04 LX470 HVAC Issues cont. (5 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
May 6, 2025
Threads
2
Messages
6
Location
Petoskey, MI
Hey all, I posted about this before, but feel like I left out parts in the description of the issues I am having. I recently bought a 2004 LX470, and the nav/hvac system is filled with gremlins. When you start it, the screen goes through its boot-up process and then just isn't responsive. When you press the MAP button, it says "The external system is not connected." If you press the climate button, you get "Check the connection of the air conditioner." The whole time, the radio buttons work, and will change stations or change to tape or CD, but the screen does nothing. The climate system runs the entire time, but you can't change anything. Occasionally (sometimes after a couple minutes, sometimes after driving an hour) the system will come to life and I can change the climate and use the screen, but it's only occasional and only for a couple minutes normally. I have the climate set to 70 and AUTO, so the AC works and if its cold enough the heat works. I checked fuses, I cleaned all the connections and checked the wiring, everything visually looks great. Any suggestions would greatly appreciated!
 
i had this issue on a 2004 Lexus LS430 , which has a very similar HVAC / NAV screen to the LX470.
I bought a good used display screen on ebay, swapped it out, and it's been good ever since.
 
I had the “check connection to the air conditioner” message on my 2004 a few years ago, in my case, after a good bit of trial and error, it turned out to be a bad gateway ECU — not the AC amp (which we tried). During the process, I did get a new MFD/head unit installed, but that did not fix either. I had our local dealer doing diagnostics. And here's a thread that has more detail and part numbers:

 
I had this with my 2004. The screen said “Check connection to the air conditioner.” It turned out to be a bad MFD. However, I still wish I would have capped off the rear a/c lines and tried to fill the refrigerant first. I think once all your refrigerant leaks out you get that error message but a refurbished MFD fixed mine.
 
It ended up being the Pin-60 issue. I followed an old thread about soldering it and that seems to have fixed the issue for now at least!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

  • Back
    Top Bottom