I always felt the LS430 took a while to warm up (several minutes). We always keep the car garaged and outside temps in the mornings are around 50-60 degrees, so not extremely cold. On startup the engine would fire up to 1400-1450 RPM and take a good 5-6 minutes to get below 1000 RPM. I found this odd because our previous '07 Sienna warmed up pretty fast and I could just start it up and immediately go. I realize cars no longer need to warm up that much and it actually warms up quicker if you gently drive a vehicle at the beginning.

Yesterday, at 59,020 miles, I had the spark plugs, timing belt, water pump, serpentine belt, and oil changed. This morning I started the car under typical conditions and it only idled at about 1200 RPM on startup and settled below 1000 RPM in just 60 seconds (well, maybe 75 seconds). I don't know if it was the fresh oil that allowed the engine to warm up so fast. I typically do a full-synthetic oil change every 5,000 miles, but didn't have time and this last interval was 6,500 miles. There are so many variables that changed during yesterday's service so I can't say for sure what contributed to the quicker warm-up. Anyone care to chime in and help me better understand the reason for the quicker warm-up, please? Thank you.

 

Possible the cooling/heating system is more running efficiently because you now have nice new fresh antifreeze in the system because you did the waterpump?

 

I suspect its more than likely none of the above. I assume that your mechanic probably disconnected the battery from the car and if so the engine is probably relearning things again. If your problem reappears I would suspect a sticky open thermostat...

 

Engine also appears to fire right up at the turn of the key whereas before I had to let it crank for an extra two seconds before it would wake up.