I've had the same problem and finally came to accept it even though I was still a little bothered. After seeing this post last night I decided to take off my glove box and it was also "unlinked." All I did was reattach it as advised and it's fixed Thanks so much!!

 

I'm using a mailing label to do this today as well. Hopefully the wife reads it if she ever goes in there, she has a habit of not following service manuals when she works on cars.

 

I just checked mine. It was also serviced at a lexus dealership because previous owner had a prepaid lease on it. I am second owner. But I changed out this filter once when I first got it. And I was one of those guys who had to check out everything when I first got it. And I too did not k ow what I was going and forced the door open. I got lucky ! The car was just over 3 years old. The "fresh" plastic must have been flexible enough to take the force. Never doing that mistake again. I love this forum.

 

Hi all, I've really enjoyed the forums and they have helped me tremendously. I too broke my fresh air damper assembly on my ISF and glued it back together. This broke also so I dove in to fix the door correctly without removing the whole blower assembly.
I ordered PART #8702030020 which came with the pivoting door and a new arm. Here is what I did.
1. Remove kick panel, knee airbag, and glovebox
2. Remove the 2 black screws that hold a duct and an electrical box. Move both to expose the broken arm on the end of the rotating door.
3. You will see 4 silver screws with the heads pointing down that hold the top half of the door housing to the bottom half. Remove.
4. You will see a 10mm bolt on the top-right half of the housing. Remove.
5. There is a Phillips screw with the head pointing to the drivers side on top of the housing. Very hard to get to, but remove this screw as well.
6. Pull apart the upper housing at the split in the middle. Be careful but the left half will move quite far. It helps to reach toward the firewall and undo a plastics clip holding the housing together.
7. Wiggle the old door out and the new door in. I pulled the left hinge out first and then the right. Take your time.
8. Install the new door arm with a click. Reassemble and test.

This took me about 45 minutes to do and cost around $35. I hope this helps someone that is handy and who doesn't want to glue their ISF back together.

 

Dear cwajciec,

Do you have some pictures about the procedure?
It would be very helpful for me

Thank you!

 

Sometimes the filter can unclip from its frame. I found this after the A/C started resetting to 75F and OFF each time the car was started. I would hear a clicking sound from behind the glove box. The last filter change was at the Toyota dealer.

WIth the ignition ON, and A/C in recirc, my blend door was out of the way. I removed the filter. I reinstalled it making sure the clips were seated properly. I started the car and checked it before putting the door in place. Magically, mine started working.

 

Anybody possibly have a video of this? I'm a much better visual learner and I swear when I see text instructions my mind goes blank, probably due to the crippling fear of breaking something else while trying to fix this

 

So is the procedure for the LS460 the same as the ISF?

 

I'm another who had the LS460 climate control turn off after 30 seconds or so when starting the car. If you follow the directions from these posts it's a relatively easy fix, assuming the arm is not broken. Once you get the glove box out it's easy to pry it back into the channel where it belongs. And as easy at that, no more problems on start up. Thanks to all here who posted directions.

 

 

Design defect?

How about owner / shadetree mechanic defect...?

 

First: THANKS ALL. Reading all this is so helpful for a long time DIY guy.

A similar issue to consider:

I brought my LS to an oil change shop for a basic oil/filter change. They advised that my cabin filter was dirty and needed change. I told them I had a new filter at home for DIY. No Service Advisory on dash so ignored it as sales pitch.

I don't drive it that often and last weekend took it for a weekend trip. You can guess.. The full A/C bag of issues. I feared the shop broke the recirculation door. This morning I refreshed myself with Owner's Manual instructions- as well as the superior info here. It turned out the shop removed the filter out but didn't get it back in all the way. They managed to clip it back in short of the full mounting position. That blocked the recurcilation door operation and caused the malfunctions. Since I hadn't touched this before I at first didn't realize the filter mounting was incorrect. I noticed the mounting seemed very flimsy and re-read instructions here. Without a close up it still had me wondering but then I got down low enough to peer inside and view the mounting surface. Clearly it had to go further in, which I tried, and it was flush, solid, and then easily snapped into a secure position. The cover plate includes a big "DO NOT REMOVE WITHOUT A/C IN RECIRCULTION MODE + IF UNSURE _ DO NOT TOUCH! EASILY BROKEN $$$$" on the front.

It was interesting to see that it could be clipped back in short of fully inserted and cause what seemed to be the same issues. If you DIY the filter should be sitting insde and back from the front surface- and should sit very solid and flat on the mounting surface. If you feel like you are playing with it to get it positioned and snapped in front it's probably not all the way in. Getting down so you can see inside is very helpful to understanding how the mounting surface and getting it right. [This is a lot of typing + repitition for what ends up being such a simple operation but I got fooled by the shop leaving it mis-positioned and I suspect that is why others have had the "same problem" but it didn't break anything.

BTW: An old mechanic's trick is that a lot of "dirty" air filters just have crap in them from trees and pollen. If you have an air compressor you can easily blow that stuff out and then compare it with your new replacement. They DO at some point get loaded up and need replacement but many people [and today virtually all shops!] toss good ones that could easily be blown out clean. Replacements are cheap enough that if you feel unsure- don't bother.

Thanks again. I dread to think what could have happened if I hadn't done this myself.

 

 

These are the money shots. I too thought I had broken this mechanism and pulled everything apart to see that the hinge was off. Just clipped back on, and it’s working as it should. It does look like it’s diffcult piece to break. If anyone has this issue, take it apart and see if the hinge is off. Even the easiest change in the future will suggest some research before doing it. Great post!

 

I do still visit the Lexus forums, Jimmy, but I sold my 2008 LS 460 last summer to my best friend. With the help of a good year in the stock market, I was able to replace it with a new LS 500 (2018). I plan on keeping this one for at least 10 years, but it has 3-1/2 more years of warranty before I have to start trying to fix it myself.