Hey-

I posted in here a couple of weeks ago about lights behind the dash being out. Thanks to whoever responded back. I was able to replace them myself. Rather proud :-)

OK...if have 76,000 miles on my 4Runner. It's been a great vehicle. But all of a sudden, weird things are happening. I'll lump them together...but they may not be related.

First, this winter, my heater started blowing cold air...only when stopped at lights...it got hot when I started moving again. I'm in Virginia, and a couple of weeks ago, the weather moderated a bit...50s or so...and the heater was fine...blowing very hot. Now that it's cold again...20s-30s...it's back to cold (only when stopped). OK, then I noticed that my vehicle didn't seem to want to go into 2nd gear when it's cold outside. I notice it in the evenings when I leave the office. It's been parked outside for several hours. I put it in gear and it takes off. If I give it the gas..it races. I doesn't happen in the mornings as I'm parked in my garage. Tonight, I noticed that the idle is very high when it's cold....and stays that way for 5 minutes at least. The vehicle moans and vibrates and buzzes something crazy. Something is not right. Are they related? Does it make any sense to anybody? Is it serious?

Thanks for any help you can give :-)
Lotta

 

First off, your dash lights going out is probably just a bad bulb. It happens.

Heater blowing cold air at idle is low coolant

Trans shifting is normal, the computer controls the shift points, and when the ECU detects that is below something like 40 degrees outside, it shifts the trans from 2nd to 3rd at a higher RPM, like 2750. ALL 4Runners do this. The reason why it doesnt do this when you park it in your garage is because you truck never gets cold enough for the ECU to make this adjustment.

High idle at cold is normal, thats what its supposed to do. It has an "idle air control valve" that raises the idle on cold starts. EVERY fuel injected car has one.