box_x

The xB is nearly new (3,800 miles) and when it is cold out and the car is cold it will not upshift into 4th gear. Is this some "feature" of the transmission? Where I work is just off an expressway and the speed limit on our road is 45mph but it changes to 55 mph in about 1/4 mile. So I start it up, pull and and go - I normally don't sit and warm up a car since it just wastes gas and is not really "good" for the car, I just don't drive it hard/rev it up until the motor is at normal temps. In order to keep up with traffic I have to at least do the limit and the motor (in 3rd) is pretty wound up - which goes it against my don't drive it hard, don't rev it up until warm style. Backing off the gas does not encourage an upshift. After the water temp comes up to about 140 F (by my SGII) it will then shift up to 4th. Other than that I have had NO problems with the auto box. This is first auto tranny car I have owned in many, many years and only my 2nd one ever. I only got the auto so that others in the family could drive it in a pinch, and in case my foot and leg problems act up - as all my others cars are stick.

Is this normal?

I was thinking this was something built in - 2 of my other cars have temperature sensitive rev limiters in them so when cold you can only rev up to about 1/2 of the normal redline (if you want to). But I was thinking this is counter intuitive since failure to shift to 4th means a lot more revs to a cold motor. I can do a test and let it sit at idle until the water temp is up but then I bet it will be fine. Going TO work I have side streets and slower streets so if it does it then you would not much notice - but you sure do leaving from the office.

Thanks,
Dennis

Max

Yes, it is normal, and it is a 'feature' which is built-in, not a flaw. When you start up, there's a blue light on the right side of the gauges in the dash. When that turns off, you will shift into fourth.

The higher revs warm up the engine faster.

Related link:

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=92307

box_x

Thanks for the reply. I did search before I posted (auto and shift and cold and variations on that) but it didn't pull up anything on point. I have the SGII mounted behind the wheel (where gauges are on every other car) so I normally never look at the real gauge cluster. By my SGII the blue light goes off around 130-140f on the SGII.

I understand that higher revs may warm the engine up quicker, but driving at 1k+ higher RPM with a cold motor and cold oil is not too healthy for the motor, I don't think. I gues I will let it run a bit more when leaving the office, so I don't drive far at 45-55mph in 3rd. Since the xB is my snow day car (complete with 4 snow tires on the OEM steels) I may get a remote starter for it. Wastes gas, but then the car could at running temp when I hit the highway.

Dennis

vintage42

It's in the Owners Manual, somewhere. It says it is to help the engine warm up faster. Scion thinks that is more important than keeping the cold rpms low. I think that is because the engine management has a problem if a cold engine has heavy throttle applied at low rpms in higher gears. I have a manual trans, but I try to drive the engine like an automatic when cold, and so don't use much throttle in 4th or 5th gear at low rpms until the engine is up to 137F on the ScanGuage which is where the blue light goes out.

box_x

Both my RX-8 and S2000 (both manuals, of couse) have cold engine lower redlines. The S will not vtech until the engine is up near normal opeating temps - so this means an effective redline around 4k (out of 8k) - the 8 has something similar. THAT I can understand the need for, but that too can be a hassle pulling out of the office with a cold motor, so I try to wait until it is REAL CLEAR and short-shift up through the gears. The M5 I used to have had the redline on the tach actually drop down to the cold engine redline when you started the car - so at least you could SEE what it was - and it would go up 1k or so has things warmed up until you had the real redline available. It had more than enough power to out run traffice without winding up the motor :D

Having the engine management lock out of OD until is warm just seems so backwards to me. Is there a PDF of the OM available online? I did RTFM after I got the box, but I guess I never noticed that. On the much warmer days, the water temp must have risen quick enough that I never noticed it before. I guess the good news in any case is this is normal, and not some limp home mode being activated by mistake - or some other problem with the tranny.

Dennis

ROBs-xB

Warm it up untill the little blue thermometer turns off, thats the best thing
to do, for 1 its better for your car and you wont feel it stiff and or anything.

so warm it up, then drive, thats the smart thing to do, SAFETY FIRST!

box_x

I agree with Click and Clack.

http://www.cartalk.com/content/colum...vember/18.html

Other folks think it's a good idea to just sit in the driveway with the motor running for five minutes before driving the car. That's also a bad idea. It wastes gas, adds to the pollution, and doesn't do the engine any good. The engine warms up most efficiently while it's being driven, not while its idling.

Sitting and waiting for the blue light to go out just wastes gas and it is not better for your car. Now, in the case of the auto xB and where I work and my need to get up to speed quickly I guess I will let it warm up a little more before i drive off.

Dennis

xA_Factor

It does that to warm up the CAT faster...for emissions reasons. All Toyotas do this.

Persocon

owner's manual says to never warm up car in idle, only warm up by "driving smoothly turning engine"page 146 owner's manual