Extreme Cold Start Issues

asking those that are in extreme cold climates if you have came across this on your morning start up. This morning is was -18F ambient, no wind and you can hear a very high pitch sound coming from the engine bay. this subsided after about 7-9 mins. it wasnt a mechanical whine "i think" since i hear it all the time in my 14 4runner on extreme cold days.

other issue is that the gauges are pegged at red on 3 gauges and didnt come down to yellow until driven aboutr 1-2 miles to yellow. see attached pics.

anyone have any ideas or want to chime in? thanks

edit: i wanted to add, the gauges were still red indicators after a 10 min remote start before being driven to the wifes work about 2-3 miles down the road

 

or are they red due to extreme cold and the indicator is pegged below low? and its just a warning until the engine warms up? sorta like glow plugs indicator or to let you know that certain items being tracked are not up to speed for proper engine use?

just guessing since i thought about that after the initial post.

 

Thanks for your post Nodak67! I’m also in a region where temps are Arctic cold at present. I see you have a Hybrid, dash looks very cool! I debated the hybrid option and decided against primarily due to ultra cold temps. I’ve heard (perhaps these are absolutely pure myths) that extreme cold can create concerns for the battery and/or other hybrid functions. I went with the gas Limited TRD OR version. So far I’m not encountering any issues, today our temp is -22F! (-34 real feel!). My main upcoming upgrade will be to battery, switching from stock OEM to an AGM Odyssey deep cycle. Keep us posted re your observations pls Nodak!

 

i do not have a hybrid.

 

those are the oil temp, trans temp and water temp gauges that you can display on the digital cluster

 

Thanks Nodak! I saw “I-force” on the dash and thought that meant hybrid. I regret my assumption! I have much to learn, as ever

 

it will say "I-Force Max" for hybrid's

 

Those gauges are not pegged red. They go from bottom up, see how your coolant temp has a "line" that's the temp. When things are that cold they whine. lube in bearings ect gets stiff. I live in Minnesota, also maintain a fleet of over 90 vehicles mainly large diesels in this environment. AGM battery's make no difference in cold, and honestly in our times testing things they didn't do much better then our normal starting batteries in terms of how long they lasted. Deep cycle wont last as well because of the starting cycles not made for that.

 

but that still doesnt explain why the top indicator of those guages go from red then yellow about 2 miles down the road unless its a safety indicator of when the fuilds are up to normal temp?

 

Could just be operating temp, cant say I ever noticed that on mine. I have the same dash, just always thought they were red like the overtempt line on a normal gauge.

 

ok a thought just came into this noggin, i will have to verify the pic the wife sent of the yellow indicators. it could be filter she accidentally turned on that is making those red indicators yellow.

that would explain that issue, but the high pitch sound is still an issue i have to resolve. i will try to post up a video w/ audio to explain it.

 

here is a short video w/ audio of the weird noise. the noise did go away after about 7-8 mins.

hopefully i can get a video with it changing tune later

https://youtube.com/shorts/fKis2TzKnUE?si=kylF90DU1xSanENO

 

thanks, my thought was its her phone that is altering the color

 

well it was -18F when we remote started and the truck dash temp was showing -14F.

its not the normal toyota engine whine so that is what threw me for a loop (and toyota engine whine is unique to all toyota engines)

 

i know toyota engines have a unique engine whine for the first minute or so and then it fades, but this was going on for a lot longer and a totally different pitch and sound than normal.

 

I will say I have not heard a whine quite like that on cold mornings and I have had a few -20s , -10 this morning and it was pretty average a little louder for the first minute or two, but nothing like that.

 

Maybe auxiliary water pump running to assist in warming up the engine. I think the intercooler or the turbos ( forgot which system has the aux water pumps) have auxiliary water pumps. To help speed up the war up faze.

just a thought….

 

I haven't heard that noise when starting my truck below zero.

 

Some truth to a block heater making things easier, but the wear on the engine is do to the oil being cold, and the viscosity change. Modern day fuel injection and synthetic oils have rendered the block heater somewhat useless except for diesels and extreme cold -30f or more. The noises from moving parts like pullies ect do to cold bearings and grease will not change block heater or not.

In my fleet the oil sampling has shown no wear increase with not using block heaters on our gas pickups in the winter. We do see the benefit when it comes to starting diesels but the oil viscosity is so much higher to begin with. My neighbors next my fleet Swift transportation do not have any trucks plugged in anymore, the trucks are all modern day common rail injection and full synthetic oils.

 

That whine doesn't sound right @nodak67

I've noticed no whine at all down to about 0*F which is the coldest I have done a cold start from, at least so far.

As far as diagnosing the noise, have you tried to figure out where its coming from yet? I'm curious if its was the fan clutch making all that racket. I believe it is a new design this year. It has an electronically controlled clutch which engages the belt driven fan.

 

all i know is that its not a normal mechanical whine and it subsided after the vehicle warms up. only thing i can think of is that its either the turbo's taking air or something to that effect. its happened twice when its only really cold.

the next few days will be above zero so i am guessing it wont happen. if it does i will have to either investigate deeper or let the dealership keep it over night during a cold snap.

 

Geez!

That sounds fucking horrible

 

here is the engine noise at -2F after sitting outside for 4hr and then remote starting it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/28VzyCyaMwI?feature=share

 

i guess you can slightly hear the same noise when its at -14F just more muted. so i am guessing its a bearing on a fan as suggested before?

 

reposting so you can compare them side by side instead of scrolling up and down.

1st video is at roughly -14F or -18F after sitting over night and then remote starting
2nd video is at -2F after sitting for 4 hrs and remote starting

https://youtu.be/nI5uBOn6xfk

https://youtube.com/shorts/28VzyCyaMwI?feature=share