Automotive

How to get my car to heat up faster?

  • Last Updated:
  • Dec 5th, 2018 9:31 am
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Deal Guru
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Sep 3, 2003
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Toronto
eldiablo wrote: Use synthetic oil for your next oil change. You should see substantial difference.
No you won't.

Oil will get flowing faster due to better cold temperature properties, but it doesn't really affect coolant temperatures. For a <10min commute, your oil temperature isn't coming up anyway.
Deal with it.
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Apr 21, 2004
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Grill blockers with cable ties and those signage materials though I bought mine from Homedepot US (to cover windows)

Block heaters
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Jan 27, 2007
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Richmond Hill
Park it so its facing the afternoon sun. Or start early and sit there.

10 min isnt enough to warm up the car. Quite a few things need to warm up before the cabin will warm up.
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Oct 8, 2005
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Doing short trips like that to your car is going to destroy the engine. There'll be moisture inside that won't evaporate.
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Jan 15, 2006
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Richmond Hill
Floor it. That's what I use to do with my wifes lease during winter.
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Feb 11, 2007
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OP, because it's become worse recently, I'm almost 100% sure your thermostat has failed open, which mean you're always sending coolant to the radiator, even when the engine is cold. You can confirm this by starting the cold car, and squeezing the rubber hose from the tstat to the radiator. If it has pressure, then the coolant is flowing to the radiator.

So have your tstat replaced and flush your coolant.

Otherwise here are some things you can do it improve heating. I have a 7 min drive with an old, overcooled car so have similar issues.
- block your radiator off. I cut an old fold up solar shade to go behind my grill. I leave it accordioned so that the fan can pull air through if it ever heated up.
- unplugged my factory cold air intake so that it pulls in warmer engine bay air.
- plug in your block heater if you have one, plug it in when you get home and set a timer to come on a few hours before you leave.
- install an oil pan heater and plug it in https://www.amazon.com/Kats-24150-Watt- ... B000I8TQD6
- DO NOT lower your coolant level as some have mentioned.
- if you don't have heated seats, buy a cheap plug in heated seat pad, especially if you have cold leather/vinyl seats.
- occasionally remove your oil filler cap to check if you have any yellow oil goo, which can collect if you have short drives, especially if you oil separate sucks or has failed. If you do, leave the cap off to let the moisture evaporate, replace before you drive again.
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Feb 24, 2007
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KorruptioN wrote: No you won't.

Oil will get flowing faster due to better cold temperature properties, but it doesn't really affect coolant temperatures. For a <10min commute, your oil temperature isn't coming up anyway.
I think I have driven enough vehicles in extremes in temperature to have seen the difference. This is even more pronounced on iron block engines.
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Apr 21, 2004
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^ I have the Dr. something heated seats too ($30 or so and posted it on Hot Deals) but I'm too "manly" to use it when it's only zero degrees outside.

It will not get warm until a few minutes later though.

This one was $11 a few months ago and I bought two more because the first unit has never shorted or caused any fire (if it did, I would be looking for a new spouse in the BST section of RFD). Good for cars with just 1 or 2 cigarette ports.
https://www.amazon.ca/BESTEK-2-Socket-C ... +cigarette
Temp. Banned
Jun 18, 2008
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Montreal
Been driving 4 cylinder daily for over 3 decades this is what I do. Not only does the car warm up quicker your fuel economy will increase.

Change coolant. Toyota uses Super Long Life pre-mixed 55/45 (coolant/water) in Canada where factory fill is 50/50. You could even raise it to 60/40 safely by buying OEM concentrate from CT. You will see the quickest and instant benefit from this.

Do a grill block. Block out all openings in your grill. Use your heater to regulate engine temps if you fear overheating (won't happen on a 4cyl Toyota in winter)

Idle the car for 2-3 minutes before leaving, (never just drive away with a frozen engine). The colder it is outside the bigger the benefit doing this. Car will warm up faster idling than being blasted with ice cold air hitting the radiator on already ice cold coolant (convection heat loss)

Doing all this will keep the engine in open loop less as it will warm up faster, use warmer air for the intake and retain heat when you shut it off for 15-20 minute errands in below freezing temps.

The above all assumes your thermostat and cooling system has no underlying problem.

Benefits are mostly for small 4 bangers with alloy blocks and not V6 or larger engines with iron blocks (iron retains heat much better).
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Dec 23, 2003
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Thanks Ottofly. I think the coolant and thermostat option would be a good thing to do.

Next question is when to change the serpentine belt, tensioner and water pump? There is nothing in the Toyota manual or maintenance schedule about this.
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Jul 14, 2013
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Stay in 1st gear and rev to redline.
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hightech wrote: Thanks Ottofly. I think the coolant and thermostat option would be a good thing to do.

Next question is when to change the serpentine belt, tensioner and water pump? There is nothing in the Toyota manual or maintenance schedule about this.
REPLACE YOUR THERMOSTAT! THERE'S 99% CHANCE IT FAILED.
If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
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Mar 16, 2015
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hightech wrote:
Next question is when to change the serpentine belt, tensioner and water pump? There is nothing in the Toyota manual or maintenance schedule about this.
Auto manufacturers do not recommend changing these on fixed intervals
Belt - Inspect ( if you see cracks going in perpendicular direction of the belts regular lines )
Tensioner - Is the belt loose? Do you hear weird noise from the area
Water pump - Is it leaking. Change the coolant if you havn't . Coolant is to the pump what oil is to the engine.. Very old coolant will cause corrosion
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Dec 23, 2003
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CocoJambo wrote: Auto manufacturers do not recommend changing these on fixed intervals
Belt - Inspect ( if you see cracks going in perpendicular direction of the belts regular lines )
Tensioner - Is the belt loose? Do you hear weird noise from the area
Water pump - Is it leaking. Change the coolant if you havn't . Coolant is to the pump what oil is to the engine.. Very old coolant will cause corrosion
I did a maintenance service about 5K ago and they checked the belt and it looked fine. I ask about the water pump as my old 2002 Camry LE V6 had a timing belt/water pump replacement interval at 144K. If I had to change the water pump, I would do the belt and tensioner at the same time to save labour costs as they need to remove those things to get to the water pump.

I know my 2012 Camry LE 4 Cyl has a timing chain so that does not need replacement. I guess the newer vehicles have less frequent repairs and replacement schedules.
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Dec 17, 2015
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Burlington
alanbrenton wrote: Grill blockers with cable ties and those signage materials though I bought mine from Homedepot US (to cover windows)

Block heaters
I had suggested that in another thread a while ago. This is done often on pickups and gmc vans.
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Apr 11, 2006
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Vaughan
Why not rev gently while idle?

I.e. if when idle the engine sits at about 1,800rpm, gently bring it up to 2,000 and gradually to 2,500 for a couple of minutes.

Are there drawbacks to this?
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Sep 8, 2017
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hightech wrote: I did a maintenance service about 5K ago and they checked the belt and it looked fine. I ask about the water pump as my old 2002 Camry LE V6 had a timing belt/water pump replacement interval at 144K. If I had to change the water pump, I would do the belt and tensioner at the same time to save labour costs as they need to remove those things to get to the water pump.

I know my 2012 Camry LE 4 Cyl has a timing chain so that does not need replacement. I guess the newer vehicles have less frequent repairs and replacement schedules.
It's not often that water pumps fail. Replacing them just became common on engines with timing belts. Replacing the timing belt regularly is necessary, and it's a lot of labour to do it. On most engines with timing belts, the water pump is driven by it; it's in the same area so it would take just as much labour to replace it if it did fail. So it just became common practice to change the water pump with the timing belt because the labour would far outweigh the part cost if it ever were to fail. The part itself is cheap, so it makes some sense to change it while you're replacing the timing belt.

But I'd like to ask an experienced tech, of all the timing belt and water pump jobs they've ever done, how many of those water pumps actually needed replacement. I'm willing to bet very few.

As for your heat situation, just dress warmly and let the car warm up a bit longer before driving off. Many additions to your car have been suggested, but from a mechanical standpoint of how your car (and the majority of other cars) are built and operate, that just the way it is. I really doubt it's taking longer to heat up now than it has before. You can check the thermostat (remove, inspect, boil to check operation), but I doubt there's a problem with it.

edit: I was just looking at the service manual for V6 Accord's (which have timing belts), and it says to inspect the water pump during the timing belt replacement.
Last edited by derass on Dec 14th, 2018 6:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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