Why does Cruise Control in Toyotas suck?

@klavender1 does the truck hunt for gear when going up hill without cruise?

 

2015 V6 AT and yes the CC is really poor. Mine even loses 5 mph after I set it and take my foot off the gas on flat stretch of road. Then it hammers the throttle and sometimes down shifts to get back to the set point. It really is bad compared to other vehicles. Our Forester does not have any problems.

Sure, hit a steep hill you can expect any CC to hiccup. But my Tacoma at least can freak out on a gentle incline.

 

Yep, that too.

I've found out that if you pull back on the lever to "cancel" before you push it down to set it; It will hold at that throttle position instead of dropping down before it does anything. Doesn't make any sense, but it seems to work better that way.

 

I don't even use cruise control. My first gen has it, but I've never used it. I don't even know if it works, even though I've had the truck for over three years.

 

My 89 Toyota truck never had a problem with cruise, and my sister's 2012 Camry works fine on cruise. I don't have it on my Tacoma, but the RAV4 has cruise and it works just fine.

As for any vehicle that "speeds up" going downhill with cruise on, that isn't cruise control doing that. That is GRAVITY. Cruise control doesn't apply your brakes.

 

To get the best fuel economy for a truck, that's require by government. They run the smallest engine at the lowest speed, using the highest gear. It causes allot of stress when you're trying to go up hills. Just anticipate the hill accelerate a little to get up over it.

 

Depends on what you do with the throttle. Careful throttle increase will stay in current gear and the 4.0 is really pretty torquey. If the cruise was a little more on the job and slowly increased throttle it could probably work better with an auto. But as others have said, it'll let a couple mph slide then apply a bunch of throttle, downshift and go apesh!t until it's a couple mph over, then slowly back down to normal.

I can typically get my truck over a rise that would cause a huge downshift without any hunting and just a loss of 2-4 mph.

 

Man what I wouldn't pay for those pics myself. She was a hot little unit. But our cell phones didn't have cameras in 1981.

 

I live in Florida too and the over passes to go over the little cannals does do that to my cruse control too. But the giant bridge over the Okeechobee Inlet my cruise control made me go 10 over going uphill and struggled in cruise then went 20 over going down. I had to turn it off because the Fl highway patrol is very sneaky and love that bridge.

 

Did your cell phones even have cell phones in 1981?

 

Install a supercharger, problem solved.

 

Basically what he said:

I'm mostly used to older cars without cruise. So when I bought the 1992 BMW a few years ago I really got used to using CC. It was a manual and still worked better than Toyotas' CC despite being 3400lbs and 190hp. I sold it after buying my first "nice" car, the GS300. It's CC was damn near perfect despite being 3600lbs and 220hp. And I'm driving the same roads.

 

Anyone else notice a change in cruise control after having the "acceleration" tsb done?

 

It also was a 3 spd trans with no lockup.

 

I started reading this thread last night at hotel room, kinda laughed at some of the responses and the whining, then today as I continued on my drive home thru the WV Turnpike, I thought about it and started to tinker a bit.

My POS, 2008 DCSB V6 5spd auto 260k on odo, bone stock, as far as I know trans fluids never been changed ( I just haven't got there yet, it drives fine, its on the too do list....someday ) OEM towing package with stock trans fluid cooler.

I have a Scan Gauge 2 programed to read trans temp. Intake Air Temp was in the 55°-60° range, so air temp was probably just slightly cooler. trans temp 130°-160° cruising thru the hills of WV, traffic, trucks, kinda windy.

First test, cruise control off, maintain speed of 75mph indicated (71 mph actual per GPS) engine RPM's about 2100, temp started about 132° as I climbed, I accelerated to maintain speed trying to not force a down shift, temp climbed to about 155°-160° before down shift engine RPM jumps to 3000ish, trans temp temp dropped pretty quickly back to mid 130's. repeated a few times, similar results.

Second test, turn on cruise set to 75mph indicated (71mph actual per GPS). again in the 2100rpm range as cruise applied throttle temps also rose, then the down shift ( 3000rpm) which came on much more rapid than when I was operating manually. trans temps never rose above 148° and dropped quickly after downshift.
With cruise on and functioning the downshifts came much quicker, and more often. it would seem this would be a " designed in " feature of the Cruise to help trans survive and not build heat.

I have noticed that trans temps usually drop off quickly after downshift in most driving conditions. of course, the higher the outside temp, the higher the trans temp was up to about 165ish most of the time in 75° weather ( home in NC @ 75mph indicated )

in both "tests" you could watch the tachometer and see when the torque converter would unlock and then of course the downshift. temps rose quickly when the converter unlocked, but dropped almost as quick after downshift.

Scientific ? probably not, but it was something to do

 

Nothing wrong with the cruise control. Most of the complaining is simply operator error and unrealistic expectations. Years ago engines had more torque especially at lower RPM's along much lower axle ratios. But fuel mileage sucked. My early cars/trucks got 6-8 mpg city and 11-12 hwy. They only had 3 speeds and you could start a manual in 3rd gear on level ground. On small grades the transmissions didn't need to downshift because the engine provided plenty of power. Today we have much less powerful engines, but the cars are actually faster and get much better fuel mileage. The difference is in the axle gearing and 6-8 speed transmissions. Your vehicle has to be in just the right gear or you'll lose power that the engines today can't supply.

 

I have driven many different C C's & although I don't think the Tacoma's is perfect I don't think it is bad enough to complain about, ("09" V-6 4x4 Access cab) we also have a Honda which I think is very good & a new Nissan Murano which I think is perfect. jmop

 

Okay, Mr. Wizard, I'll bite. Exactly why shouldn't you use cruise in a hilly area?

 

Define. "Hilly area"

A tight two lane mountain pass, no, probably not the best place to be using cruise.

West Virginia Turnpike, you'll get yer ass run over if your not doing speed limit minimum. Manually working the throttle gets very tiring after a few dozen miles in those rollers, And quite honestly, I'd rather concentrate on the direction than the speed. Coming down mountain out of VA into NC, you better be up to speed and paying attention, another nice hilly section that will get your ass run over.

Cruise control is an "anti fatigue device"

 

I've got the Basic 05 Tacoma 4 cylinder automatic with a/c on all the time and it's just a dog around town. It seems it never goes beyond 2,000 rpm there's no real mid range torque. Went into the dealer and found out my rear end differential is 3.58 ring & pinion ratio. So I just installed Doug Thorley Tri-Y headers 2 weeks ago to help in the mid range torque. Their was a considerable difference, and on the highway of course I live in Florida there is no fluctuation on the speed when I had it on cruise control. It is a little noisier when you accelerate. Now looking for my options as to get rid of some of the noise, but overall I'm happy with the added performance. Update 2/4/16 the aftermarket header flange was misaligned and leaking exhaust gasses. So I had a muffler shop weld a pipe directly to it. Problem of noise fix, warranty of header voided due to altering header.