Hello, long time reader, first time poster. Hoping someone may have some insight on what I’m currently experiencing. I have a ‘23 XSE with about 25k kms on it, overall has been a great car. Back in December we started having a rattle noise while in EV mode with the fan motor, the noise got worse and we’ve had it to the shop a couple times with a response of oh that’s normal. A short time after we had the noise stop randomly then we had no heat. This was in Jan when it was between -10c and -20c, also had it to the shop and told no heat will be produced when it’s that cold. We’ve been driving since then and living with the fact that not much heat will be produced in EV mode in those temps. It’s currently been +5c to +12c and we still don’t have any heat. I know for a fact all last fall the car made heat at these temps, and I’ve had it into the shop again and told it’s normal. I truly don’t believe it is. Again each time I drop it off it comes back with 2% less EV range, and I don’t think much diagnostic troubleshooting is going on but not sure what I should be doing next. Anyone have any tips or have been through this? TIA!
a toyota dealer? isn't it under warranty? if i'm not mistaken, i think the heat pump is only good down to about -10c, should be in you owners manual. i would take it back again now that the weather is within operating range
Sounds like a heat pump system problem. But below -10°C, with you trying to get cabin heat, "EV Mode" should be turning on the engine for extra heat, so I would have expected the problem should actually be less severe when colder. There should be plenty of EV heat above -10°C, but mine is very noisy while doing that - lots of noise from the heat pump compressor, and the radiator fan which runs at quite a high speed. The colder the weather, the faster the fan. You seem to be suggesting your radiator fan isn't working? I've been a bit worried about mine, because some of the noises sound not terribly healthy, and there's a clear radiator fan vibration. These things are easy to test with Techstream - you can manually control pump and fan speed, and get rpm readouts. (Done that myself to confirm the whole car shakes with fan at max rpm. Don't believe my dealer tried that to look at my fan vibration - they also said it was "normal" and "engine noise").
Thanks for the response. I've had it at the Toyota dealer 4 times now and they've used the "computer" to check all functions of the HVAC and said everything came back okay. I just brought it up again this morning as I had some time, and it was 2 degrees Celsius and should be ideal to know if there's any heat coming from the heat pump. But I had a 20 km drive to the dealership and no heat whatsoever, anyways ended up showing the tech and he definitely agreed we should have heat. Anyways, they're checking with Toyota Canada now to see where to go next. Hopefully we'll have this solved soon.
