Manual Tacoma - 1st to 2nd Notchy?? Anyone else?

Hey all, pretty new here to TW. Just got my first Taco about 2 months ago. I am not new to manual, but this has definitely been an interesting transition coming from 4-cylinder Subarus most my life.. I have come across a persistent "issue" when shifting from 1st-2nd. I have trouble shot a sorts of different ways to not make it notchy, but no matter what I do I can never find that perfect "sweet spot" or RPM to shift.

Anyone else have issues like this with a +2018? It is a DCSB OR.. please let me know if you have found a solution or if I should take it in to the dealership to see what's going on.

THANKS! Stoked to see what you all have to say.

 

Some guys change the manual transmission fluid. This is a great thread to dig through to find what type of fluid you want to put in that can change the notchy.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-manual-transmission-6mt-fluid-change.481719/

 

If you have driven nothing but Subaru before this it could very well just be that you’re not used to the clunkiness of a truck transmission.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/6-sp-fluid-change.594122/#post-19893337

Post 4. A product to consider.

 

Personally I find the gearbox to be quite smooth, most of the time. Sometimes there are rough shifts, but I attribute that to driver error. This post is correct, swapping out gear oil can help a lot.

 

I find this to be the smoothest shifting Tacoma of all 3 generations, I would attribute it to mostly only driven Subaru manual prior.

 

That is kind of what I was thinking as well..

 

Looks like something worthy of checking out for sure. Never changed the Diff fluid myself. Any idea what it would cost to do?

 

What do you find to be a good RPM to upshift?

 

Mine is pretty smooth. But 1st to 2nd is definitely the easiest to mess up. I drove a friends Subaru STI a few times and it was one of the smoothest MTs I've ever driven. Seemed like no matter what you did it would shift like glass where as in other cars you have to time it right or else it'll be a bit notchy.

 

I want to treat the car like a baby, what do you personally use between Mobil 1 and the Ford elixir?

It seems like the Taco just wants to rev'd to a higher RPM for all the other gears. Does that sound similar to yours?

 

I usually rev out first gear and then take it easier the rest of the way out, skip 4th or 5th gear most of the time too.

 

I found the same thing on my 18. No grinding, but the 1-2 shift has a unpleasant crunchy feeling. I brought it up to the dealer early on to have it documented and the tech suggested synthetic oil. I bought the

$31 Ford XTM5QS Ford Genuine Ford Fluid XT-M5-QS Full Synthetic Manual Transmission Fluid - 1 Quart , black

Ford XTM5QS and it seems a bit better 1-2, and much smoother overall. Definitely worth the small investment. RockAuto has it for $15/qt, which seemed cheap compared to others.

 

I my autox car referred to in the post, I was satisfied with Mobil 1 (after running OE & trying Royal Purple). I would have moved to the Ford product next change just because racers are always looking for something better. And while this was in a car ('96 Miata) they were equipped with 5 speed truck transmissions.

My Taco is auto. However, notchy shifts and revving in a particular gear are unrelated.

One of the worst things to do is treat it like a baby. You won't enjoy it nearly as much that way. Yes, maintain it well with good products and avoid intentional abuse, but pussyfooting around isn't gonna help anything. Just drive it!

 

Depends. If I am not in a hurry, I shift low, under 2000. A few times, over 3500, close to 4.

The best MT I have shifter is a S2000. Smooth short shift, phenomenal car. My Taco is still a nice shifting truck.

 

Mine smoothed out a lot as it got some miles on it. Or I got used to it. Probably a little of both?

 

If you change the gear oil you might consider Red Line MT-90 GL4 75w90 synthetic gear oil:

$91 Red Line 50305 MT-90 75W-90 GL-4 Manual Transmission and Transaxle Lubricant (MTL) - 1 Gallon

https://www.amazon.com/Red-Line-503...57676130&s=gateway&sprefix=Red+line+gl&sr=8-3

I used Red Line (above) in my 2002 Tacoma MT 5 speed starting in 2008 and it smoothed out the shifting considerably. When I sold the truck, the buyer who owned many Toyotas commented how smooth it shifted.

My 2019 MT shifts very smooth, and seems to shift smoother as it breaks in. I plan to change its gear oil in a few months.

After reading the reviews on the Ford gear oil, Miata drivers claimed it shifted better with the Ford gear oil than Red Line at low temps. You might want to try the Ford syn gear oil.

 

I switched to Redline MT90. Shifting feels much smoother. The OEM fluid would allow for notchy sounding shifts to 2nd and 3rd gear. It also helps to perfect your shifting technique. When you are shifting, I try to get the shifter into the next gear quickly before RPMs drop too low.

 

I’ve been a Red Line gear oil fan for nearly 20 years. I’m even using their 0W20 since I leave the engine oil in for a few years, while driving the truck about 2500 mi/yr

 

1-2nd, right around 2200-2500 on level ground. 2-3rd closer to 2500 and up. Getting on the highway in a hurry you can take 3rd up to 65mph which should be around 4k. 4th is 1:1 so you can also get into that early and take that to the moon as well if you need to get moving. Powerband is around 3400-3600 most trucks*. If you're new to driving manual transmission trucks, start off by driving it like a granny in a mack truck. Foot all the way off the gas, clearly, then clutch to the floor. Do it right and you'll have no unsettling of the truck at all.

Between my old 2nd gen MT Tacoma, my s10, f150 and Chevy W/T, this truck is by far the smoothest truck clutch i've ever used.