exBMWowner

I'm having a very strange problem with my air conditioning unit that the dealer has never seen before. Each time I start up the car, the air conditioner initially fails to turn on. It seems to try to start up for about a minute. The green A/C light comes on, but no air blows out. Then, after about a minute, a message shows up on the nav screen saying "Air Conditioner off". The green light also turns off.

If I then press the A/C button again, the green light comes on, and after about 15 seconds, the air starts to blow and the unit appears to be fine.

This process happens consistently, each and every time I start up the car. The only time it may not go through this cycle is if I just turned the car off within the last few minutes and then start it up again, in which case the air conditioning seems to work fine.

I suspect when I went to the dealer, they did not pay much attention to what was happening the first time they started the car, and then on each successive restart, the symptom failed to reappear because the A/C unit seems to start fine if it was just running within the last few minutes. The dealer says they have never seen this before and was unable to solve the problem.

Has anyone else seen this, or have any idea what might be going on?

Craig B

I have never seen this, or had any problems with my air cond...

Craig

LAMark

I had a different but equally strange AC problem. On a recent warm day my LS had been sitting in the sun, and it was over 90 degrees inside. I turned the AC on and no matter what I did it tried to blow hot air through the system. Somehow it reset when I stopped the car and restarted it. I asked the dealer about it and he searched his database and found nothing.

encore888

There are temperature sensors inside the LS, which are supposed to help direct cold air to certain areas of the car...maybe they were 'overloaded' by the heat.

OTOH the A/C not starting issue and specifically having "Air Conditioner off". show up on screen...hmm I might use a digital camera and video record that to show the dealer. Surely some diagnostic tool or knowledge of the system could illustrate why the software ends up displaying this message.

3alwi

exBMWowner did u try o switch off the A/C before turning the engine off

go to the other diagnosis menu

check

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag3gtCwVtx8

and then clear the errors in the memory

or check if there are some

jeshie7

I had a problem with my Air only blowing out the drivers side vents all others absolutely no air... My dealer replaced my A/C amplifier (if there is a such thing) and now it works perfect. It really doesn't come close to your problem but it might help.

jesh

wufrenchie

I have also experienced some issues with my A/C unit. Cold air would only come out of the driver vents, and hot air was coming out of the passenger vents. After a few attempts of turning it on and off it starting working i have yet to take it to the dealer, since it happens intermittently

MythBuster

* never ha* an* *ssue w**h AC.

nblexus15

same thing happend to me...they simply replaced the AC Amplifier and all is well.

lklpilaw

Have you gotten any other responses from people who have similar problems? what did the dealer say?

lklpilaw

My AC does not work on one side and sometimes not at all it looks like you have similar problems have you heard from anyone else maybe it is a manufacturing defect?

Geremology101

I have this same issue. It turns out that this happens when you change the a/c filter without pushing the recirculation button first. The problem is that the blower assmbly needs to be replaced because the blend door/servo has been broken.

Here was my issue: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...l-problem.html

Ending outcome: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...or-broken.html


It's an expensive fix, unfortunately so I've learned to live with it.

dan1495

I had the exact problem as the OP when I got my car back from it's 25,000 service last week. Supposedly they removed the A/C filter to inspect it and did not replace it correctly. I took it back the next day and they re-installed the filter and it has been fine since.

puppo420

I had the same issue after replacing my LS460L cabin air filter.
As soon as you start the car, AUTO light would come on but no lights on recirc/auto/fresh air button. And the fan would not run and no driver/passenger temp display either. Looked like the whole climate control system was in a shutdown mode. After 15 seconds or so, climate control would come on resetted to 75 degrees and would forget my previous settings when I stopped the car. It was very easily reproduceable every time after I shut down and locked the car.
I had not broken the recirc/fresh door infront of the filter as I was very particular about it and read all the instructions before replacing the filter.

My fix was to take the filter out of its plastic casing and re-install it with "TOYOTA" "MADE IN USA" and "UP" printed on the filter to face the rear side of casing. Before it was towards the front side of casing. I had noticed it when I took the previous original filter out but did not think it would matter which way the filter goes as long as "UP" is actually pointing "UP".
Ironically the car has some sensitive sensors that detect may be the filter is not there I think. I re-installed it correctly and seated it above the blower pressing all four sides. Need skinny hands to get in the back of it. Since then its fixed and climate control works normally as before.

Edcentury

I replaced the cabin filter without using the dash recycle modes. By doing this a small bracket came off and the computer thought that no filter was in the car and set the car to 75 degrees by default. You could turn the air on manually but not automatic. The cure is to reattached the bracket inside the cabin filter door.