Winter and the 1gr-fe

Hi everyone

Winter is there, temperature are now around 0 and -10 celcius (32 - 14 F). I did my oil change a month ago 5w-30 synthetic, snow shovel and brush and in the bed, snow tire are ready to be put on, i'm ready.

Well it's my first experience with sub zero temperature with the 1gr-fe and sometime when it sit for a while (it can be 6-8 hours) when i start it cold, i have some kind of knock or tapping. This don't happen everytime, sometime it's 1 time per week, sometime 3. Temperature swing alot where i live.

I know the famous tick but this is something else. It dissapear 30-60 seconds after startup and the sound is more "under" the engine. I can hear it in the cab under the dash driver side.

Anyone have some kind of story like this. I can't find any revelant video with sound like mine. I tried to record it with my cell phone but the quality of the sound is bad.

Piston slap? Fuel line pulsation? injector tapping?

It run great when warm/hot, plenty of power.

It's a 2012 . I had the recall for air pump in june so everything is new.

Is this something i need to worry about ? or just the good old noise the 1gr-fe do when it's freezing cold ?

 

one of my horns doesnt like to sound off when the temps dip below 30*
as the temps rise the horn wakes up and both of them work on command

i also have a slight pulsing vibration thats seems to come from the right rear wheel when the temps get below 30*

my 2012 does seem to tick more on those cold morning starts though, but nothing that has ever concerned me too much

overall, the cab interior being made up of mostly plastic parts, she creaks and squeaks more than usual during those cold winter starts

 

They all clack, knock, tick bang etc when they are cold.

 

Lol this.

 

How many miles on the truck? How long do you go between oil changes? Could be oil pressure related on the cold starts when everything is a bit slow moving. Takes a little bit longer to build pressure to tighten up the timing chain and all that.

That being said 30-60 seconds sounds like a lot. Wonder if it might be something much simpler like a small rock in the heat shield around the catalytic or something

 

Oil doesn’t like to move as fast cold. It takes a sec for the oil pump to build pressure. I’m going to say it ok. I wouldn’t worry about if the noise goes away.

Start worrying when it doesn’t go away.

 

The truck is now at 220 890 km so around 137k miles.

I have a friend who work at Toyota and he was good to check the truck record for the 2 past owner, i can't have the paper because it's private information but it was okay to tell me the service record. All the oil change, repair, maintenance was done at the same dealership, oil change every 8k Km (5k miles) with Toyota 5w-30 so i assume the truck run all his life on dino oil. I do my oil change every 5000 km usualy (3100 miles) at least 2 time per year, Fall and Spring and i have already did the oil change a month ago Amsoil synth OE 5w-30.

I inspected the timing chain tensioner a month ago, no sign of problem and the cylinder lenght was in spec. I was able to touch and push the timing chain and i saw no play. I assume with the engine running, the force on the chain will be far greater but the tensioner cylinder was locked and looked good.

The Oil pickup tube was clean too, no debris or anything weird in the pan. The oil light turn off when the engine start so i know it's over 2 psi

This morning i didn't hear it and it was around -11c (12f) i never heard it outside at the moment, sometime i start it standing beside the driver door and i can't tell if the sound is happening or not. The timing and force of the sound varies, it's linked to the rpm but in a weird way, like slower and the noise intensity seem random. The only things near the firewall is the first cat and the fuel line.

The smog pump don't seem to work when it's under 0c (32f) and the ultragauge tell me that the fuel trim on both bank are at -10% when i start the engine cold morning and seem to move around it, they change to my "normal" summer value when the coolant is around 80-90c. (-2% bank1, -5% bank2 at idle and both 0% on the highway 1900-2000 rpm).

For now i'm wondering if it's some piston slap and/or if since the ecu cut the injector duty cycle to give a lean mix to the cat to heat them faster since the smog pump dosen't start when it's cold, this create some kind of knocking / pulsation in the exhaust or fuel line. Nothing seem loose under, heat sheild are solid and no noise when i tap the cat.

 

If it's that cold where you're at now, you might want to try 0w-30 or even 0w-20.

 

There's no need, I ran mine with 5W-30 at colder temperatures with no problems. One oil change saw the temps range from -58*F to +95*F and the engine had no issues.

 

No need to go lower. The pour point difference between the 0w-20 (-48c) and 5w-30 (-44c) is negligible. I never had any problem starting an engine @ -34c, my last vehicule started everytime for 11 winters and it was running 5w-30 synthetic.

 

Damn, in Colorado Springs?! You must have been somewhere else for the -58 ass freeze.

 

Yeah, was living back up in Alaska for all that.

 

That’s believable. It gets really cold up there.

 

5w30 has a service temperature in the -30F range.

The noise is just a cold stiff engine starting.

Try this process:
Get in the truck
Start the engine
Get out to clear windows
Get in truck, buckle seat belt
Place into gear
Drive easy for a couple kilometers.

The engine will warm up quicker being used than sitting idling.


<edit> I just looked up the 5wXX multi-viscosity oils. The service temperature goes down to -35C (-31F). OP is fine with the 5wXX oil.

 

I lived in Billings, Montana for almost 3 years. It gets pretty cold up there, down to -25 or -30. I had my old 05 Tacoma at the time and never had a problem with full synthetic 5/30. The engine wasn’t happy but it started even in that cold weather.

 

I’m not even gonna read this but the Tacoma makes so much noise save your self now brother it’s too late for the rest of us just ignore the sounds

 

Wow that’s a way to contribute. I’m so enlightened.

 

Well he's not wrong.

 

I have the same noise when it's cold. I believe it's something to do with the VVT-i. I noticed it's worse when I run higher octane fuel, likely because it advances the timing for higher octane.

I've had my 2013 since new and it see's temps below -20C the majority of the year (Canada). I've had no issues at all.

 

I need to try using 87 fuel to see if this change something. Usualy the timing advance is around 20-25 when i start.