ShiftSense Pro - transmission shift controller for Gen3 Tacoma

Order 1355
Placed 6/20
Shipped 6/30
Due to arrive tomorrow!

Will be out of town til Wednesday but can't wait to get it installed. Thanks all for the descriptive reviews, seems like this will fix my complaints!

 

mine has push button start,, push start button twice will power unit , without starting engine,,

 

Is there a 5th overdrive and then a standard 5th gear on the highway? Drove mine with SSPro on the highway for the first time yesterday and I swear it was downshifting but the truck said it was still in 5th. Just want to make sure there isn't something wrong with my SSPro. Otherwise I freaking love it.

 

I am also interested in highway use of the SSpro? Mine will hopefully be in this week and had ordered it immediately once I heard about it. 285/75/16's look amazing but constantly bouncing between 2200 and 3500 rpm @ 75-80 is getting old (happens regardless of S or D mode/ 5th or 6 gear don't seem to help... Any suggestions or input welcomed!

 

Probably just the torque converter unlocking.
If you haven't driven in S mode a whole lot prior, you might not be used to the way it operates in S-mode. S mode eleminates flex/half lock operation.

 

Order #1384 ordered 6-29-2017.

Shipped 7.2.2017.

 

It doesn't shift into 6th until about 77mh.

 

2200-3500 rpm shifting at that speed is gears 5&4. SSP tries to keep gear lower than stock settings. It will not prevent the truck going to 4th. Your solution might lie with regearing, unless you would rather stay in 4th, which you could do even right now by putting truck in S4.

 

Nah, the gears are the same whether in D or S.. 5th which is first overdrive, and 6th is second overdrive., I think what you are likely feeling may be downshifts to 4th being made by the OEM shiftmap. There is a bullet in the instruction manual describing this a bit, which i'll copy here:

"The ShiftSense™ Pro selects the appropriate S-mode gear based on its programming. In some instances, the vehicle may perform downshifts on its own which were not specifically commanded by the ShiftSense™ Pro. This is normal, and occurs due to some small overlaps in the OEM shift-map and the ShiftSense™ Pro shift-map at very-high throttle positions."

Since the Toyota S-mode functions as an upper limiter on the gear selections, the truck can not be physically prevented from performing its own downshift, and you may feel this occasionally when you are in the very upper range of throttle position. 99% of the time, SSPro will command all of your downshifts itself before the OEM map does, but there are some rare occasions where it does not. For-example, If you are 70+ mph range and you're in 5th. If you get heavy into the throttle, the SSP is not necessarily calling for the downshift to 4th because it might not be necessary yet, but the OEM may make the downshift anyway because it uses the exponential shift-map curves.. Doesn't happen often, but it is normal if it does. You will still see S5 selected on the dash-indicator through this because the SSP didn't feel it necessary to force a change to S4.. but it knows that the truck will be coming back to 5th gear momentarily. You may notice this a bit more in Cruise-control because the Tacoma's cruise-control operation will make swings to nearly Wide-open throttle to maintain speed up a small grade... I think we all hate how it does that, but again it is likely the OEM map forcing downshifts at those throttle positions because they are so extreme instead of the actual SSP.

As splitbolt mentioned, you may also feel the engagement of the torque convertor which causes a small drop in RPM and may feel like an extra shift. On pretty much all modern vehicles the Torque convertor is unlocked anytime it makes a gear-shift or anytime you let off the gas pedal. Once you get back on the gas it will lockup several seconds later.

 

Thank you sir! Always very helpful.

 

That's one thing I never understood on S mode. The whole point of S mode is to be able to shift manually, but the computer overrides certain commands. What a dumb concept, and very frustrating. Whoever programmed the mapping on this transmission needs a swift kick in the ass. Downshifting is not so smooth either. Does this address the downshifting issues as well?

 

The whole concept of S-Mode is not to shift manually, it's to limit how high the transmission will shift to! If you are in S4, the transmission will shift up and down by itself from 1-4, but not go into 5 or 6.

 

Hey guys anyone running ScanGaugeII same time with SSpro on a splitter? Any ill affects or is it unaffected? Thanks!!

 

Does this help with those of us that have 285's

 

Order # 1287 installed in the 90 temps in Florida. First impressions after a 10 mile drive , its a major improvement ! Does not solve all the engine/trans issues but its a start. Might consider that ECU tune that is in the works.

 

ABSOLUTELY! Helps a tremendous amount!

 

IMO the issues we all are experiencing are not repairable with software in all driving conditions. The main problem as I see it is the gear spacing in the transmission. 6-5 is 19% 5-4 45% 4-3% 50% 3-2 40% 2-1 72%.

If the 6th gear ratio remained at 0.58 but 4 and 5 were more evenly spread it would be more drivable.

Ie. if fifth was .78 and fourth was 1.09 we would hold those gears longer and also have less rpm increase between gears on downshift.

Often in the mountains it is in fourth because 5th is just not enough and same on steeper grade shifting to third when fourth just needs a bit more. Then a better shifting algorithm would really help the feel and allow good real word driving fuel economy

Not sure why the spacing is done like it is. If you look at the manual or a Chevy transmission they folllow common logic to increase gear spacing at the lower end but this is all over the place.

I guess for EPA they can theoretically drive in just 5-6 and the numbers look good.

 

Totally agree with you!

Especially when towing a trailer at highway speeds (i.e. 60-70 mph), I always feel like the truck would be worlds better with a slightly shorter 5th gear. As it stands now, you're pretty much forced to lock into 4th unless you are doing 70 or faster....otherwise the truck constantly gear hunts.

 

I have a similar question that never got answered. Which splitter works best with SSpro?

 

Got mine installed yesterday. Big difference around town and on the highway. My area is hilly, so where it would normally downshift to 3rd gear it stays in 4th. On the highway it will downshift to 5th, but still has enough power to maintain speed without downshifting into 4th gear and pulling 3500rpm for 1/4mi at a time.

Very glad I purchased this, night and day difference.