Hello all! I finally found my LS after about 8 months of searching, but I am having an issue with the rear a/c controls. I looked at a few UL cars and only one had the controls for the rear a/c set where they would not affect the front unit. Can someone tell me how to change this so the rear seat passengers do not change my front a/c? I assume it is just a setting change, but I have been unable to find it in the manual or in asking the dealer. As I said, I only saw one out of the few that I drove that had this set correctly, but it did work independent of the front (as one would expect, right?)
Thanks,
Doug

BTW
Nice forum! I've been reading alot while searching for mine and it seems like a pretty good bunch of people...glad to be a part of it now!

 

Welcome to CL, good luck with your new LS !!

 

hey welcome, but i don't think the rear ac can be controlled (temp at least) without affecting the front temp as well. i have not heard of this ever being done, and i'm now curious how the one you saw was working. i have a ul and was just led to believe that this was originally made for like a private taxi/limo so the rear passengers would have control over the rest of the stuff. i know there is a lock button but i've never tried it. i guess you just hold it down (the button with a key over top of it), but this may only be to lock out the radio controls, not sure.

 

No, unfortunately. My '04 UL does not have independently controlled front and rear temps. There are two cooling units running on a common compressor, but if you change the rear, it changes the front as well.

I also haven't figured out the 'mode' switch on the rear panel. It is supposed to change from CD to radio to satellite, but mine will only lock the panel and not change anything otherwise.

Gene

 

I'll have to do more searching on this. I had one car for a day that the rear was controlled without affecting the front. The temp was able to raise and lower just the rear a/c, while the front stayed the same. It should work just like the driver/passenger controls....they just change the blend door movement to control the air temp. It's probably a combo push of buttons...like the recirculation setup for the front. I'll let you know if I find anything out.

 

Welcome! Will be interested in what you find - have never heard of that feature. Mine just cranks up the entire car temp. You can turn on/off the rear AC from the front but the front temp still adjusts from the rear in mine.

 

The imaginary kids (or drunk friends) in the backseat undoubtedly will be pushing the temps from MAX COLD to 90deg..lol. I'm very glad I don't have an Ultra! (no offense--lol)

If it is found, the rear temp controls DOES affect the front as well, that is sad. I would have bet otherwise.

 

I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Lexus' main office and was told that the rear and the front temps do not work independent of one another, even though I explained that I had seen this work differently on one car, so I talked to the dealer again and they had no ideas. Bottom line is that I am taking the car in Wednesday to have my non-oscilating vents fixed so they will once again be free to oscilate and the main tech will take a look at it then. I'll let you know what I find out!

 

The oscilating vents can be set to be "off" or "on" in the monitor screen. Read your manual. Your vents may not be defective, just turned off.

 

My oscillating vents didn't oscillate either, until I pulled my nav unit looking for a rattle and found them unplugged. Now they work.

 

I did turn them on...they don't work. This fix was part of the deal on the car...that they would take care of fixing the issue. I picked up the service history on the car a few days ago and the nav unit was replaced on the car not too long ago as a "guest service" because the previous owner said it was locked up, so maybe they just forgot to hook mine back up...that would be simple to fix.