[Tom D]

My '07 3.3L Highlander takes very long for the temp guage to come up to normal. If I turn off the heater blower, it is better but still takes much longer than any other car I've had. I had a Mazda Tribute 3.0 V6 and the guage came up to normal in literally half the time even with the heater fan on high. I mentioned to the service dept. and their response was "The computer would detect this and there would be an error code if there was a problem." I'm tempted to have them change the thermostat anyway and I will pay for it. Can anyone shed any light on this? Is this normal for the 3.3L V6?
BTW, I'm not even talking about super cold weather like single digits. Even in the mid to upper 30's it takes very long.
Thanks.

 

[tr7driver]

My 01 3LV6 highlander warms pretty quickly. The auto temp control will kick in in about 4 miles of driving sending warm air into the cabin.

I have a remote start as well. If I use the remote and don't actually drive the highlander, it will take a lot longer time to warm up. Good thing the heated seats come on with the remote start.

 

[Olander]

How long is a very long time? Mine takes about 2 mintues in the morning.

 

[Tom D]

Olander, are you saying your temp guage is up to normal in 2 minutes? What outside temps. does this happen with?

This morning, my car had been in the garage all night at about 45 degrees. It was very cold outside this morning, about 12 degrees. It took about 6 to 8 minutes of city driving for the guage to come up to the second small hash mark that is just below the 3:00 position. Normally, it goes slightly past that mark to almost 3:00 but this morning, it never quite made it. Also, I purposely had the heater and blower turned off until the guage got up to the second hash mark so as not to steal heat from the engine. This seems awfully long to me. I've never had a vehicle take this long to get up to normal.

 

[Olander]

Funny I was thinking about your question this morning, so I decided to time it. It took 2mins. and 38 seconds for my temp. guage to reach normal.

Temperatures in the morning is probably around 65 F, that's just my guess. It's been pretty hot here lately during the day, almost summer hot. My HL is always parked in the garage.