shifting problem 2016 tacos

does anyone else notice how the new 3.5s with auto trans that it seems the truck doesn't know what gear it wants to be in??? just around town driving it fluctuates from one gear to the next. not really please with this. any input???

 

There is a TSB to address this. See your dealer.

 

TSB? sorry, kinda new

 

toy service bulliten?

 

Technical Service Bulletin

 

yes - Technical Service Bulletin.

call the dealer, tell them what you're experiencing.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/t-sb-0077-16-rev-1.457782/

 

thanx. I will go to dealer. service bull. are not yet up for the 2016s. thanx

 

Nope

There is a TSB

 

Yes, get tsb done and if needed use S mode and leave it in 4 for around town. It will limit the gears from going into the overdrive 5 & 6.

 

yes take it to the dealer, there have been a few revisions for the transmission. I think it's important for people to remember the more gears the more shifting the truck will do. Trying to be efficient the truck will try to find the optimum gear to be in.

 

I bolded the important part. I did my research before buying and accepted this quirk beforehand.

 

Couple of things. First off, there has been 1 revision to the original TSB for some transmission issues but it has not resolved all issues for everyone with this transmission. The fact is that this transmission and motor combo seems to revert back to crappy performance and shift behavior for some drivers. Other drives claim it does little to nothing. Other drivers have claimed it resolved all of their issues.

Second, this motor and trans combo is still eager to shift into the next gear early. It tries like hell to keep the truck BELOW the power band. So for many of us, to really get the power out of this motor and transmission you have to drive it with the ECT mode on or really put your foot into the pedal to get it going. At this point the engine revs up like a leaf blower and you get some useful feeling power up above 3500 RPMs.

With all that being said, there's still some dead pedal feeling and a fairly significant kickdown delay when you demand power. For example when needing to pass someone quickly, you floor it and it takes a couple of seconds to downshift and rev up. This is just a quirk of the way they mated this motor and trans, as well as the software programming to try and meet the EPA numbers. It's not the most pleasant driving experience which is why you'll see many complaints on this particular vehicle for the performance of the engine/transmission.

p.s. my 2016 has 20k miles on it and there has been no significant change in fuel economy or performance since taking delivery.

 

I thought I read there had been two revisions for the trans TSB, but again no first hand experience.

And in response, I will drop this here:
https://www.carthrottle.com/post/en...missions-with-loads-of-gears-are-a-good-idea/
taken from the above link. The more gears a transmission has, the more flexibility it has to find the most efficient engine speed for a given wheel speed.

And this:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a7243/gears-galore-how-many-speeds-is-too-many/
Having more gears allows smaller, more economical engines to power larger vehicles or improves the efficiency of existing engines.

That being said, yes they have work to do, but from what I read the CVT's would have been another option, but drivers of those complained they couldn't feel the shift. Damed if you do, damed if you don't

 

Go test drive an 8 speed Silverado. They perform and shift much better than the Tacoma. Point is, number of gears shouldn't be the excuse.

 

I agree.

 

I had not noticed this before so I took my truck out and its doing the same thing!! Then I took the Lexus out and its also changing gears as I speed up and slow down . Maybe a Toyota thing??? Should I have drove them before I bought them? Good luck OP.

 

The truth is Toyota has a few issues with the 3rd gen Tacoma. The transmission is a faulty design (the valve body leaks down and draws air bubbles) and the rear axle gets noisy after a small amount of miles accrued. Whenever issues like these occur in more than 1% of mass produced units, you have a problem. So this is where we are. Toyota corporate has admitted they are having some issues with the 3rd gens. Let's call it like it is, let's give Toyota some good, meaningful feedback, and let's hope Toyota stands behind their product.

 

the valve body leaks down and draws air bubbles, how did we come to this conclusion

 

We didn't. 3 Japanese engineers from Toyota did... one of which was a TCU coder (the source of one of the calibration files in the transmission TSB) from Aisin.