When I start my 2012 Tradesman with the 4.7L it idles very high for a few minutes until it warms up. Around 1300 RPM. Reminds me of an old manual choke car. I had the same motor in my 2000 Dakota and it did not idle high when I started it. Even in the summer it idles high for a minute or so. Is this normal?

 

Sounds normal to me for a cold start. Next time you start it, flip to the engine temp display and see if it idles down at a particular engine temp.

 

Yea sounds normal to me too. My 5.7 idles high for a minute or two even though it is like 55 out. I try to allow it to settle down before moving.

 

Thanks for the replies. A google search came back with tons of threads o. Different forums regarding this. I guess its normal.

 

In the olden days, before fuel injection became popular, if you wanted to start your cold engine properly you depressed the gas pedal to the floor once then released it. This would jet a little gas into the engine and set the choke. You then turned the ignition and the engine came to life at a fast idle.

So you see this has been going on forever. The only difference nowadays with fuel injection is that the computer sets everything up for fast idle on a cold start and you no longer need to depress the accelerator to the floor anymore. A proper cold engine start will start with a fast idle, if it doesn't something is not working properly.