When I go to work in the morning, I turn the seat heaters up, set the air on recirculate, the temperature to HI, and the fan to one notch. But it still takes about three minutes of freezing cold before the interior reaches an acceptable temperature. After a day in the parking lot, when I leave from work, I go through the same ordeal. My Corolla '99 heated up WAY faster.

I've done a search on the forum and only found this thread, of which all posts were useless (sorry), except this one.

So, what is the fastest way to heat up the interior of the Lexus IS250?

Any chance for a hack or mod to do remote start/heating?

 

fart in it

 

Are you in a safe neighborhood? My neighborhood or my block actually is pretty quiet and a lot of people know my family.

I usually go downstairs and open my garage and start the car up. Go back upstairs and finish getting ready. By the time i get back, the seat warmer is HOT and the heater is warm and not cold.

 

I read all the "jokes" in the thread I linked to, thank you very much.

Can someone actually drive the car away if I take the key with me?

If I remember correctly, the Lexus won't start if the key is not nearby, but once you started it, you can drive it away without the key. It will just beep that the key is not there... correct?

 

same here, but i will only open 1/3 of the garage door.

 

^ Correct! They can drive it, but will not be able to start it again, if they turn it off.

That's the best way to do it. There's no other way to get it warm faster.

 

Thats the way to do it.

 

OK, suppose I come to my car in the parking lot at night at the mall and it's too far away and unsafe to leave the car running and walk back in.

What's the fastest way to warm up the interior, while staying in the car?

 

Drive. When driving the car,blast the heater and it'll heats up faster, but you'll still be cold for a couple minutes.

 

Hm... that's at odds with what this guy says:

 

Maybe it's a mental thing? He could be right, i could be right. Best thing is to experiment yourself and find what you like best.

 

Use the seat heaters for "instant" heat. Allow to idle for 30 sec to 1 minute. Longer if below 20 degrees F. Place climate in auto mode. Drive car. As the coolant heats up the auto mode will increase fan speed.
The only other method would be to hold the gas peddle for increased RPMs. This will warm the engine faster but I do not recommend this as the engine is cold and may accelerate engine wear.

 

There also may be a block heater availale from either Lexus or the aftermarket.

 

just have a remote start installed thats what I did and its great to come to a warm car when you leave search and there is a recent thread where myself and a few other members talked about it. This can be done with your push start and its safe. Had mine for 30+ days with not one issue

PS come to Chicago and will show you some cold weather and a cold car!! lol...and there is worse then what we have to deal with (UGH)...

 

What's "freezing cold" in California? 50°F.? You wussy!

I haven't had a block heater on either of my Lexus cars but I sure loved the one I had on my Mercedes -- once I started looking, I found AC outlets everywhere I could plug into at hotels, parking garages, etc.

Block heaters are shown on the Canadian Lexus website: http://www.lexus.ca

Metro Lexus/Toyota in Victoria BC can sell you one and you could have it installed locally: http://www.metrolexusvictoria.com/index.htm Metro has an export license and has provided excellent service when shipping to me here in Kansas.

I don't spend much time driving in really cold climates anymore but I sure would like to have a block heater in my LS right now -- forecasted low for tonight in Des Moines IA where I'm headed today is -10° F with a high tomorrow of only -1° F. Brrrrrr.