Learning logic?

Curious if anyone has any details around how the algorithms in our trucks "learn" your driving behavior and, more importantly, how to best train so it doesn't try to idle lower and lower for sake of MPG...

After disconnecting my battery to clear the learning, truck feels new again. So it's either learning too much from my M-F slow moving commute or a sensor issue but in willing to bet it's the former.

Aside from "drive it like you stole it" does anyone have any documentation that explains how the ECU specifically "learns" driving behavior?

 

I was told to just drive normally. I have almost 7k miles on mine and I have 0 complaints about the transmission. It holds gears and I never felt the hunting that some people complain about. It will adapt to your driving, or so we are told. Mine feels like it has.

 

Yeah, I thought the same and actually my issue was not with the transmission. In fact the shift points were pretty smooth and where I wanted them for most situations. S mode and ECT have their uses when merging or driving in the mountains but otherwise I stick with D.

My issue was with the throttle response and how it was ever so slowly trying to hold lower and lower RPMs that tended to be in that harmonic zone at highway speeds where I could feel vibes in the steering wheel and floorboard. Felt like it was really chugging and was annoying as hell on a 150 mi interstate trip. After my reset it's holding higher RPMs and staying out of that zone at highway speeds. I'd like to keep it that way

 

Who told you that?

 

I'd almost guarantee you this thing thinks my driving habits are great grandma-like - because I sit in stop and go traffic, slow accelerations, moving feet at a time. Then when I'm out of traffic or traveling on the weekends it isn't quick to adjust. One thing - and perhaps I just hit the perfect time somehow is that by leaving my (-) cable disconnected for ~5 minutes, the fuel maps and shift points undoubtedly reset, but I guess it was just shy of resetting radio presets - though I had to reconnect bluetooth from my phone. That was a bonus! I'll just reset it every so often if that's what I have to do to keep the poor programming from reverting back.

I will say that my MPG has steadily improved, at the sake of driving enjoyment. I used to get 16 MPG but the only vibes I felt were in the pedal around 2k.. while my MPG and slowly increased to around 20 but what came with that was a rough idle and throttle and ridiculous vibes in the floor / steering around 2k. I'll take 16 all day long and enjoy driving my truck.

Just goes to show that, in all honesty, most of the issues folks have with these trucks are software related. Disappointing, but easily fixable if Toyota get on it. Shouldn't have to spend hundreds on aftermarket software updates to keep it from driving like its broken...

 

Same here. 0 issues. No hunting and shifts fine.

 

Mine is still bad. I've given up on it. The dealership has applied two software updates, theyve cleared the ECU two or three times now (lost count) it just reverts back to shit after several thousand miles. I've driven like a grandma. I've driven normal. I've raced it like Andretti. No dice. It's just a poor combo of motor and transmission. For what you gain in fuel economy over similar platforms and previous generations it is NOT worth the annoying performance. Swing and a miss by Toyota.

 

Yeah, no doubt mine will probably revert back as well but for now it's acting like it has guts. I'll disconnect my battery every few thousand miles if that's what it takes. Just funny b/c mine (after the last Rev 1 TSB) wasn't really to do so much with shift points - although it probably did try to hold 6th too long creating vibes. Mine seemed to be fuel map related or something - again I think due to the stop and go traffic, light on the accelerator (out of necessity), and probably some level of compensation for all the warm air getting pulled in while barely moving. Hell, it's just a theory but I'll take what I can get. For today at least it's making me happy. but this truck makes me feel bipolar. It runs decent, then it runs like crap and I become OCD trying to figure out what's wrong. Endless cycle over the last 6 months.

 

it's complicated to an extreme


here is a general overview of how your tranny is -always- learning and adapting

http://www.sonnax.com/tech_resources/110-adapt-overcome


here is more info collected on rav4 forums

http://www.rav4world.com/forums/96-4-3-general/75683-transmissions-do-adapt.html

 

Dealer mentioned it as well as their tech when I purchased it. I don't know how much stock to put in it but so far it has worked for me. Also to note, I have not had any TSB's done. The transmission performs as expected for a truck and it has continued to impress.

 

The dealers can't point out the cigarette lighter correctly most of the time. I take what they say with a grain of salt. (95% of them)

 

I drove mine pretty recently on an 1800 mile trip from Charlotte to Boston and back to Charlotte. I felt the transmission was great, I never was annoyed. I did however, use S4 in traffic on 95 1 or 2 times but overall it was a very pleasent road trip getting to know my Truck.

 

Like I said, I haven't had any issues so I don't need to worry. I felt I knew more about the truck than my sales guy but also have zero complaints so far. I do think this is a subjective issue. These Transmissions have been proven by Lexus for some time now. It's just a preference thing, in my opinion.

 

Listen to this advise. When I bought my truck the sales guy (poor guy was new) tried to show me how to engage 4wd by pressing the rear lockers button.

 

It's been discussed by some in the know here like Gearcruncher that there are some valve body leaks in the transmission which can cause some issues with the performance. But yes of course it's subjective

 

Funny if you look right now at the Thread Topics in this forum, 5 or 6 of the top 12 are all related to Power and Shifting on this vehicle.

Third Gen has left a bit of room for improvement there, ya think?

 

I think the reason I have no complaints with mine is because I've been driving a first gen 4cyl pre-runner for 14 years prior to getting this truck. Compared to that, it's a racecar.

 

Valid

 

Whole story is that was for possible shift flare one time only when cold, nothing to do with the shifting once you are going after that.
I have no shift flare and it works just fine.
Even Mercedes have reported this as well as many other vehicles.

 

Everything can be improved. This combo did exactly what Toyota set out to do. Meet EPA/Fed requirements on MPG/emissions and gained more HP. Some like it and some do not. They're selling more Tacomas now than ever so I doubt much will change