Does altitude affect engine and transmission? VIDEO

Ever have the transmission flash done?

 

HE ALMOST HAD HIM DUDE

I mean hey who cares?
You'll get a danger to manifold warning and then the floor will suddenly fly off.
Makes perfect sense right?

 

It looked like you were getting pretty good mileage going up that hill, it was around 18mpg.

 

He was at 21 before hand so not really

 

yep, I'm part of that generation. Well never had the neon lights and fart canons. But definitely helped get me into the car scene.
I just wasn't an idiot and didn't do it on the street, kept all the racing for the track.

 

Why won't the truck go to redline? Is that the problem? It seems to be shifting long before redline. If you have it floored and it is shifting before redline you have an issue of some sort.

 

Engines lose about 3.5%hp for every 1000 ft in elevation gain.

 

Did you push the ECT button?

 

I know with carb'd engines (like motorcycles), you have to adjust your fuel/air mixture to compensate for the power loss at higher elevation, I thought our modern ECUs automatically compensated for altitude

 

^^ This I've noticed also...I don't think your issue is altitude related, more like incline related.

2nd Gen?? Prob a design feature of the 3rd gen, aka Atkinson :/

I wouldn't think so, the four banger is just cylinders challenged, but as for this gen is the probably the best as it is proven and bullet proof albeit not a hp queen :/

Cheers!

 

Yup - I do the same and it works great.

I kept it in S3 going up to Black Hawk a few weeks ago (8,537 feet), no gear-hunting concerns at all.

I was using either S3 or S4 on our last ride up Fall River Road to the top of RMNP and back down Trail ridge Road (12,183 feet), no gear-hunting there either.

 

Does anyone else notice it not going to redline??? Anyone?

 

I live in Colorado at about 6800 ft and often drive up to 12000, this is definitely an annoying problem. Same things happens to me, it drops gears and accelerates to 65 or whatever then when you let off the gas to hold that speed it just shifts, looses power and slows down. Then since you are going slower you give it more gas and it shifts down yet again and starts the cycle over. The only way out is cruise control or using the s mode and forcing it to stay in a gear.

I have got it to redline in S mode, but never in D

 

I have had some similar issues both on and off road on steep paved mountain pass roads and also on steeper 4x4 trails, both at high elevation in Colorado. On pavement, it's like I cant smoothly accelerate when going up hill. I push the pedal down and get nothing, than nothing, than more nothing, than suddenly it downshifts and revs to all hell to speed up. It essentially feels like all or nothing, and it's pretty obnoxious when driving windy steep roads. Especially when you have passengers, it feels like you're a real crappy driver when you keep having to loudly rev the engine coming into every uphill section. I wish you could more smoothly/steadily speed up. Likewise, when going up steep 4x4 roads, there are times I am literally flooring it and it feels like the truck is going to come to a stop. These are not even crazy off road trails but the alpine scenic loop which is pretty easy/moderate in most parts. Putting it in 4 lo and going to S1 seems to be the only way to avoid this. Maybe I just need to get used to a smaller engine but my old 5.2 l jeep could get up most of this stuff in 4 hi no problem with room to accelerate or at least spin the tires trying. Even w/ a trac turned off it still seems short of power. Still wonder if it's just my truck, or just the way the 3rd gen engine was designed. Anyone else feel this way? Love the ride and other capabilities though.

edit: just saw the post right before mine, and that pretty accurately describes what I am talking about

 

It would confuse me a little if it is full wide open throttle, but it might be due to EPA reasons for all i know. The truck looks like it is just trying to generate max torque to maintain/get up to speed on the hill.

Either way, I'm glad every day I have the manual transmission mated to this odd engine choice

 

'S-Mode'... Ha! The tranny just does what it wants once you go above or below a programmed rpm. Last week I really pushed the limits of the Tacoma, which were nowhere close to limits advertised on paper. 8 MPG on the interstate with a mini SxS(honda pioneer 500) and 1500 lb trailer, total weight under 3000 lbs.

The worst part was climbing a dirt road at elevation with the set up as pictured below. Torque was non existent; had the pedal to the floor crawling from 5 mph to 15 mph around corners and degree of angle of the hill wasn't that significant.

The best part was getting the low fuel notification and the reassurance I had 113 miles left in reserve... Ha!

 

Going up like Rock Creek, Bishop Canyon, Lundy, up Conway Summit. Maybe 100lbs in the truck

 

yes

 

No it was actually terrible, like 12-14. It was only high because i went down a bunch of hills. at one point it actually showed 99.9 mpg