ShiftSense Pro - transmission shift controller for Gen3 Tacoma

No worries. If my wife was home, I'd be out driving it right now!

 

I'm not exactly 'unhappy' with my trans, either. But with my 285's and all of the future mods that I have planned(added weight), there is always room for improvement. I'm actually getting in on the gear & locker GB, so I may not even need this module. 4.88's FTW!

 

Fantastic news for Gen 3 owners. I remember the original post when he posted the initial thread using a bread board, nice to see this finally hit the big time. This will be a hit with all the Gen 3 guys.

Make one for 2nd gen as well. The highway shift logic sort of sucks.

 

So maybe it's deep in this thread but I didn't find it. There's one ODB connector and if you already have scangauge running, do you order the splitter I see on Amazon and will this read through the splitter?????

 

Thanks for the quick reviews guys. Gonna give it a try. Order placed!

 

It should be fine, but no one has posted about trying a splitter yet.

 

I sent an email with the question to the manufacturer but no response yet. Clearly one port per truck is going to be a limiter for additional gizmos.

 

It's in the neighborhood of $2,300 BEFORE the GB discount. They are compiling a list of people/parts before the actual ordering will be done, so I'm not positive of what the discounted price will be.

 

I agree. So far revision1 trans update works great as well as the throttle response. It is not 100% but very close. Not sure about this aftermarket device. I will let TW try it out first and see how reliable it is.

 

Getting caught up with the recent posts from this evening. I'll try to answer a few questions...

1) OBD Splitter:
The ShiftSense Pro has not been specifically tested while using the OBD port for multiple devices. Splitters are available, although if the devices compete for bandwidth, theoretically you may start to see impact. The current data-refresh rate of the ShiftSense is approximately 10Hz which is extremely fast. If the communication rate were slowed some I would not expect a noticeable difference in performance. If anyone tests this, please let us know.

2) The beeps:
For typical drives the only beeps you should hear are:

• Quick double-beep right when you start the truck, which indicates it has established communication with the OBD.
• Single beep when you engage it.

That should be all. The only other beeps it provides is to let you know if it has been cancelled by a manual shift. But unless you do that, you should hear no other beeps at all during the rest of your trip, and definitely not for every shift.

3) Thank you for the test-drive reviews so far! A couple comments:
It sounded like some testing was performed in cruise control... The shiftsense is constantly monitoring throttle position and accelerator pedal position for its control algorithm. It normally relies much more heavily on accelerator position because this is what gives the best 'connection' to the driver for feel and comfort. When driving in cruise, the device must switch over and rely totally on throttle position for its shift-maps since 'drive by wire', the accelerator pedals no longer move when in cruise. The Tacoma ECU handles the throttle position and during cruise it has a tendency to command throttle all the way to the extremes. In fact, it will go to almost WOT to maintain speed on a small grade. Since there is some overlap between the OEM maps and ShiftSense maps at high throttle positions, you might feel the truck making some down-shifts on its own in these cases. This is normal, and will usually only be felt while in cruise. If driving without cruise, you should not notice this type of behavior.

Regarding the speeds for 4th/5th gear.. It sounds like what you experienced so far is by design. If you are into the throttle, you will easily see it run 4th gear up to 70mph or maybe even a bit higher. (Sounds high, but it's really not). This is needed because the gear-ratio drop from 4th to 5th is so large that if you drop into 5th any sooner you be below the power-band and lose your power for acceleration and likely end up right back into 4th. On most normal accelerations you should see the shift from 4th to 5th at somewhere between 58 and 68 mph which should be right in the sweet spot.

 

@dcz108 - regarding the beeping: the most noticeable annoyance (so far) is when I'm parking or turning around somewhere tight... S mode to reverse, to S mode, to reverse, with beeps every time the S mode is engaged. That's mostly why I'd prefer to not have any sounds, especially since there are lights on the unit which serve to give the same notifiactions (for those that care about them).

And the same sound annoyance would come into play on the trails, where you have to self-spot and switch between Park and Drive (S) all the time.

 

If you are doing a turn like that why on earth would you shift to s mode each time? The only reason to shift into s mode is when it's time to drive off.

I like the beep. It's nice to know if you bump something and disrupt the smart sense thing.

 

Shifting into S will be a force of habit in a week. Hell, I was already doing it borderline subconsciously today.

How about a rocker switch on the side of the unit to enable/disable the sound? Wire it inline with the speaker, should be simple enough and will please everyone.

 

I can see your point.

I've been suiting s mode for about 5k of my 10k total miles. When doing an Austin powers turn I stil don't shift into s mode over and over again. Maybe I've just gotten so used to it that I know when to use it.

I'm sure you could open it up and disable that beep.

Or a switch. There's always that.

 

Have any of you tried the shift-sense + ECT yet?

 

My order shipped this morning. I have a 3" lift with 305s. I'll post a short and long term review for those interested . I had the TSB done with the re-flash and did notice a better shift process over the last few weeks (since the flash was done ) , but am hoping for a little better driving style on the freeway . Hope this $175 nugget works.

I love the truck.. hate the way it shifts.

 

Not sure if that's a good idea - there were many solid theories in this thread already as to what would happen...from the engine exploding to opening a rift up in the space time continuum.

 

Won't shift into 6th until 77mph? That seems quite annoying actually, I rarely hit 77mph

 

5th gear is higher ratio in this 6 speed than 5th gear in the 2nd gen v6 with the 5 speed. Just fyi.

edit/correction: its not higher, but it is nearly identical:

 

DC108: Will you consider disabling the beeping?