4spd 2.7 Highway help

As much as id like to think youre being sincere it comes off as sarcastic.

Cruise has no excuse to crank up to 3200rpm on a 4 degree incline where if i cancel cruise and resume it, it will stay in 4th or OD the second time around. Its like its too eager to go down to 3rd, when 4th would have been plenty... And then onces breaching the top of the grade, there should only be a few seconds on a properly tuned drivetrain, before the cruise upshifts you back to OD. Not happening most of the time for me, and its causing unecessary wear and rpm. I understand that rpm doesnt completely dictate fuel economy, but unless youre using engine braking going down a hill, theres no way around higher rpm using more fuel, it takes a finite amount of fuel and air to compress and combust in the cylinder, to produce one rotation. If youre asking for a thousand more rotations in a minute, aka 2300rm to 3300rpm when it jumps down to 3rd, youre gonna be burning more fuel. Im not gonna say its burning 33% more, cause i dont know, but i can tell you my mileage is a solid 3mpg worse when i let cruise do its thing instead of intervening. Which is getting old. Which is why i asked for legitimate insight, and im thankful for the guys who did so far!

To the guys who mentioned fluid drain and solenoids etc.... its a four year old truck with only 8k miles. Should i do a drain and refill and maybe run some lucas AT treatment just to help clean up solenoids? I work as a diagnostic and parts pro at an auto parts store, but i always get scared to do tinkering to my own (and only!) vehicle... Im wondering if maybe im a little low on AT Fluid and its significant enough to not have proper pressure for the shift points. I read somewhere on here that the 4spd is picky on fluid levels in order to shift properly, is that true?

 

Just my experience, so it might apply or not apply: I have the 2.7 w/ 6 speed auto, and I dropped in the AFE Pro Dry S air filter. I did not notice any changes in power or shifting.

But I do have a cool grey filter now.

 

In your situation (going uphill) there's actually less fuel going into each cylinder at the higher RPM in 3rd than in 4th. This is because there is more load/stress on your engine in 4th than in 3rd. It's going to make more revolutions in 3rd of course so fuel usage should be about a wash, or potentially even better in 3rd of the engine has better efficiency in that range (since the computer wants to be there, I'm betting it does). This would mean your extra fuel use is probably elsewhere.

I'd be willing to bet that if you could look at a true readout of your speed throughout the trip, you'd see that when cruise control is off you drop below your target speed by a couple MPH while going uphill. Everybody does, we cannot see tiny drops in speed like the computer can while it's trying to maintain the set speed so our attempts to stay on top of it will be delayed resulting in speed loss here and there. You're probably also exceeding your target speed on the downgrades which gives you more energy to work with on the next upgrade. When cruise is on, if you have it set to 65 it will floor it to maintain exactly 65. If dropping down just a little bit, to say 62 or 60 on the same grade is acceptable then cruise control is not what you want. I've experiences this tons of times using cruise control in the sierras and coast ranges in cars with automatics.

Don't use cruise in the mountains!

 

Tonneau cover will probably shave some more off than simply leaving the tailgate down when it comes to highway speeds.

 

The Carfax on my 2013 2.7 with A4 shows a computer/drivetrain reprogram by Toyota so I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the trans or not. But you might want to look into to see if the 2015 had the same recall or fix. The 2.7 with A4 has to downshift to 3rd to climb a hill or sometimes to maintain a higher speed. I never use cruise control so I can't say if mine acts the same. The 2.7 A4 combo does not work that well. Toyota used to offer the ECT button on the older trucks and now the newer trucks which helped them hold a higher shift point and they drive a lot better than our combo. I think over time, the computer will get used to your driving and adjust but using cruise control might not allow it to learn your habits. I'd love a V6, but they don't offer it in a regular cab. I wouldn't waste money on power adders for the 2.7 if you can find another truck with the V6. It really depends on how long you think you will need to do that drive.

 

What you might not understand is that on your 4 speed auto trans 3rd gear is still a 1.0 ratio.
4th is an overdrive gear.
Expecting your 4 banger to stay in overdrive on a mountain road is not exactly reasonable.

 

Sorry if I came off sarcastic but if it’s under warranty let them fix it. The more I think about your symptoms it could be a little low on ATF. It would definitely cause that and a little rough shifts on level ground. It’s no big deal to pull the check plug and see if ATF comes out. Indicating that it’s full If nothing comes out just add a little until it starts to pour out of the check hole. You can do it or the dealer can. I rather you do it. Because Techs are always looking to make time on a repair and love giving warranty work the no go unless it’s about big bucks. I would let the dealer figure this one out.Heck these trucks are not cheap.

 

There’s nothing to fix. This is just the typical experience of someone who should have bought a V6, but didn’t. So here we are.

 

It's always been like that with 4 cylinder/4 speed auto pickups. They have always been great little trucks(s10 and ranger come to mind) but when you gotta get up big hills and haul stuff is when it sucks. I wonder how much the new 6 speed autos help with that.

 

Christian, Mine is not exactly like yours. If I'm in 4th & converter is locked, cruising at say 60 mph. the slightest hill will make mine unlock the converter (up 400 rpm.) & shift down to 3rd (up another 400 rpm.), it does it so fast it seems like it only does one thing to increase the 800 rpm. when actually it does two things. Then while still going up the hill, it will shift back to 4th & the rpm. will drop appx. 400 rpm. then when it tops the hill the converter will lock back & the rpm. will drop the other 400 rpm. On that hill the trans. never needed to shift at all. If it had just unlocked the converter, that extra 400 rpm. would have been plenty to ease me right over the hill. I wish there was a button to punch to unlock the converter, in my area many (maybe most) hills wouldn't make the trans shift if the converter was unlocked. That's why I've been looking at changing the differential gears to let it run appx. 400 rpm. faster at cruising speed. Like others have said, you using the cruise control is part of your problem. After the mph. drops like 2 mph, going up a hill, the cruise control will keep mashing the gas harder & harder, trying to get back up to the selected mph. Most folks, driving without the cruise on, won't try to keep the mph. at that exact speed, they will just push the gas enough to kind'f just ease on up the hill.

 

i also have the dry afe drop in. noticed a tad more growl thats about it.

 

i have a tonneau, soft... should i roll it up and tailgate down youre saying??

 

Understood...

I would presume ill be making the drive for about a year, since its gonna take us time to get financially and practically ready to get hitched. After that, i believe shes cool with moving out here. So im gonna be doing that drive through the adirondacks on I87 and down into mass quite a bit, theres plenty of grades that i suppose i can try manually accelerating for instead of cruise, but i find that the speed loss as someone above mentioned is more significant than just a few, it would drop me from 70 to more like 55 if i kept it from downing to 3rd. Its not even that part that bothers me as much as that its super hesitant to go back down to 4th and OD when it clearly has no excuse not to. No need for engine braking, on a level or downhill plane, and it still holds 3200rpm and 3rd gear for almost thirty seconds or sometimes indefinitely until i stop cruise and resume it. Theres definitely an issues with the upshift pattern and id love to know how to get it to more aggressively upshift.

 

i think i know what youre saying but it doesnt make sense... i can clearly count the shifts, and theres four shifts... From first to second, from second to third, from third to fourth, and then any speeds of 48mph or greater, it will kick into OD which would be a theoretical fifth gear.

 

you really have a death wish dont you. Heh heh.

I would have liked a v6, but when this deal came out for a 2015 with 4900 miles for under 20k which was the lowest advertised price in the nation when i did an in depth search that night when i got home - i was like yep im takin it, not looking for some unicorn v6 for the same price range. We get what we get and we be thankful for it and make it work. Not everyone can just cherry pick whatever they want in life and throw benjamins at the world get what looks shiny. Appreciate you beating a dead horse depsite my asking politely that this not turn into one of those *my engine is better than your engine* threads.. Thanks for that.

 

Thank you man, thats actually really close to what im experiencing a lot of the time.... You bring to mind that the lockup is what i was thinking of as OD... So theres literal four speeds, and the lockup is what i felt and thought was an OD gear. Ok, so yeah i wonder if theres a programming option available to keep the converter locked and allow speed reduction to a limit, like say up to 7mph decrease before downshifting? Or can we get a more aggressive converter unlock to help it hold speed sooner so that it doesnt think it needs to drop to 3rd when like me you are experiencing that it clearly didnt need to make that unecessary shift? ughhh lol

 

Nah, I just meant that simply having a cover probably helps a tad bit, even more on very windy days.

 

Brand new girl 4 hours away and getting hitched is already on the 1-year radar? Talk about overdrive my man, easy there!

 

Theoretical 5th is the torque converter locking.
Overdrive is any gear higher (lower numerical number) than a 1.0 ratio (4th)

 

im old school brother, we have been talking a year and are now old school courting with the intent of getting married. Everybody's timeline is different, but i intend to buck any trend of modern day's whimsical approach of dating. Im doin this once, and im doin it right!