I just purchased a remote start and now that the New England winter is upon us, I am putting it to good use. If I run it for 20 minutes in the morning before work, and 20 minutes in the evening before heading home, what kind of affect would you say this has on my gas mileage. Can anyone venture a gas as to how much fuel a 3rd gen consumes at idle?

 

I know for a fact that with a full tank mine will idle for 26 hrs. Not something I would recommend, you'll also want to change your plugs after doing this. This is the kinda stuff that happens when you warm up your vehical and then leave in someone else's forgetting yours was running. Doh!!

I'm not sure of the mileage affect but in colder weather short running times (idle or driven) tend to accumulate more moisture in the engine than longer running times.

 

Dunno, but at idle in your driveway it gets zero miles per gallon.

edit:
Found a couple sources. Two sources said a typical modern fuel injected engine properly tuned will burn .2 to .3 gallons per hour at idle. More if there are higher electrical loads. Another source gave me the figures for calculating theoretical fuel use (pounds per hp with ideal air/fuel mixture) and I calculated it .23, so I'm gonna go with .2 or .3 as reliable enough for government work.

But I found dozens of sources that said zero mpg!

 

That couldn't of been very good on the engine

 

Not sure on the newer engines, but on my old Landcruiser (3.8L carbed in-line six) I had a trip computer with fuel meter on it. With the stock carb, I would burn about 1 gph at idle and when I installed a Holley 350 carb, that dropped to 0.4 gph.

 

Yah I figure it put a good hard 3000 to 4000 miles on it just idling like that, the following week was bye bye head gasket. It's never good to run an engine constant with no load, sucks the life outta them.

 

Wow. All of this is surprisingly bad news. I didn't think that warming up the car for 20 min 2X a day during the winter months could have such a bad effect!

 

20 minutes isn't anything like 26 hrs straight. Personally I would warm it up for 5-10 minutes max. I always heard you should start it cold, warm for a minute , then start driving normally(no hard accel) until engine reaches operating temp.

So it sounds like your wasting 3/4 gal everyday.

 

Good advice. Believe me, though... when it's way below freezing and the leather seats are like ice, the gas I use is far from "wasted".

 

20 minutes isn't a big deal. Especially since the Rpm will be a bit high for the first 10 and then drop. I know my 22re drops to like NO oil presure when it is tottaly warm and idleing for a long time at 500 rpm. That's not good at all.

 

Prolonged idling will kill the cat prematurely as well.

 

I'm definately not a big fan of people that start their car and let it idle for more than a minute, but then again, I had garaged my vehicles for the past 23 + years, so who am I to talk?

My recommendation would be 5-10 minutes also. I'd be more concerned on doing chronic engine damage than I would be over impacting my fuel mileage.

 

one point id like to throw in....

sometimes when we go camping, and were setting up everything, we run the 4runner with all lights on to help see. i leave the engine running so i dont kill the battery. ive left it on up to 2 hours before, with 2 piaa 520's on, 2 piaa fog lights, and 2 hella 500's, and i did notice the fuel gauge actually drop some. how much it did, i have absolutely no idea. but i could visually tell the needle dropped some.

o yea, and the subs were on full blast.

o to be 17 and so smart.

 

I agree on running it for 5-10 minutes. I am near Worcester MA, it gets a little colder out here than in Boston, and if I run mine for 5 -10 minutes, within a minute of driving away I have some heat. I agree that the leather can be cold on these frigid mornings, but I'm pretty sure you can handle a cold rear end if it is less wear and tear on your truck, also better for the environment.