How long do you idle in cold weather??

[TexasExcursion]

Sometimes I've got to run several errands in which I've got the choice of shutting the truck down and restarting again after a few minutes (and repeating again and again) or just let it idle. I'm concerned about battery life and giving the alternator enough time to recharge the batteries. So, which is better in cold weather:

Let the truck idle for five minutes?

--or--

Shut it down and start it again in a few minutes?

-popcorn

 

[Saftman]

I let mine idle. 5 min. shouldn't be a problem.

 

[powerboatr]

i would let her run, bump up teh seic and use the alarm to lock out the ignition, go by groceries or beer thats what we do at rest areas to
cab stays comfortable for teh pup

 

[jvencius]

I almost never let my truck run at low idle, no matter what the ambient temp is. It's either at high idle (1500+ rpm) with the DTLS engaged (so I can pull the key), low idle for long enough to cool off, or shut down.

 

[ranger boy]

This may be dumb, but when i warm up my truck in the mornings it goes into high idle

what does high idle do? it just sounds like somebody's touching the gas pedal, so please can anybody tell me if its good or bad?

 

[powerboatr]

This may be dumb, but when i warm up my truck in the mornings it goes into high idle

what does high idle do? it just sounds like somebody's touching the gas pedal, so please can anybody tell me if its good or bad?

its part of the warm up ecm stratergy
it reads oil pressure and TEMP and coolant temp and decides to ramp up the idle after 2-3 minutes of no break pedal or throttle actuation.
and if your out somewhere and its cold, and your sitting idle and the oil temps drops off it will ramp up again

but we in the 05 and 06's have the built in aic, (SEIC and BCP)
so if your stopped and need some ac flow , hit the seic and bam you got 1200 rpms

 

[FTG-05]

Except the high idle mod won't work for us 6 speed manny tranny types.

 

[FLRin29]

Who Told You That???

 

[rgdillon]

Do the AIC mod - then when you idle just hit the switch. No problems.

Ron

 

[ryaneverk2]

Except the high idle mod won't work for us 6 speed manny tranny types.

Of course it will!! Just have to have the parking break set, tranny in neutral, etc...