Dong99

Since there were so many complains about RX's poor gas mileage, I am wondering if an engine block heater will help to improve MPG on our RX, especially in this record cold winter weather. I noticed our RX 350's mpg improves quite a bit after it warms up, usually takes a good 20 minutes drive in winter - unfortunately, that's all it takes to get where we are going in a normal day. If we put blocker heater on a timer to warm it up before we start the engine, hopefully RX will take less than 5 minutes to reach its optimum operation temperature, therefore, gas mileage for routine short trips will significantly improve. What do you guys think?

wa3cuj

My experience with a block heater on an old diesel would indicate that you will get better mileage and that you will get the added convenience of warm air from the heater upon startup. There is the inconvenience of having to deal with the cord each morning. My guess is that you would use less than a dimes worth of electricity when keeping it plugged in overnight, so a timer might be overkill.

larrs

This is complete conjecture on my part, but I think there is also an emissions-related aspect. I think that the catalytic converter has to be brought up to operating temperature in order to work effectively, so even if you use a block heater, you will still see the engine running at high idle until the converter is warmed up properly.