KZJ95 Prado: Advice on rear heater

[themrbruceguy]

Well, our '96 Prado (with the 1KZ-TE engine) finally arrived! It looks way better than we imagined it would. With only 58k miles, it's in very clean condition throughout. It's obvious that the previous owner took very good care of it. My wife and I are pumped to get it going - but first we have to finish getting it titled / registered, which is proving to be quite the test of patience.

I am planning on performing the following maintenance items within a week or two for peace of mind.

• Oil change w/ new filter
• Timing belt (the Prado is currently sitting at 94,000km with no sign of the timing belt having been done)
  • New bearings and tensioner
• Water pump
• New viscous hub
• 10 blade fan
• New radiator
• Possibly the crank and cam seals

My big question / concern is my ability to bleed the coolant system after all of this is done. My Prado is the TZ trim, which I believe has a rear heater (would love it if someone confirmed this for me). If I understand coolant bleeding correctly, all of the various heaters must be turned on and have coolant flowing through them in order to purge all of the air out of the system, correct?

That's where my concern is: the front heat works very well, but I can't seem to get hot air flowing through the rear passenger vents. I am using the controls located on the back side of the center console. I moved the lever to the hot side (indicated by a red box) and the fan speed to max. Nothing happens unless I also engage the fan on/off button (also located on the center console panel). Then the vents start blowing air, but the air isn't hot - just room temp mainly. So either 1) the heater isn't working, 2) there is air in the system that isn't purged, 3) the rear heater control valve is not working, 4) there is no rear heater, or 5) I'm an idiot and aren't working the controls correctly. I suppose the control wire could also be busted too, but that seems less likely.

I noticed when I engaged the fan on/off button that it simultaneously engaged the dash's rear fan button. This makes sense as the two buttons share the same function. However, the dash button for the rear fan says "Rear Cool" which makes me wonder - does my Prado only have cooling capabilities for the rear passengers? I thought it had rear heating and rear cooling capabilities, but I'm just not sure anymore. Any help / advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
~ Jake

 

[OM617YOTA]

Looks great! May you be happy for many years.

Make sure you do the radiator hoses, heater hoses, and turbo coolant hoses when you do the radiator and water pump. Rubber ages even without miles.
Edit: Also strongly consider replacing the heater control valve. Mine was the only thing leaking after I did all that, and the NAPA one failed one month outside of warranty. OEM is recommended.

No clue on the rear heater, I bypassed mine when I replaced the heater hoses. Eliminating a potential cooling system failure point was more important than having a rear heater - my back seats have been in the stowed/folded position for over a year.

Best of luck.