Broken Knobs on heated seats for 08' - quick fix

[gomotomoto]

I'm sure someone thought of this already...but I was missing the two little knobs for the seat heaters. Little bit of an eyesore with the two voids just staring at you.

Quick fix -- I just took a little wooden dowel and sent a 1/8" tapered bit into a few little pieces of the dowel and viola! Works great.

You could get fancy and stain, even coat them in black epoxy (I did not yet). The tapered hole and soft wood in the dowel, combined with the notch in the metal shaft - makes for a pretty good lock up. I'd imagine a tiny bit of super glue wouldn't hurt.

I had to use a tweezer to extract the broken parts of the OEM bits, but works and it's really easy. Hope this helps someone else.

 

[TonyP]

What the piss are people doing to these knobs? Why is this so common?

 

[Reckless]

Buy the chinese ones off ebay for $35. It was pretty simple to put in and works great for me. Plus the knobs do not come out. $35 includes a complete new heater switch with knobs.

Seat heater switch * 1 pcs, fit Toyota Landcruiser,used for replace the damaged | eBay

 

[Willy beamin]

Buy the chinese ones off ebay for $35. It was pretty simple to put in and works great for me. Plus the knobs do not come out. $35 includes a complete new heater switch with knobs.

Seat heater switch * 1 pcs, fit Toyota Landcruiser,used for replace the damaged | eBay

Thanks man - just ordered mine - be here in a month

 

[gomotomoto]

Another easy one if it's just the broken knobs... Found one of the many RC transmitters laying around and saw the knobs.... unscrewed a set, drilled em' out, tiniest bit of JB weld... Viola! Fancy too.

 

[Oakleyguy]

Not bad!

 

[yondermountain]

Just got mine from China as well, took two minutes to put them on and they look perfect. Shipping was actually pretty fast, about a week.
Just got a local independent key shop to program a new smart key too. There was an earlier thread about this, and the dealer was going to charge quite a bit more than the key shop, anyway small fixes to keep these older 200 series in tip top shape...

 

[gomotomoto]

Yondermountain, how do you remove the switch? I'd actually like to take mine out & drill these knobs in. Don't want to butcher it if possible. EDIT -- Just got it out with a few credit cards

Just got mine from China as well, took two minutes to put them on and they look perfect. Shipping was actually pretty fast, about a week.
Just got a local independent key shop to program a new smart key too. There was an earlier thread about this, and the dealer was going to charge quite a bit more than the key shop, anyway small fixes to keep these older 200 series in tip top shape...

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Yondermountain, how do you remove the switch? I'd actually like to take mine out & drill these knobs in. Don't want to butcher it if possible. EDIT -- Just got it out with a few credit cards

Credit cards eh?

We use a plastic pic set for pulling switches, etc. Speaking of, I still have my seat heater switch sitting on my desk and two missing knobs in the Cruiser.

 

[yondermountain]

I didn't need to pull the whole assembly out, I just took the knobs off the new assembly and pushed them back onto the existing. The knobs just pull right off , if you pull hard enough, there was no glue or adhesive, etc.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I didn't need to pull the whole assembly out, I just took the knobs off the new assembly and pushed them back onto the existing. The knobs just pull right off , if you pull hard enough, there was no glue or adhesive, etc.

Finally got around to doing the same. 5 second fix.

 

[Redbull]

What the piss are people doing to these knobs? Why is this so common?

One time my coworker applied so much force and it made me cringe.

It's just excessive force, it's designed to go in steps. I don't imagine having to replace mine as 99.9% of the time it'll be me operating them.

 

[Markuson]

What the piss are people doing to these knobs? Why is this so common?

I think people break them because they forget to push them down again into their recessed position. Toyota made them recess and pop up for a reason...probably because somewhere during testing, Toyota broke them off too...