Hilux Poor Cold Starts

My 2012 Toyota Hilux with a diesel engine is giving me some grief. I'm experiencing poor engine running during cold starts, there's an error code stored, and my fuel consumption has increased. Mileage is at 88985 km. Could this be a defective PTC heater, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

4 comment(s)

Interesting! I had similar symptoms on my Hilux. Could it be the electric auxiliary heater? Was it the same error stored in your error memory? Is the blower motor working correctly?

The error points towards the auxiliary heater, yes. When you say similar, do you mean exact same symptoms, and did replacing the heater resolve it? Blower motor seems fine, heat is just weak.

Yes, same symptoms. Higher fuel consumption, rough starts, and weak heat until the engine warmed up. Replacing the heating element solved the problem. I'd suggest a workshop visit and have them check the PTC heater before replacing other parts.

Appreciate the confirmation! Sounds like that's my next step. Workshop visit it is. They quoted around 350€ for the repair, so hopefully, that solves it. Thanks again for your help!

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