Defrost won't recirculate, low heat.

[bcd22]

Hi all, I'm a newbie. thanks in advance for any advice!
So its -11 degrees out this week, and my 2008 4-Runner SR5's battery died.
Replaced the battery today, and ran into several issues.

1. the whole rear window defrost light/rear window wiper issue...which thanks to this site i was able to fix by resetting the rear window control.

the next issue,
2. my FRONT defrost used to appropriately use the fan's recirculating air feature by default. Now it will ONLY use the vented air setting, making it way too cold and not effective. I cannot switch to recirculated fan on front defrost setting at all! I can however use recirculating fan when i switch to defrost/feet setting...but by splitting the warm air, I can't get the windshield as much hot air as i need.

3. also, the heat that i do get from the defrost/feet setting is substantially cooler than it should be. regular heat on the body seems to be getting hot enough but when i switch back to any defrost setting its cooler again.

4. while the rear defrost light has come back on, i don't believe its heating as effectively as it did before either. not sure if thats related or a separate issue.

i try to NEVER use the "auto" setting...its been on maybe twice in the 4 years I've owned my 4R.

I lumped these together as i figured they were all related by the fact that they only ever showed up after i changed the battery. hope thats not too much for one thread, but i wanted to be thorough.
any suggestions would be great, thank you.

 

[nevada]

Hi all, I'm a newbie. thanks in advance for any advice!
So its -11 degrees out this week, and my 2008 4-Runner SR5's battery died.
Replaced the battery today, and ran into several issues.

1. the whole rear window defrost light/rear window wiper issue...which thanks to this site i was able to fix by resetting the rear window control.

the next issue,
2. my FRONT defrost used to appropriately use the fan's recirculating air feature by default. Now it will ONLY use the vented air setting, making it way too cold and not effective. I cannot switch to recirculated fan on front defrost setting at all! I can however use recirculating fan when i switch to defrost/feet setting...but by splitting the warm air, I can't get the windshield as much hot air as i need.

3. also, the heat that i do get from the defrost/feet setting is substantially cooler than it should be. regular heat on the body seems to be getting hot enough but when i switch back to any defrost setting its cooler again.

4. while the rear defrost light has come back on, i don't believe its heating as effectively as it did before either. not sure if thats related or a separate issue.

i try to NEVER use the "auto" setting...its been on maybe twice in the 4 years I've owned my 4R.

I lumped these together as i figured they were all related by the fact that they only ever showed up after i changed the battery. hope thats not too much for one thread, but i wanted to be thorough.
any suggestions would be great, thank you.

that is NORMAL, and is functioning the way its designed. if you used to be able to use defrost with it on recirculate, then it was malfunctioning before.

on defrost, it lets in outside air, as this help to clear the moisture from the window. it will also cycle the AC on for the same purpose.

 

[m85476585]

The 4th gen climate control system has a mind of its own. I've seen inconsistent behavior where pushing a certain button does not always result in the same action. I think it was designed by an intern or something.

I accidentally hit auto when trying to adjust the temperature the other day, and it changed literally everything except the temperature. I had it on low fan, face vents, fresh air, and no A/C. Auto increased the fan, put it on floor vents or defrost (can't remember), and turned on the A/C and recirc. I had to take my eyes off the road several times to put everything back.

Sometimes when it's not in auto mode, switching it to defrost will increase the fan speed, but sometimes it won't.

Sorry, this probably doesn't help but I have to rant about the climate control at every chance I get.

I've noticed that floor+defrost blows colder air because of the A/C. When it's -11 out A/C is not necessary since the air is already so dry! Cold air holds very little moisture, and heating it up effectively makes it dry.

 

[bcd22]

vent away!
this is really 1 of only 2 negatives i have ever found with this vehicle.
(the other being i hate the computerized auto traction control as it does more harm than good in western PA winters.)

if as the other poster suggested, my current settings are intentional...this would be the ONLY vehicle i've EVER seen that does not allow you to use internal hot air to defrost your windshield when its idling in the driveway in the cold.

but i'm sure this is not how its supposed to be, as i HAD the feature before, and the rear window defroster is no longer heating up properly either.

F minus, toyota on a lousy heating/cooling system! People should be able to change the battery, (a simple, COMMON scenario), without having to deal with all this.