Some weird behavior occurred during a cold start a few days ago. The ambient temperature at the time was about 14-17 F, and the car cranked and started as normal, but as soon as it started, the RPMs quickly shot up to 1800-2000 rpms and fluctuated a bit before settling down to a more reasonable 1200 rpm, like when you normally do a cold start when it is warm outside. Additionally, when it started up at the high-ish rpm, it was also really loud. Granted, I do have the Invidia catback, but it was way louder than usual during a cold start, loud enough that I thought my exhaust might have come loose...

Has this occurred to anyone else? Is this normal behavior? Had some weird shenanigans with cold starts on my GR Corolla when I had it before (thought the symptoms were different) and at extremely cold temperatures, making me question whether this is a normal Toyota/Lexus thing or if they just hate really cold temperatures.

 

Normal. At those temps on a cold start it will always have high rpms to heat up and get oil flowing. All modern cars do this. Maybe it just sounded louder because of your exhaust. Mine with the valves closed is somewhat loud on a very cold start

 

I see, good to know that it's normal behavior. Just that other cars I've owned usually have consistent cold starts that aren't this temperature-dependent (or at least not this noticeable), so I found it strange, but it makes sense.