Official 'I hate the 5-speed Auto' thread

So I noticed another thread was devolving into a rant about the 5 speed auto and it's absurd shifting patterns/timing/logic and since I hate the Auto trans myself, thought this was a great opportunity to start a discussion.

My biggest complaint is the shift pattern. Unless my foot is all the way to the floor, this thing wants to shift into 2nd or 3rd ridiculously early. Now my engine speed is well below peak torque (4k RPM) and the truck moves like grandpa. This is particularly a problem on freeway on-ramp merges - you hit a dead spot in acceleration.

My second biggest complaint with the 5 speed is that 5th gear is absolutely lacking in any sort of power. Unless on absolutely flat ground you cannot gain any appreciable speed unless you downshift, or make it downshift. If this was by design to gain MPG, fail. Having to shift to 4th and rev the engine higher is not efficient.

I have never driven a vehicle with such a poorly designed transmission. It's never in the right gear. I didn't buy a truck for mileage and don't appreciate the shift patterns of a Prius. On another Tacoma website a comment mentioned this trucks feels like it's dragging something. I feel the exact same way - this thing just doesn't want to move.

 

go try a 3rd gen, then you will be happy with your 2nd

 

I'm happy with mine. If I need to keep it out of overdrive, it's easy to just slap the lever to the left. I wonder if the op's trans has a problem.

 

Yea 5th gear is basically useless other than maintaining a constant speed on the highway. I just bang the shifter into 4 when I approach any sort of hill and leave cruise control on and it works great. Much better than actually constantly down shifting when I had my MT.

I am much happier with the auto in my 2nd gen than the Audi A4 I used to have FWIW

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ipt-valve-body-finally-installed.318077/


https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...th-pics-for-second-gen-4-liter-trucks.289913/

http://www.ebay.com/itm/A750E-F-5-S...sories&hash=item2c7b007016&vxp=mtr&rmvSB=true

Keep your throttle body clean . This issue is known to cause driveability issues and a lot of members think its a transmission problem .
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-throttle-body-cleaning-2005-v6.94203/


https://s3.amazonaws.com/sonnax-dev/uploads/unit/valve_body_layout/249/VBL-Toyota-A750EF.pdf

 

Mine seems to work fine.

 

No issues here unless I'm towing up in the Colorado hills. Then I wish I had the supercharger. But other than that it's fine. In my genesis coupe that thing just constantly hunts for gears but I guess it's apples to oranges. Can't really complain about sitting at 100 mph comfortably and still do 33 mpg

 

After putting on taller tires mine keeps the revs a bit higher and gets going better than used to. It would sit around 1k in fifth while doing 50. It will downshift with cruise on doing 70 on moderate inclines though which is annoying.

 

The A750E in my '09 behaves as I would expect...

 

Mines fine , I don't see any trouble with it. I don't notice any problems or abnormal shifts. Seems to shift smoothly

 

No issues with my AT after 10 years and 140k.

OP have you kept up on transmission oil changes and such?

 

Dafuq? I have zero issues with mine, plenty of power, and no gear hunting... with 33's.

 

my biggest complaint is once it downshifts to 4th for an incline, sometimes it will stay in fourth even on downhill, until I rev the engine a bit to kick it up to 5th.

 

You can manually hit the shifter left to 4th, then pop it back over to D which will shift you back up into 5th when that happens. Happens on mine as well, but very seldomly.

 

I actually like an extension of this feature, in certain scenarios: when I'm on a downhill slope, and everyone ahead of me is riding the brakes, my truck will usually downshift a gear after I've hit the brakes, and hold there until I give it some additional gas. I like that it will engine brake for me in those situations.

 

What size lift and tires are on it?

No issues with my 2015.

 

I like mine in my 2nd gen and if the turd gen didn't have so many auto transmission problems I might take a look at one.

 

Lazy boy auto here. I'm happy with mine. It's got pep to get on the freeway when I really need to. I never have to worry about it needing to "catch up".

 

I think mine is great. Snappy, firm shifts, and it's a torquey motor so the tranny works well at lower rpm.

 

I've rode in my friends auto plenty of times and even when towing with his 285s the transmission behaves pretty damn well! My father in laws F150 on the other hand (pre eco boost) is a pig even when driving on a surface, add an incline and its even worse... then there's towing... constantly hunting and you actually have to let off the throttle completely before it will shift into final gear. But they treat their vehicles like shit so its probably not fords fault. lol