How Long Do You Let Truck Warm Up Before Taking Off?

I've always been an advocate for letting the vehicle, whatever it is, idle for at the very least a few minutes before taking off. To clarify, this is after the vehicle has been sitting for at least ~3+ hours. I've noticed particularly with this truck (2018) that not letting it get a significant warmup seems to directly contribute to the engine surging. So what I mean is if I start the truck and maybe a minute or so later start driving, it seems to surge. If I start the truck and let it idle for 3+ minutes, it doesn't seem to surge at all. Has anyone else noticed this? How long do you idle your truck after it has been sitting for a while?

 

Zero.

Start it, put seat belt on, roll out. Drive gently until the coolant needle moves off the peg.

 

This.

 

Notice any surging? Particularly right when you shift to D and lift the foot off the brake?

 

I let it sit for twenty to thirty seconds to ensure the oil is distributed throughout the motor before I go.

 

I know that it is not the best idea but I start it up and throw it in gear every single day haha. When I leave work I immediately turn out on to a highway and kick it up to 60 in less than 10 seconds and I do this every day. Since I got the TSB this thing takes my abuse well, and I dont think I've felt any "surging" or "hesitation".

 

Ah! I believe you are talking about high idle? That is pretty common. I have the MT and also have high idle for the first couple moments of driving.

My wife's Forester (CVT) is difficult on high idle, esp if I am parking it in the garage when the motor is cold since we need to get it close to the wall. It will try to roll past the little bump stop on the floor.

 

Oh jesus, my wife's Rav4 howls when I start it up, it sits right under 2k rpm until you put it in gear haha

 

grip it and rip it.

 

Yep! It does seem to cycle the waste gate as soon as the motor catches on a cold start. I love hearing that it causes the turbo to do a quick spool. I can even hear it upstairs.

But, considering that we both have to turn to get out of the garage, it is tricky.

 

Well high idle is one thing, but I'm more so referring to the RPMs suddenly jumping maybe ~200-300 randomly. Usually it'll happen when I shift from P->D and then slowly lift my foot off the brake. This is if I did not allow the truck to idle for a while first.

 

Are you referring to T-SB-0062-18? If so, did the dealership give you a hard time when you asked for it?

 

I don't have that before or after the ECU TSB. Did you get TSB-0058-18 or TSB-0062-18 installed? 58 has software for ECUs on MTs and made a world of difference for me.

 

Of course it is going to surge if it is idling high to get the heat up. When you put it in gear with the brake on, it puts a load on the engine, lowering the RPMs, so it tries to get them back up there. Let your foot off the brake and decrease the load, it may overshoot a little but adjust and come back down. It's also going to shift later until the tranny warms up. Not unique to the 3rd gen, 2nd did it, too. That's how they work in the cold.

 

They actually applied 0058-18, which as I understand it accomplishes the same thing as the one you mentioned, except the one you mentioned has something to do with high altitude as well. But I'm at sea level, so they have me what they have me with no hassle, and it works great.

 

I believe (could be wrong) but 58, 62, and 125 apply all the same software. Just different symptoms, MYs, and transmissions specified in those, not to mention mistakes and revisions. Haha!

 

Whatever time it takes to send out my last texts or connect my phone then dip. Never experienced any surging

 

I don’t.

Idling is bad for the engine. Oil does not circulate well in idle and you can get more fuel in the oil as a result.

The engine takes a lot if time to warm up (warm up = operating temperature). It warms up faster by driving it.

I think a lot of these remote starters people put in are going to impact longevityof vehicles. Especially for people who do that excessively.

Turn the truck on and drive.
Letting it sit for a minute does nothing but burn gas, create additional emissions, and wastes your time.

 

I wait until the RPM drops to 1k. Doesn't take long. However truck is still sluggish out of the gate at times

My neighbor who owns three Toyotas "warms up" his vehicles for a good 10 minutes before he takes off.

In the days of carbeurated engines I remember the need for "warming up" a car for 10 minutes or so, but those days are gone.

It might be a nice project to figure out where the sweet spot/optimal time is on these trucks. Somewhere between 1-10 minutes I'll bet.

 

Someone somewhere did an actual study on this, and wear and tear on the motor vs amount of fuel burned sitting at idle. Wasn't significant enough of a difference between letting it idle for 30sec and getting warm before putting a load on the engine to matter. But letting it idle for 30sec, instead of flooring it immediately, did have a positive impact on the engine wear and tear.

Can't find the dangnabbit article now, of course. But that's what I do. Just my .02