I feel that my 2012 Dc takes longer than normal to warm up during winter time. I drive almost 30 miles one way and my feet get cold due to not hitting 150 degrees at vents 3/4 way to work.
Tech Stream shows engine temp sitting at 183 ish at idle for 30 mins and vent outlet at 150-160 degrees - outside was 55 degrees.(tonight and that feels great)
Think maybe I have a premature thermostat??
Heater controls all tested normal and new cabin filter. This started last year. Temp gauge reads normal.
I think thats all good - tested with TS and all seems ok.
Trans temp takes awhile to get to normal and thats why im thinking the therm stat might be opening a little early. When I stop at sheetz for 5 mins after driving 14+ miles then come out the vent air temp is a lot warmer. 29 degrees this morning and I just cant get warm enough and Im the one telling the wife to turn down the heat.
I believe there was a tsb out years ago about trans temp not getting warm.
There is a heater that directs engine coolant to some dealie that warms the trans fluid. It is essentially a trans cooler but backwards. I don't know the exact workings of that system as I haven't looked into it much unfortunately.
I believe I have an issue with mine (trans warmer), but it doesn't affect the air vent/ inside warming up time.
I used to be able to leave my house and withing 4-7 miles the trans and engine temps matched. Now I can drive 10 miles minimum before the trans is even close to normal, and engine has been at normal for a while. Even when I pre-warm the truck with remote start.
I have not looked into getting mine looked at as it has no ill affects on my truck warming up.
I did install one of those super duper anti pollen thick in cabin air filters and that seems to lowered the volume of air through the vents, but that is another issue altogether.
Can you or anyone else verify TS engine temp for me. I was able to be at 183 at idle for 30 mins in driveway and outside temp was 55 heater was putting out a nice 155-160 degree. No way I can drive with the lap top connected to see if it gets too low. My wife's Rav4 goes Thermo Nuclear at 3 mins yet my big truck is at 140 out vents at 14 miles?
I tried a walmart fram cabin filter but to much restriction, toyota one is much better flow.
The thermostats on these engines start to open at ~180 degrees. Until you drive the truck and see what the temp is doing while driving we can't even begin to figure out if you have an issue or not. Is your coolant level ok? Low coolant level can cause poor heat without overheating.
Are you sure you actually have an issue? What are you expecting to see for temps out of the vents?
Coolant is good and full, I used TS to test all heater controls and all seems normal (no change in temp manually controlling servos :didnt get hotter. I would figure 150/160 is about normal but I don't see that for 14 miles and after stopping at sheetz then restarting my heater out put actually goes up to the 150/160 range vs 140 before stopping. Driving 20+ miles and feet are cold - im never cold - ask my wife. I dont want to take it to dealer if i dont have to.
Idle test goes as follows
Outside temp 45 deg eng temp 59
Idle with heater on blower set low took approx 30+ mins eng temp to hit 181 deg and air vents 150 deg
With heater off eng temp went to 185 deg and held blower on max eng temp dropped below 175
30 +min to warm up @ 45 outside - I think thats way slower than normal to me. Upper rad was fluctuating in temp before 30 mins
Ill try to see if the wife wants to play this week end
Mine is similar. But I believe my fresh air mix door is stuck, have a 10 mile commute, mainly 45-50 mph (6th gear mainly) only turning 1100 rpms or so. It takes a while to get "really" going. If i use the recirc, its not as cool. Been having mid 20's/low 30's temps lately. Trans barely gets to normal, but if I hit a few lights, the trans warms up alot faster
Im hoping this also - just seams too long for warm up But I know if I take it to dealer "normal BS"....................Im going to try to drive with TS hook up and have the SO help me out and see what happens.
Can anyone answer this> why is the engine temp under a/c in TS and not under engine ecu and is there a trans temp anywhere in TS?
I crawled under driver side and looked at temp control motor and everything looks ok - I ordered a thermostat assembly from Sparkstoyota today and Ill give all of you an update ASAP. FYI nobody stocks the thermostat assembly.
Thanks for the discount TRDSPARKS.com
Fwiw, when my truck is at operating temp, it sits 1-2 lines below half.
My obdII dongle is at work in my box, so I haven't been able to get readings.
Tonight I left my house, 39° out. Cold start, truck had been sitting for about 22 hours. Rainy, windy and chilly.
Started, no pre-heating. Drove 1.2 mile to Aldi, then to the gfs house. It is a 40-55 mph roadway the entire way. Only hit one light. At 8 miles into the ride after Aldi, I was at what my truck shows as the normal temp. I was plenty warm inside.
I was wearing my super ventilated Nikes. I can literally feel the wind blow through them as they are running shoes, not normal shoes.
My feet weren't cold feeling. They weren't super warm either though.
My feet do get cold on short drives, but it is primarily due to some weird thing that Yota has going on. Their drivers foot well doesn't get as much air as any domestic vehicle does. The foot vents just suck. You can even find other people bitching about it here. Maybe that is really what you are experiencing.
My fj was the same way. It is a yota thing.
Now yesterday, it was 55-58°. I left to go to gf's house for din. Had my Berne jacket on, once I walked outside I took it off. Got into cold truck that had been sitting since about 2:30 am weds night. Started it and within about 3-5 miles I was warm.
I knew if I left the jacket on I would be too hot and end up with windows down and vents on cool.
So you would rather possibly waste your time and money and change the thermostat as opposed to finding someone to watch your laptop and see what the coolant temp was actually doing while your driving. Actually I don't know why you don't set your TS to graph the coolant temp and then take it for a ride, that way you don't have to have anyone watch your laptop. Here are my observations from this morning without my TS hooked up, btw coolant temp is on my ecu screen. 45° outside, started the truck and let it run for ~1 minute. Drove through my neighborhood, about 3 minutes @25 mph until I reach the main road. Hit the main road and drive 2 miles @45 mph to the freeway, took me about 8 minutes with stoplights. At this point my temp gauge is about 1/4 and have warm, not hot air coming out of the vents. Hit the freeway and drive 9 miles @65 mph non stop to my exit. When I hit the exit I was just getting max temp out of my vents and the temp gauge just hit 1/2. You have to understand that the cooling systems on the Tundras are considerably larger than what is on your wifes RAV4 so naturally it is gong to take quite a bit longer to warm up. With a 55° outside temp and the truck started from cold and only left to idle I would imagine that it would take 30 minutes or more for the entire cooling system to come up to operating temp. Remember that the coolant in the radiator is cold and does not move into the engine until the coolant in the engine has came up to temp and the tstat opens, at that time the engine is then refilled with cold coolant and the process starts all over again. So if you were to graph the coolant temp you would see the engine come up to temp and then the temp decrease because the tstat opened and cold coolant entered the engine again. After a couple of cycles of this the temp finally evens out. You may very well have a bad tstat that is causing what you think is going on but being that you have all the tools you need to diagnose an engine temperature concern I don't understand why you don't use them as opposed to spending time and money on what may not be needed.
Thanks for the info, I'm not fluent in TS but I am using it and I did see the graph you mentioned. My problem is Im not really getting max heat and my temp gauge is 2 notches below middle(not all will read the same) vs what your saying is yours is in middle
TS show engine temp up too 185 @ idle and seems to hold that unless I crank the heater on then it drops pretty quick to less than 170 degrees and the heater temp is greatly reduced. Today I checked the air control motor and temp door both are working properly.
I have the Tools, Time and some good know how - just haven't test drove with TS recording engine temp because Im confident the T stat is the culprit.
Could you tell me what the air temp from your heater is when your Tundra is warmed up just to compare? If its below 45 degree out im lucky to get 140/150 by the time I get home - above 45 I can get 160 or more.
I'll check my vent temps in the morning. Are your vent temps with the recirc on or off? Equal on left and right sides? Not using defrost? Ac button not on? I'm also assuming that you do not have automatic climate control. My temp gauge sits about 1 needle below half when fully warmed up. Keep in mind also that the temp coming out of your vents is not going to be engine temp and will be greatly influenced by outside temperature, blower speed and recirc on or off. I would expect to see somewhere around 150° depending on conditions.
Really sounds like the thermostat is the way to go. Feel your upper and lower radiator hoses after a cold start. If the thermostat is staying closed, they shouldn't be seeing any flow until the engine is up to temp. If they start getting warmer right away then it's flowing from startup.
Really souser radiator hoses after a cold start. If the thermostat is staying closed, they shouldn't be seeing any flow until the engine is up to temp. If they start getting warmer right away then it's flowing from startup.
The upper was warm then it gets hotter - then lowers some and this was before the tech stream showed 150 engine temp. But the upper will get warm due to the thermostat is on the lower hose unlike other models its the opposite. I could feel the warm passing thru the rad before operating temp too.
50° outside. Started truck, idled for ~1 minute and then took off. Drove from 25 mph to 55 mph with only 2 stoplights. Took 14 minutes for the heater to hit 160 with the blower on 3, the recirc off and dash vents only. Turned the recirc on and got another 5° out of it after a few more minutes but that's all it has. Idled the truck for a few minutes and the temp started to drop. Honestly when this thing hit 130° I wanted to turn it down.
Okay I drove 18 min 10 miles one way 25mph up too 60 mph and outside temp was 40 degrees heater on low with Tech Stream connected engine temp never went over 183 and dropped as low as 177 degrees. Heater temp was at 145 degrees.
*Truck was turned off for 5 mins-
Came out of drug store and returned home except now after about 2 miles into it the engine temp starts to rise ( at only 25 mph first mile) and I started to get good heat up too 163 degrees. Engine temp was now running between 187 to 193 degrees. This stayed continuous the rest of the way home. Like I said before I wont get max heat until I stop at sheetz going to work then like magic Im getting good heat?????
Thermostat maybe the problem and once I get it in will see what difference it makes - I know it has a super cooling system But it still should get to operating temp for the emissions.
Monitored my engine temp today while driving. 60° outside, 10 minutes nonstop on the freeway and another 10 minutes in light city traffic, Engine temp fluctuated between 182°-188° and heater temp maxed out at 160 on blower speed 3.
BTW tstats for the Tundra are supposed to start to open 176° so that would put operating temp at approx 185°
Thanks man! My wifes rav4 heater was pumping out 160+ in 10 mins of driving. Maxed at 174 degrees - I was on fire! Rav4 takes a 180 degree T stat too
Strange how my engine temp was 177-182 (blower on lowest setting) then after shut down and restart within a couple miles it was 187-193??< --- good heat at this operating temp around 160
Will see in a couple days when the T stat comes in, hoping this cures the issue cause its getting colder and im not putting up with it.
l1tech Thanks for taking the time to share your data with me!!
Update: Replaced T stat and drum roll please..................
I now got to 162 degrees air output @ idle fan on lowest setting at 45 degrees outside. (last night)
Fan on max it stayed @154 degrees at idle.
Going to work it warmed up a lot faster and had 150 plus just 10 mins into drive maxed over 162and only 26 degrees outside.
Coming home it was 48 degrees outside and 15 mins of driving I had over 170 air temp
T-Stat fixed it and Im warm and toasty now.
Thanks for all the advise guys much appreciated and Merry Christmas!
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