I have hunted the forum for some guidance and havnt found any threads that address this issue. I live in Michigan and all this winter I have noticed the engine temp light, indicating the temp is cold, has been slow to turn on. The time lag seems to have gotten longer with the passing of winter and the as its colder, the light takes longer to finally turn on. It does turn on, but takes a minute and then will turn back off once the engine is warmed up.
So, is it a bad temp sensor? Does the temp sensor need to cleaned maybe? And, its recommended to just replace the thing, where is it actually located?
Thanks,
Matt
2011 Scion Xb - 37,000 miles (pretty low) - As far as I know, nothing in the coolant system has been touched. I got the car 2 years ago at 18K miles and I have done nothing to the cooling system and the maintenance schedule does not indicate a need for coolant change any time near my actual mileage.

 

Sounds like a bad sensor. If the engine is cold, it should light up pretty fast when you first turn on the car.

 

Up until this year, I never drove much. My xb had 10k miles on it last October and since then, I've put on 5k miles.

This was a rough winter and I too have this problem. I start the car and there is no "cold engine" light. The light comes on maybe after a minute or two minutes depending on how cold it is outside.

Not sure what causes it. I always warm up my car for up to 10 minutes after being parked overnight so I simply ignore the issue 😬😁😬😂😬😁

 

Well, its good to know that somebody else is having a similar problem with a similarly low miles vehicle. I too give the car 10 minutes of warm up in the mornings, it seems like the perfect time frame to get it nice and warm and defrosted.
I guess I will have to hunt out the sensor and I will assume its on the engine side of the t-stat as far as the coolant flow diagram would be concerned. Hopefully high enough int eh system I dont have to worry about dumping coolant when I open it up. If its all chalky on the sensor stud I will wipe it off and see if that fixes it up. If not, I think I found some decent aftermarket ones for around 30$ and a new crush washer for 1$ or two. It would also be a good chance to see if I shouldnt just drain and replace the coolant anyway. It is probably 5 years old at this point.
Waiting for it to warm up enough do take care of all that though, maybe in a month.
Thanks again for the feed back. Im glad to know there is another Xb out there doing the same thing.

 

Get a Uitragauge, show temps .

 

I have a 2014 and it takes 30 - 60 seconds to come on when it's cold. i just figured that it takes some time for the oil to get circulating before it renders a verdict. It does come on though and I just drive slowly until it goes off again.

 

Crimsonxbox, Thanks for that information. I was thinking a similar train of thought about the time needed for the temp sensor to get into contact with fluids but I wasnt able to recall such a long delay in my previous vehicles. Maybe its as simple as that, it takes a bit for the coolant to make its way up to the temp sensor. Once the weather warms up some and Im more inclined to open the hood and do some investigating, it could be as simple as that. From the diagrams I have looked at, the temp sensor is right up by the thermostat, so maybe its in a vacuum locked location when the thermostat is closed and it takes a bit for the coolant to actually gurgle up to the sensor, the colder it is outside, the longer the thermostat is closed and therefor the longer the sensor is in a small pocket of air. Ultimately, this is why I posted in the first place, I wanted to see what other peoples experiences are so I could try and figure if its an equipment failure or a design issue within the cooling system. Thanks for the reply.

 

This morning when I left for work, it took about 45 seconds for the light to come on, and it was about 34 degrees. At lunch time, I went out and it was 48 degrees. The light came on immediately after I started the car, so I don't think it's a flaw in the sensor or anything.

 

Wow! Thanks for that information. Thanks for keeping it mind and checking it out.