this is the 6th ford i've owned, so i am pretty familiar with how fords operate. I am used to a higher than normal idle upon start up but immediately after start up (the first time starting the truck in the day) it will idle at 1,800-1,900 rpm and slowly work its way down. I live in southern california, so it is far from cold out (today 97 degrees when i first started it). I always wait for it to come back down to normal before i put it into gear, but this cant be a normal start up idle can it?

Oh, and to clarify when i start it up later in the day it never does this, it just seems to do this upon my first start of the day.

 

not a mechanic but mine does it too.

 

I hate how mine does this, especially since mine is a standard shift. It messes me up in the morning, especially if I'm in a rush.

Mine will idle at 1200-1300 rpms for about 2 minutes then go down when it is >68F... now my Dodge Dakota on the other hand, you start it up, and it goes right to normal idle if it is >68F. Which is like it should be.

I think I've asked this question before... but...

Is there any way around this high idle start up?

 

There's no way around the starting idle. It's set up this way to light off the converters, get them up to temp so they start working.

 

If you notice also if your A/C or defrost is on when you start it up, the idel is even a little higher. It is a normal. maybe annoying to some.. but that is just the way it is.

 

Mine's the same way.

 

That engine is probably warmer than you think later in the day. It may take more than three hours for it to completely cool down to air temp.

 

My 04 FX4 has always started up like that in the morning even during warm weather.

 

happy new year fellas

this morning I started mytruck & it decided it wants to idle at 1k, until this morning it had idled at around 700. I put it in gear to back out the drive to let someone out, then parked again, and the idle stayed at 1k. This sounds normal now, but is there anything that may cause the idle to go higher than normal? I'm looking through the search results now, but figured I would post in this one since it seems to be close to what I'm experiencing.

 

I know my my 2005 it would start up and run high for a minute or so in the mornings.. but then after getting remote start alarm that solved all the issues with waiting for it.

my 2008 actually doesnt do it bad maybe 20 seconds or so.. and then its back down.

 

I always thought it had something to do with oil pressure. My parents 2005 does it, and it idles at 1800 for a couple of minutes, my 2007 does it too, but it never seems to go as high as 1800.

 

My 04 has alway's done this and it annoy's the heck out of me. When I crank my truck at about 5:30 a.m to leave for work I bet my neighbor's just love hearing my straight's popping excessively for a few minute's while I wait for the rpm's to drop back down.

 

I bet there can be a way to stop this... its such a waste of gas.

I wonder if Mike Troyer can make a tune so it will avoid this... I'd then be re-interested in his tuner...

 

It does it when it starts cold so it warms things up a bit. You'll notice that if you start it and it's already at or near operating temp it'll go to a normal idle right away. Mine will hang out at about 1250RPM's on a cold start but only for about 30 seconds.

 

The first sensor the computer looks at on start up is coolant temp. After the computer recieves a voltage reading it determines pulse width for the injectors. Basically if your coolant is close to operating temp the truck will idle fine, but if its cool it tells the pcm to raise the idle and get things warm.