The 4.88 mega thread!!

How happy are you with the new tune 1.03? I have my gears changed and just received the tune but cannot flash until next Monday waiting on a new laptop. Now i kinda wished i did the tune first to see if it would make me happy. The gears are great but they really haven't been kind on the MPG's anything over 60-65 and MPG's drop alot more then i was thinking they would. So to get 18 ish MPG's you have to keep it under 2000 rpm. Just curious if the tune added enough to not do gears, guess that ship sailed already!

 

I have 33s and live in Hawaii, the max speed limit on the whole island is 60 and that is only in 2 places (one of those places being a mountain pass) , the rest of the island is 55, 50 or 45 on the freeways so needless to say I don't use 6th gear at all. Before the tune it was frustrating with the shift dance and my truck would even downshift to 3rd on the freeway that goes over the mountain. I got the OVtune when it first became available in July and it has helped out tremendously with overall driveability. I wouldn't say that it has made getting gears pointless but it has made things much more bearable with every new update OV has put out. With this latest offering from Matt it has really made the truck much more tolerable to the point that if I didn't have the gears sitting here looking at me in the face I'd question if I NEEDED them. Sure I'd want them, but NEED them, no. I think 33s are the max that I would go without the gears, once I go to 35s though I will definitely need them. With that being said, I have lost 1.25 MPG with the new tune under the same driving conditions. No, I haven't been leadfooting it around either because of the improved power, I drive the same constantly. I'm hoping that maybe the MPG will get a little better with more driving as some folks have said that the tune improves a little after running a few tanks of gas, I'm on tank fill #2 right now and it's still the same as tank #1, 15.4MPG. In my opinion it's a good tradeoff for the driveability aspect of things though. Completely happy with the tune and I expect there will be further iterations that will only improve things even more. When the gears finally go in I'm looking forward to getting a 6th gear and hopefully some added MPGs but I'm not holding my breath for that. I'm also hoping that the combination of the tune and gears will improve on the driveability even more with more gears to use in the same speed range so even though I'll have more shifting going on it'll hopefully be a better transition between them all. At this point, without driving my truck with the new gearing installed yet and given a choice of 1 or the other I'd definitely opt for the tune. The whole driving experience is altered and makes the truck so much more enjoyable and at easily half the cost of gears. I'd think that gears would make the truck's power seem on par with any other vehicle but the mannerisms of the whole powertrain is what pissed me off from the start. OVtune hasn't fixed things entirely but the difference is astounding.

 

I recently went from stock to a 6” lift and 35’s, and honestly it doesn’t feel like I NEED to upgrade to 4.88. My truck is a manual if that makes any difference. I can definitely feel the difference from the big tires, but my truck doesn’t feel any weaker from the big tires at all.

 

No break in...that's good.

Dirty fives on stock gears blows...through gas with no powah.

 

The difference might be the auto vs manual. 3.9 vs 4.3.

 

ANYONE? How many quarts gear oil do i need to replace rear end only?

 

Sorry if this has been asked already, I am planning on getting 285's Toyo AT2, would I need 4.88 for that?

 

What are you using the truck for?

 

Why don’t they make 4.56 for 3rd gen autos?

 

If its your daily driver and you dont off road a lot. You may want to get the OVtune that seems to be working great for a lot of guys. I have the gears done running 285/70/17's with a winch and steal skids, RTT. The gears brought the truck back to life but its a hit on MPG's. It still has its issues with the shifting and i think the tune can add alot to fix that and add some extra power. I am going to do the tune also actually i have it but just dont have a Laptop to install it , that comes Monday.

 

Yeah it's mainly on road use. I don't have any other weight such as bumpers and winches etc.

 

4.2 if it is the 8.75 rear end

 

Here is a list of amounts as per Tacoma model:

Differential, DCAB Without LBED Rear..........8 pints With differential lock system
Differential, DCAB Without LBED Rear..........6.1 pints Without differential lock system
Differential, Access Cab Rear..........8 pints
Differential, Access Cab Rear..........6.1 pints Without differential lock system
Differential, DCAB With LBED Rear..........6.6 pints Without differential lock system
Differential, DCAB With LBED Rear..........8.5 pints With differential lock system
Differential, With MT Rear..........8 pints With differential lock system

Differential, Front..........3.2 pints

FYI: The 4.88 gearing makes any Tacoma much more fun to drive!!!

 

Hey guys. Just bought the nitro 4.88 for 2017 TRDOR manual w/locker and REM option. Few questions.
I live in the Harrisburg area. Central PA. Where is a good quality installer for these gears?

Does the master kit include new Differential carrier bearings? If not what's a good part number? And how many for front and rear?

How long does it take (days) to do this job?

 

Oh hell yes. Install on Thursday


BEFORE REM Resurfacing:




AFTER REM resurfacing:

​

 

post break-in report. After a 500 mile break-in period of trying to keep my speeds varying and under 55 mph I finally took my speed to 65 mph. My set up is 4.88's, and yes stock size tires. Average tank mileage initially was down about 1.5 mpg to 21 mpg, but is now back up. The auto trans shifts much smoother and the truck is much more responsive - especially in "S" mode and even more so with the Shift Sense engaged. Prior to regear and going up steep grades my auto trans never held gear or posted speed of 65mph in standard drive mode. Now it kicks down and holds 5th gear without hesitation and smoothly keeps 65mph at approximately 2500rpm - no gear hunting what so ever. RPM at 65mph in 6th gear is slightly over 2000rpm.

The change to 4.88's has made drivability of this truck what I expected, and what the Mother Ship should have done from the factory. Now I am satisfied with the performance.

Next I will be adding sound deadening to the back cab panel and open cell backer rod into the door weather strips to kill exterior noise - something else the Mother Ship took cheap way out on!

 

Great writeup.. Answers a lot of questions for me.

 

Excellent idea! I did this when I put on my MBRP exhaust last year - to lessen the drone. I took out the back seats and storage bins and basically covered the entire back wall and floor behind and under the seat. It really helped with the noise to the tune of lessening it around 30-40%.

To keep this post relevant to the 4.88 - i can't fking wait to experience highway inclines without dropping to 4th EVERY FKING TIME.

 

Has anyone done the regear in a manual?

 

If you have an auto without a factory locker, you have the old school 8" rear, I believe you can get any ratio up to 5.29 for it.