Is there any reason in the morning to let the engine warm up before putting it in gear and driving off? Even with the RPM around 1400 or so since it's rather cold out and I cant park in the garage.
Any information is appreciated,
-Bryan

 

um, well in baltimore it's about 20 degrees right now, so if you let the engine warm up then you'll have heat to defrost your face and the windshield.

But I've heard that you only need to wait like 10-30 seconds before leaving the parking spot...

 

lol ok thats what I thought, it's pretty cold in the morning, I freeze pretty much all the way to school waiting on the heater lol.

 

South of Harrisburg, PA.. It's been between 9 and 15 deg. the past few mornings when I leave, but I park in the garage which is about 40 deg. that time of morning. Still, I let 'er run for about 30-60 seconds and (try) to drive easy the first few miles.

 

yeah I attempt to drive easy too, its been around 20 - 25 or so the last couple days in morning, but its getting colder lol.

edit: I know it has nothing to do with warm up, but just came to mind and I didn't wanna make another not very useful post, so lol, does anyone know what the SR in SR5 stands for, if anything??

 

Get an engine block heater for your Toy and have an instantly warm heater on those cold mornings. I got one on my truck and highly recommend it. Check 'em out,

http://store.yahoo.com/romaniatoyota...toybloche.html

 

hey guys check out this post

LINK

 

wow, I always thought that block heaters were huge and cost a lot of money. Now all I need is a 100 yard extention cord from my apt. to my parking spot...

 

SR5 = Speed Rally 5 speed

 

I start my Runner up every morning for about 10-15 minutes before I drive. I do it mainly for the warmth when I get in and drive, but I also know that it helps warm the engine up. It really runs alot better warmed up and I am sure that it is alot better for everything to be running and warm before I drive 25 miles to school. I would say at least warm it 5 minutes before you drive. It was 9 deg here this morning and it really helps to warm it up. :fireman:

 

If you have an automatic tranny, get a remote start. I've had them on my last 4 vehicles. When you are getting out the night before, you set all the controls to heat, turn on the defroster, and seat heaters (if you have 'em). Then in the morning, about 10 minutes before you head out, hit the remote from inside you house. Wa La, toasty warm rig. Works in the summer for A/C too.

 

The biggest pain is the ice all over the windows most mornings lol.

 

As long as you have the defrost set and heat/fan on high, it will melt the ice. How much ice could you possibly have in AZ??

 

How much does one of those cost and where can you get one?

 

Any car stereo place worth their salt can do them. I think they are $200 or so by themselves and maybe $300-350 with an integral alarm. I haven't priced them for quite a while though.

 

When I lived in Aspen I used an inline heater for the coolant. I would just leave an extension cord out to my parking spot in the winter and plug it in every night. Next morning start up and instant heat. In Alaska some kind of heater is the only way to get the thing to even turn over after a night of 50 below. Now that I have a garage I plug in a little electric heater in the garage on cold nights to keep my baby warm.

 

Just don't forget to unplug before driving off. I'm talking from experience.:confused:

 

HA HA HA... speed rally...thats a good one

it actually stands for "Sun Roof 5speed"--back in 1983 when the 4x4's came with a factory sun roof and 5 speed instead of a 4 speed....I got a kick out of that one-- by the way, toyota kept the alphanumeric coding because they liked that trim name for the trucks instead of like a 4runner LE, they used the SR5. good stuff


Tim

 

hey....if you have the dealer installed alarm on a '96-98 4Runner (Securikey +), it should be prewired for the remote start. It just uses the green button on the remote. You just have to buy some package for it. Does any one know where you buy the package to add it? If so, how much is it?

 

Wow, listening to you guys talk about having to start your 4Runners before you leave in the morning so that they will be warm seems so foriegn to me now. Don't ge me wrong, I use to live in Wisconsin for five snow blinding years; shoveled many a sidewalks and scraped thousands of lbs of ice off windshields. How I hated that! But the remote start is the way to go. It saved me a few times. But I do not have to worry about that now that I am on the west coast. The ground shaking is all I worry about.

For those of you that are under a couple feet of snow and ice or below 32 degrees or just have not seen the sun for a couple of weeks. I have included a pic that I took a couple of weeks ago while walking the dog.
This is actually the sunrise over San Francisco, taken north of the Golden Gate. If you stare long enough you might warm up.