I just bought an 06 RX330 with 70K miles on it. There is a problem with the heat from the dashboard around the Navigator screen/radio area. If I drive a short trip like 3 - 5 miles I don't see anything wrong but when my wife drives to work everyday (40 miles around trip) she said that it was very warm at the 2 vents on both sides on the navigator screen. It was also warm when she touched the area around the screen, radio combo. The fan and A/C was off. No air blown from the vents. She just felt the heat when she touched the area. Also there was a smell like the heater was running in fact but we had fan and A/C off.

I did google and saw people having problem with the servos. Would it be the cause for my problem, like the door was not closed completely causing the hot air entering inside the car?

Thanks,

 

Try choosing the recirculate option. Press the button and make sure the green light is on. This should activate the servo and close the vents to outside air. And it will reduce any air blowing through if the fan is off or low.

 

I talked to my wife. She said this morning she had the A/C on with the recycle button in. While the vents blew hot air, the area around the navigaton screen/radio was still warm when she touched. Does the navigaton/radio combo usually produces that much of heat?

I don't have the car in day light until weekend to check and test drive.

 

If your heater is on (usually 78 degrees or warmer on the settings) and the vents are blowing unevenly heated air, you are having an issue with the servo doors working properly.

If you have the A/C on (usually 75 or below) and the vents are blowing hot air you likely have an issue with the a/c system functioning properly (not cooling the air properly).

It is hard to understand your issue because you are simply saying the two center vents are releasing hot air. We need to know if the a/c is actually on, is the heater actually on, is the recirculating button on, and what is the outside air temp when you are having this issue.

 

The heater is functioning correctly; we got the heat.

The A/C is functioning correctly; we got cold air but the area mentioned above (navigation screen/radio) is warm when touched.

sorry I wasn't clear at the first post. I did not have much clear info from my wife as she is the one driving most but it is a "women driver" issue (sorry ladies here.) She just shows me and I see that it was warm when she gets home from work. I just drive the car 15 minutes in the morning to take the kids to school, not enough time or distance to play around with different settings However I know for sure that it doesn't matter A/C on/off or heater on/off or rec. button on/off or fan on/off, the area around the nav. screen / radio is warm to touch. And another thing is there is a smell inside the car like the heater is on as soon as few minutes after I started driving the car in the morning with no A/C, no heat, no fan except the rec button i s on. Smell like it come from the heater.

 

try to set the temp to LO before you turn off the Fan?

 

UPDATE:

Hot air issue: I think that was "user error" as my wife was still not familiar with the touch screen to control the climate. Once she knows how to work it, she does not have any more problem. However the touchscreen and the area around the radio still warm if we leave the screen on. It is not hot but kind of warn that I should be concerned because I don't think a normal screen would produce that much of heat. Does you navigation screen get warm if it is on?

Smoky smell: if I use recycled air (recycle button on) I don't smell the smoke. However if I choose fresh air (recycle button off) I can smell it. I have replaced the cabin air filter, the smoky smell has gone a bit after that but it is still there. Where can I look to fix this? This is not the smell from inside the car as we may think the previous driver smoked.

Thanks.

 

Your screen will be a little warm...that is the nature of it.

As for the smoke smell, I would say there may something in the vents...you can always find someone that has an air ionizer that can run in the car for a bit with a/c heat blowing....this will help get rid of anything that may be in the plastic of the vent ducts.
Or there is a spray that can be used, basically you run defrost and spray into the defrost in vents on the outside of the car under the wiper cowl...this too will help

 

one thing to add is the previous owner put a new alternator in. She just said the old one failed and she placed it. Don't know if it had anything to do with the smell.

 

can you give a hint what kind of spray it is? My googlefu does not help me with this . Thx

 

Try a Lysol disinfectant spray with a scent you like. Do not use a whole can. Just a few sprays on each side into the outside vents as mentioned above. Let the vehicle run with the system on for about 5 minutes to let things circulate. If it does not help, hit it again with a few more sprays from the can.

 

will try that.

The more I searched the more I found people with similar problem due to leaking oil especially at the valve cover gasket

 

UPDATED:

I tried the spray. It works. Thanks a lot.

 

this works for me. i first adjust the ac controls to a comfortable ambient temp, direct the flow to the feet and defroster, then turn off the ac and turn recirculate on.