Cold weather is rough.

[getyourgunn]

I was just wondering how rough other people's camrys sound on a cold start when its -5 to 15 degrees out. Mine sounds pretty rough for a few minutes until it gets warmed up. It starts off grumbling at about 1100 rmp then goes up to whine at about 2000 rpm till she settles out at about 750 rmp.

[04yfz]

Same here, and now my IAC valve is dirty/stuck, so it dies if I let go of the gas until it warms up. I'm hoping I can find some time this week to fix it, thankfully I haven't needed to use it lately.

[71Corolla]

Try starting a car when it's -35 It shakes and rumbles and sounds like it's going to destroy itself. Synthetic oil makes a massive difference in very cold weather, use it! If you have a block heater, 15 minutes will warm things up enough so it doesn't sound like pure engine torture on start up.

[04yfz]

I've actually considered an oil pan heater. I just rebuilt the engine so I have to hold off with the synthetic which sucks with this cold weather.

[SexieWASD]

Wow, another person who has just recently/currently is rebuilding their Camry motor. How many of us is that? It's like 4-5 people including me. It must be the cool thing to do lately.

Ha! just found your picture thread, it's another 5s too!

[Maim Menu]

Yeah same here, I do not think it's a problem, but be sure to identify your whining noise. Could just be a worn belt or something.

It is not a hard task to clean the IAC, it's the small hole at the bottom of the throttle body, spray some Seafoam Deep creep in there, wait 15 minutes, start the car, and repeat this a couple times.

Sometimes the extreme cold will make the car stumble because that valve isn't fully opening and the revs are too low, but the revs will eventually go up after a few seconds.

[Mister_Perkins]

If you are very concerned about cold starts, I would look into purchasing a Remote starter and set it up so when the temperature drops below a desired temp the car automatically starts up so it doesn't get too cold.

Or like someone else posted, you can get a block heater which works really nicely. Set it up on a timer to go off for 4 or 5 hours a night, and everytime you come home just plug it in.

Just simply spraying Seafoam into an IAC will not completely clean the valve out, but it does help.

If you would like to fully clean the IAC check out:
5sfe IAC Removal (lots of pictures)

[fenixus]

it's normal unfortunately (cold weather start issue OP mentioned) hehe ... and it can be very annoying when you have a lazy thermostat on top of that like I do in my V6 , I need to warm up the car for good 5-10 mins in parking lot before even gentle local driving, otherwise it's driving terribly and barely upshifting gears until coolant temperature passes 140F or so. it takes a while to warm up fully even when driving.

wow 71corolla, you have really cold mornings out there in Canada ... -35F !!!! (or -37 Celsius!!, doesn't really matter at that temp level) ... I think I have never experienced such freezing cold in my life ... brrrrrr ... it must be a torture for cars too.

[Maim Menu]

Originally Posted by Mister_Perkins

If you would like to fully clean the IAC check out:
5sfe IAC Removal (lots of pictures)

Dang, that's a great thread, I might get around to do this soon.

[bigbird]

us v6 guys should expect longer warmup times...i've always wondered why toyota did that. i've never seen a car that takes so long to warm up. I do wait though, they say most of the ware and tear is done in the first 5 mins (warmup time) of operation.

my biggest hate on cold weather....SALT.

[fenixus]

^ so all 1mz-fe V6's take so long to warm up fully?

have you tried new thermostat for that long warm up time?
I know I have a new one in 5s-fe and it takes literally a few minutes in parking lot to warm up or does it almost instantly (almost makes a difference here hehe) when gently driving...

wondering if replacing thermostat on my V6 helps the warm up time even a little ... it's annoying even at 40F in morning.

[bigbird]

yup...the only thing that makes them warm up faster is a bad thermostat. i have herd the 5sfe does too.

[71Corolla]

Originally Posted by fenixus

wow 71corolla, you have really cold mornings out there in Canada ... -35F !!!! (or -37 Celsius!!, doesn't really matter at that temp level) ... I think I have never experienced such freezing cold in my life ... brrrrrr ... it must be a torture for cars too.

It doesn't get that cold very often, but when it does cars start doing strange things. If a car sits for a long time in that temperature, the tires can actually develop a bit of a flat spot for a couple of minutes until things start to warm up. Not many cars will start in that temperature without a block heater. Conventional oil at -35 is getting pretty close to a solid.

By far the worst part of harsh winters is the road salt.

[pmx007PL]

That's why car need to be prepared for winter before winter.

Things to be done (most important, but it's not complete list):
► checking/cleaning all valves (IAC, EGR), throttle, hoses, air filter,
► checking/cleaning electric connectors (for example, you can lost some gears in your A/T because of poor contact in main connector), lights, wipers,
► check/replace spark plugs, HV wires, gasoline filter,
► change engine oil (type depending on temperature range in your area, down to -15°C oils 10W/xx, below 5W/xx, under -30°C 0W/xx),
► check condition of diff. and A/T oil,
► check condition of battery and charging (alternator), and remember, that there is no real "maintenance free" batteries (it's just stupid slogan for ad purpose), they only hide cell caps (you can always increase life of your battery by adding some distilled water when it's time to do it - but how can you know when, while caps are hidden),
► spray some corrosion inhibitor under the car,
► and of course change tires to "winter" (M+S).

Car need time to warm up. Nothing will help. You must just wait (if you are impatient, to wait 5 mins, it's your problem, not problem with car).

If you have problem with long (everybody understand "long" in different way) heating and you're going to replace thermostat soon anyway (because you think "it hesitates"), try first drilling a small hole in thermostat plate (2-5 mm diameter), to make some fluid moving in whole cooling system (it should help a bit to spread heat in system & engine). It also can help with decreasing pressure changes when thermostat opens/close (which can cause leaks in hoses connections or pushing incorrect amount of coolant to overflow container - sometimes it's not fault of radiator cap).

[fenixus]

Originally Posted by pmx007PL

That's why car need to be prepared for winter before winter.

Things to be done (most important, but it's not complete list):
► checking/cleaning all valves (IAC, EGR), throttle, hoses, air filter,
► checking/cleaning electric connectors (for example, you can lost some gears in your A/T because of poor contact in main connector), lights, wipers,
► check/replace spark plugs, HV wires, gasoline filter,
► change engine oil (type depending on temperature range in your area, down to -15°C oils 10W/xx, below 5W/xx, under -30°C 0W/xx),
► check condition of diff. and A/T oil,
► check condition of battery and charging (alternator), and remember, that there is no real "maintenance free" batteries (it's just stupid slogan for ad purpose), they only hide cell caps (you can always increase life of your battery by adding some distilled water when it's time to do it - but how can you know when, while caps are hidden),
► spray some corrosion inhibitor under the car,
► and of course change tires to "winter" (M+S).

Car need time to warm up. Nothing will help. You must just wait (if you are impatient, to wait 5 mins, it's your problem, not problem with car).

If you have problem with long (everybody understand "long" in different way) heating and you're going to replace thermostat soon anyway (because you think "it hesitates"), try first drilling a small hole in thermostat plate (2-5 mm diameter), to make some fluid moving in whole cooling system (it should help a bit to spread heat in system & engine). It also can help with decreasing pressure changes when thermostat opens/close (which can cause leaks in hoses connections or pushing incorrect amount of coolant to overflow container - sometimes it's not fault of radiator cap).

it's all been checked and is fine, thanks anyways.

by saying it takes long to warm up I meant long when comparing 1mz-fe engine to 5s-fe engine setup.

1mz-fe "long" = 15 mins - in practice you have to wait like 5-10 mins in parking lot before starting to drive it.

5s-fe "long" = 5 mins - in practice you can start driving this car (gently) from cold start and it will warm up in even less than that (almost instantly) - it has a new thermostat.

perhaps thermostat is not the case after all (bigbird says all V6's take longer to warm up), but I will get it replaced regardless while flushing coolant after Winter.