AC always on during Hot or Cold?!?

[4RunnerDan]

I drive a 2000 T4R V6 and my problem, well just annoys me, is that weither I turn on my fan to hot or cold or even neutral the AC kicks on? I have tried to hit the ac botton 100's of times to turn it off but it hasn't worked. Does anyone have maybe an idea as to why the AC is always on when the fan is on?

 

[Uneek]

Is the vent outlet selection on the floor and windshield, or windshield mode?

Not sure about the 3rd gen, but on my 4Runner, even my '04 Camry, the AC turns on in both windshield, and floor and windshield mode.

 

[004Gunner]

What Uneek said in terms of the windshield defogger is correct. The A/C is programmed to turn on when the defogger is used. If you are using the Auto or climate control feature, assuming you have the digital HVAC controls, then that will also utilize the A/C. If you take off auto then the A/C can be on or off depending on what you choose.

 

[4RunnerDan]

I understand what you guys are talking about with the AC being turned on when De-Fogging, but my AC turns on during any function i.e. turned to floor, floor and face, face only, windshield, vents. It kicks on for every setting? And no, I do not have the digital climate control. Just the standard everday manual controls. Sorry if this is confusing, It just doesn't make since that it will kick on even if you put the vents on your feet.?

 

[004Gunner]

I would inspect the a/c switch then. It's the simplest place to start

 

[pat161]

Take your dial that chooses where the air comes out, ex. body, floor, deforst, and pull it right off. It should pull right off fairly easily. Once off move it to the defrost position and then go one turn further, the button will stop you from doing this. See if the ac kicks off then, Toyota hid the defrost w/o ac feature for we Americans, but if you look at the back of the switch there is a little plastic tab that you can shave off and use the switch to access the extra feature. This is probably my favorite "mod" I have done as I hate running the ac but in the winter I often need the defrost. Why your ac compressor is running in every mode I have no idea.

 

[4RunnerDan]

Thanks Pat161 for the hidden mod! I guess I'll try to go to the scrap yard and find another 4runner's HAVC control and maybe see if that might fix the problem. Thanks for the input guys!