWLY.. move all the way up to the hottest setting and then the same all the way back down. Sometimes the blend motors get out of synch and this is quasi recalibration for them.
Several of the posts I finally found on-line had people with the issue and low refrigerant was the problem.
There is some mention of the blend doors, but like you said....we can do the refrigerant thing first and go from there.
Several of the posts I finally found on-line had people with the issue and low refrigerant was the problem.
Unfortunately, many times people are not detailed in their descriptions. For example if you have one vent blowing ice cold and an adjacent vent, inches away, blowing warm air, this has nothing to do with system pressures and everything to do with blending. On the other hand if you have a vent one side of the dash (closest to the evaporator) blowing cool air and the vent on the opposite side blowing luke warm, then yeah I can see how that is refrigerant issue.
Naahh, there is only one freon flow system, unless there is rear one in addition. Dual control has just very complicated air flow system: Each manufacturer has its own distinct method for delivering the perfect climate for individual passengers; however, they all rely on certain similar components, like additional controls in the driver’s HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) control unit, an additional HVAC control unit in the rear seating area, individual temperature sensors for each zone, lots of extra hidden ducting to carry the air where it’s needed and extra vents — lots and lots of extra vents.
But cold air supply is same for dual or not. Hence, if it blows cold on pass side and warm on driver side - it's air flow controls.
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