Extreme Cold - Wandering Idle

This has happened twice to me this week so far.

Wind chill was -40 last night. When I start the truck the idle wanders around. It will go up to 1500 then drop down real low and act like it wants to die then back up again. I shut it off and I try again and then it seems to behave.

This has only happened to me in extreme cold. My battery, alternator, and starter tested out fine yesterday and I have a full tank of gas.

I have disconnected the battery in the last few weeks working on audio stuff but I feel like the ECU would have relearned by now etc.

Please advise.

 

Wind chill is a fake made up number. Trucks don’t experience windchill only real temps.

It may be cold enough where a lower weight oil may help but it still should have been above zero last night.

You keep up on spark plug changes?

How old is the battery? (It testing OK means nothing)

Did you tighten the battery cables when you unplugged it last?

 

The temp was below 0 last night. Glad to know wind chill doesn't matter mechanically.

I tightened the battery cable real well. I will check it again.

I have not had it for very long. Not sure about plugs or battery.

 

You can try a throttle relearn procedure. Quoted from ToyotaNation

Matt

 

Change the battery. IMO they are cheap and easy to change out. And as stated its really hard to truly test the health of a battery. A battery will test just fine if only 1 of 6 cells is dead, but its really going to die at any time.
Plugs, change those too. Hopefully you have access to a garage with a space heater. They are really easy to change and cheap. If you have old ones in there they’ll run rough in the cold.

 

Thanks, I am confident I can change the plugs, just need to buy a torque wrench to deal with the fragile block.

Dealer is checking service history for plugs.

 

If you use copper should be every 30k.

I use irridium every 100k without issues.

 

Would the battery cause the idle to wander like that?

Dealer had no record of plugs being changed and they have serviced it since 55k miles. 120k now.

 

Happened again this morning. Started at 2000 rpms then started to die.

I started it again and held the gas at 1500 rpms until it was able to hold it there on its own.

Hope this is the last day of the "polar vortex".

 

Bringing this back from the dead.

I have since replaced the spark plugs and in temperatures near or below 0 my truck wants to die when the rpms settle down after the first min or so. If I restart it a few times it is less cranky. Just hit 150k. I have a brand new battery. Could this be a dirty throttle body or something? Doesn't have a problem in a little bit higher but still freezing temps. Bought a battery with higher CCA this time too.

 

Is this only happening in extreme cold we are having or all the time? What kind of gas are you using, your in the Land of Lincoln and I am in Iowa. Hard to get away from the gas / alcohol stuff. Can you get some straight gas, premium grade to use for a while?

 

I always use the shitty unleaded. That is a good idea. I always keep it full though in these temps so I guess I will run it down some and give that a shot.

It started just fine this morning and it was about 15 degrees. Only happens when it gets down to about 5 degrees or less.

 

Was your hvac system on defrost? If compressor kicked on, but was “ frozen” , so to speak, the drag would pull it down momentarily. Happened to me. Ok, thereafter.

 

It usually is yes, but I feel like it's worse with hvac off.

 

Try cleaning throttle body and mass air flow sensor.