Accidentally left my 2018 RAV-4 idling OVERNIGHT.....approx. 24 hours! Forgot to hit the shutoff button when I got home last night. Realized it the next day when I noticed my engine compartment was super warm. I opened the hood, let it cool off, shutoff the engine, then started it and drove around for 10 minutes. Can I expect upcoming problems?
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As long as it never overheated (which I wouldn't expect) and the oil was up to level, there shouldn't be any huge issues. Extended idling isn't good for an engine, but it's not going to hurt it much either. I don't think you'll have any issues. Look at the bright side, your battery is probably really well charged. Luckily the vehicle wasn't stolen.
Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
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Idling for 24 hours should be absolutely fine for any healthy car. Some models from some brands could have engine slowly degraded due to insufficient lubrication when idling if tuned for reduced idle RPM (e.g. if the owner wanted to spend less fuel on idle and would not normally be idling for long), but using the factory settings generally should be enough to avoid these problems.
In fact, there is an established practice of letting the car idle overnight (and all the day too) if you are using it to travel somewhere away from your garage in -50..-60°C (mentioned e.g. here), because starting the car at these temperatures is much more problematic than letting the engine run.
Eugene Ryabtsev
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