Optimal engine oil temperature in RAV4 A25A-FXS

[kucyk]

Hey guys,

I picked up an OBD2 tool to be able to monitor the car's engine oil and stuff, and now I'm wondering about the optimal temp for our 2.5 petrol engine (A25A-FXS). I'm just curious about when it's safe to floor it 😆

I went for a short drive, only 20 km, and the temp didn't even make it to 70 degrees. The hybrid system is not helping it either, as the engine constantly shuts down making it longer to warm up. Seems like this petrol mixing into the oil thing is legit, and we might need to drive longer - like an hour in town or half that on the motorway, to warm the oil up to around 85 degrees.

[Nick72]

So I've noticed that the car does not give you full power until it has warmed up. 

If I go to my car now, put it into hybrid mode, put it in sport (although strictly it doesn't matter) and floor it, I won't get full power. It's closer to about 230hp.

I describe this in another thread. It is very noticeable. This reduced power will persist for up to about 10 or so minutes this time of year.  At the peak of summer its a warmer starting temperature but it still take a few minutes before full power is available.

What I'm trying to say is, provided you've broke the car in as per manual, then it shouldn't matter about flooring it. It seems Toyota has covered that by restricting power until the engine is ready. Makes sense really noting the car already takes you off EV to run the ICE seemingly randomly once every few weeks (or more frequently) depending on lots of factors.

Worth trying it out for yourself. I did several scientific 0 to 60 tests from cold. It's a sudden (step change) rather than gradual power access. So once engine temp has been attained it will jump from 230hp to 302. 

 

[ernieb]

It all sounds pretty logical, Toyota are mindful of the cars engineering needs and build that into the ECM protection systems. Makes perfect sense to me. Even with the restricted ‘power’ with a cold ICE the HEV car mode reacts significantly better than in just EV mode.

[Hybrid21]

I'm certainly getting oil dilution due to combination of cold weather and short journeys.

This is the first year I've had oil dilution and am keeping my eye on it. 🙁

 

[kucyk]

12 hours ago, Nick72 said:

So I've noticed that the car does not give you full power until it has warmed up. 

If I go to my car now, put it into hybrid mode, put it in sport (although strictly it doesn't matter) and floor it, I won't get full power. It's closer to about 230hp.

I describe this in another thread. It is very noticeable. This reduced power will persist for up to about 10 or so minutes this time of year.  At the peak of summer its a warmer starting temperature but it still take a few minutes before full power is available.

What I'm trying to say is, provided you've broke the car in as per manual, then it shouldn't matter about flooring it. It seems Toyota has covered that by restricting power until the engine is ready. Makes sense really noting the car already takes you off EV to run the ICE seemingly randomly once every few weeks (or more frequently) depending on lots of factors.

Worth trying it out for yourself. I did several scientific 0 to 60 tests from cold. It's a sudden (step change) rather than gradual power access. So once engine temp has been attained it will jump from 230hp to 302. 

 

Thanks for that, I wasn't aware. So far I only noticed that if you turn on the HV mode, the engine will stay on until the oil warms up to 50 degrees and that's around 10 minutes into journey as you already mentioned. 

[Nicolai]

Slightly OT: Despite Toyota claiming that the 300 BHP is always on tap - even with Battery at 30 percent. I feel there's a massive difference is power compared to fully charged traction Battery. Anyone else feel the same? Same was true for my previous Auris.

[Nick72]

2 hours ago, Nicolai said:

Slightly OT: Despite Toyota claiming that the 300 BHP is always on tap - even with battery at 30 percent. I feel there's a massive difference is power compared to fully charged traction battery. Anyone else feel the same? Same was true for my previous Auris.

Absolutely not. I've run the Battery down to below the blue reserve to almost real zero with repeated hard acceleration up hill high speed on motorways in Oxfordshire. As much as I tried to completely destroy the hybrid reserve I was unable. The moment I'm not accelerating hard then the Battery is recharging fast off the ICE and very soon back to top of the reserve. During all of this time the 302hp was there without question. It's totally independent of traction Battery SoC. I've confirmed this with 0 to 60 times with only the hybrid reserve available. Averaging 5.5sec 0 to 60 in the dry which is faster than the 5.7s claim. This wasn't the case with my previous PHEV from another manufacturer. 

The only time when 302hp is not available is if the engine is not up to temperature. Usually the first 5 to 10 mins of ICE being engaged depending on outside temperature. In which case it is providing very little mechanical drive contribution and running more as a generator. You've got about 230hp at this point based on my 0 to 60 tests. 

Spent a lot of time trying to break it in the first 12 months 😉. But the engineering is rock solid ...1970s spacecraft industrial engineering.

[kucyk]

 

3 hours ago, Nicolai said:

Slightly OT: Despite Toyota claiming that the 300 BHP is always on tap - even with battery at 30 percent. I feel there's a massive difference is power compared to fully charged traction battery. Anyone else feel the same? Same was true for my previous Auris.

 

The difference is marginal - 0.2/0.3 seconds.

I guess if you repeatedly do 0-100 10 or more times na a row, you might see a larger difference because the Battery won't have an opportunity to recharge and the car won't let the Battery drain below a certain level.

[Nick72]

7 minutes ago, kucyk said:

 

 

The difference is marginal - 0.2/0.3 seconds.

I guess if you repeatedly do 0-100 10 or more times na a row, you might see a larger difference because the battery won't have an opportunity to recharge and the car won't let the battery drain below a certain level.

I didn't see this when I tried. Pretty consistent after 3 or 4 tests.

Wondering if other factors were involved in the video?

[kucyk]

7 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

I didn't see this when I tried. Pretty consistent after 3 or 4 tests.

Wondering if other factors were involved in the video?

Hard to notice 200 miliseconds 😁

[Nick72]

40 minutes ago, kucyk said:

Hard to notice 200 miliseconds 😁

Used an inertial measurement unit plugged into smartphone to measure. 😉

[Nicolai]

On 1/5/2024 at 9:04 PM, Nick72 said:

The only time when 302hp is not available is if the engine is not up to temperature. Usually the first 5 to 10 mins of ICE being engaged depending on outside temperature. In which case it is providing very little mechanical drive contribution and running more as a generator. You've got about 230hp at this point based on my 0 to 60 tests.

I see, that's probably it, then. Engine may have been too cold.

Edit: OT: Try to add my Spritmonitor Badge for the RAV Fuel economy to mig signature but can't seem to make it work. Any ideas?

[Nick72]

On 1/18/2024 at 2:38 PM, Nicolai said:

I see, that's probably it, then. Engine may have been too cold.

Edit: OT: Try to add my Spritmonitor badge for the RAV Fuel economy to mig signature but can't seem to make it work. Any ideas?

Can't help you there. No idea.