2016 Transmission T-SB-0077-16 Shift Feeling Enhancments (PDF)

My throttle response is completely different. If I had to describe it now its very similar to driving around in 4th gear (while in sport mode) or maybe like ECT mode at 70 - 80% full strength. I have very few miles on it though, it may change in time... who knows.

But I definitely feel like I've taken a small MPG hit.

 

S mode does nothing for throttle response correct? It simply allows you to manually shift if you want. When I was test driving, the sales guy acted like just putting it in S was some kind of sport mode, whether you were shifting manually or not.

I've done the manual shifting but find it awkward, I've driven a real manual for 13 years before the Tacoma and have a hard time with the fake manuals. I got the auto this time because I wanted an easier time pulling my boat and perhaps doing some off-roading. Kind of kicking myself now but hopefully I'll get used to it or there will be an update that will improve it.

 

I do not understand this. I have driven manuals for many years . When I needed a quick change for power , I always had to down shift to get it anyway. Some are making it sound like manually downshifting a manual is faster than waiting for the auto to shift. There should be no difference other than with the auto there is less work .

 

Autozone

 

autozone?

 

S mode limits the top gear you can go into ..... ie... put it in 3rd and drive around town.... you stay in 3rd or under.... put it in 4th... you stay in 4th or under...
Oh.. you do not have to manually shift it.... it just limits the upper gear...ie:... no 5th or 6th if you are in 4th...

 

I could downshift smoother and faster in a manual than this auto Tacoma does at the speeds I'm talking about yes. It's not even so much the downshifting as it's with a manual, you can keep it in the gear you want it to be in for the road conditions. So if I see up ahead that I may need a little more power, I can keep it in third instead of the transmission shifting up to 6th then waiting for it to downshift when I need the power. Something like that.

Yes I can do all with in S mode but since it's not a manual transmission you don't get the same kind of feedback and I find it too much trouble to use on a day-to-day bases.

I'm not hating the truck my any means, love it. I'm just trying to figure out if there is something wrong or if this is the new normal.

 

OK, you lost me on that one... I'm outta here...!!

 

Why is this so hard for Toyota and dealers to get straight? Vehicle is in for service, VIN is entered into database, all outstanding TSB's are performed in addition to scheduled maintenance. Latest SW should be flashed for ALL features ... PCM, Entune etc. At the most, let the customer opt-out if update is not mandatory for Federal regulations or Toyota warranty.

 

This sounds good in practice if Toyota were to automatically reimburse the dealership for the labor involved in doing this. However I think you can see how this would be abused by dealerships since they would charge back flashing on every vehicle brought in for service. In addition, sometimes new updates can cause more harm than good. Dealerships are not working for free, so they would much rather be wrenching on a car outside of warranty than doing warranty work in the first place. They certainly are not going to do much work for free, though some will do this from a customer loyalty standpoint.

In this case the TSB has certain requirements, so if the customer isn't complaining, the dealership isn't to flash it. TSB's back in the day were not well known to the consumer. Trust me, I've worked for ALLDATA a very long time and we were one of the first to offer TSB's outside of a dealership network. They were NOT easy to come by.

 

OK, here we go........As mentioned before, I had the TBS re-flash done and AI reset....The first 150 miles were; not too sure things changed.....

Today I went on a 150 freeway trip....over big hills and straight roads....City traffic and all with A/C on.....The freeway was at 70mpg with the cruise control on......As i started up some hills,, things were very good....there was no downshift and/or searching for gears.....as the incline got steeper, the tranny would downshift to 5th....if hill got steeper, would to to 4th......as I approached the crest and started to go over top, tranny would up-shfit to 5th then back to 6th.....all while holding 70mph......The shifts were smooth and not jerky.....I am very pleased.....very nice transition through all gears from 1st to 6th....

In town, after starting off from dead stop....being very conservative, the first shift was around 20-30mph.....by the time I got to 50mph, I was in 6th.....Overall, after the trip, I am a very happy camper.....

When I started the trip, my mileage on this tank of fuel was 177 miles with a info reading of 19.7mpg.......While riding, I noticed the mpg's rising and when I gat home with 345 miles on the ODO, I was indicating 22.7mpg.....It will be interesting when I fill up and manually calculate to see how close "actual and computer" are....

Next up, will be my visor to dealer on Wednesday to have the shop foreman "manually" check the tranny fluid......either way, if low or have to add, by watching, I will be able to close this issue out and finally know what I have......

So far I am happy with the TSB implementation...AS I put more miles on my new truck, I hope mileage will continue to approve and become more stable.....

Will advise next Wednesday

 

Joke. Take it to the Toyota dealer.

 

My truck was about 2 quarts low on transmission fluid so I opened a case with Toyota. Ended up with a 7/75 Toyota Platinum Care warranty. Can't complain about that. I've owned a lot of Toyota products though.

 

Great job. The drive (from Temecula?) will be worth it. I live in La Mesa and will be getting a 2017 Tacoma AC TRD Sport so good to hear something positive about a dealer here.

 

I assume they actually updated mine. No more reverse to drive delay and cruise control actually did a good job the highway

 

Why does everyone assume the dealer didn't do the reflash? It is no big deal to do it. I used to have a handheld tuner for my Mustang where I could reflash the PCM and make changes to parameters easily. This is a simple procedure for the dealers to do.

 

because dealers are full of shit and do the least work possible at every chance they get.

 

That's what I started doing, if I am driving in the city I keep mine in S4 with ECT on and if I get on the highway I do S5 with ECT on and it makes a huge difference the way the truck drives. I had the transmission flash done this past Tuesday and I can not tell a difference in the way it drives when in Auto.

 

I just had the Transmission Flash update done last night, and it feels like a brand new transmission.. No lag, and no delay. I love the truck even more now.

 

Had the TSB update about a month ago (truck had 23,000 miles) and have put 1000 miles on since; the first two weeks or so were great. Lately, the damn thing is downshifting harder than ever and downshifts every time I coast down a hill.