2019 3rd Gen Transmission Nightmare

I’m a new guy. Still can’t figure out how to properly search threads, so this may have been covered, but I need to air my grievances and I’m hoping you’ll listen.

5500 miles on my 2019 Limited. The transmission drives like GARBAGE.

I used to drive my 2010 TRD off road like a madman. Admittedly, I was rough on it, and over time, the truck showed the abuse. When I got this truck, I decided I wanted to take it easy. I’ve babied this truck. Slow on the gas. Easy on the brakes. Gentle turning, and an overall greater appreciation for the truck.

That said, I’ve noticed that this truck cannot figure out when to shift. On the slightest incline, the power curve is completely unpredictable. From bogging low in the RPMS to sitting high near redline and jumpy as hell.
Most typically, the truck will shift from 1st to 2nd to 3rd, decide 3rd’s power doesn’t deliver enough torque, shift back to 2nd, ride to high rpm, then short shift back to 3rd where it bogs. This is all at/below the area of 30-35 mph where I intentionally keeping constant throttle pressure.

When I accelerate to highway speeds, with more throttle pressure, the power curve tends to be more predictable until I approach cruise speed. 1-2-3-4 will hit predictably, but then if I want -say - 65 mph, it’ll find 5th, jump to 6th, but then suddenly decide it wants 5th again and stutter step between gears depending on what mood it’s in.

Adaptive cruise control is just as much of a nightmare. The engineers seem to have programmed the adaptive cruise control to run the ¼ mile. If ACC is set to 72 mph, and a car doing 50 is in front of me, instead of slowly applying the brakes to match 50, the truck SLAMs on the brakes. Then, the 50 mph car will change lanes to give me clear road ahead. Make sure your seatbelt is on, hat strapped tight, and you’re ready for a drag race because the truck doesn’t understand gentle acceleration. Not only does it not understand gentle acceleration but it will hold onto 4th and 5th until redline. Feels like they assigned the new-guy engineers to program the on board computer controlling the flybywire throttle and it’s genuinely a real a let down for a sticker priced 41k or whatever it was truck.

Now that I’ve captured this in writing and gotten it off of my chest, has anyone else encountered this and have any suggestions? I saw that 2016 had an ECM remap. Does this sound applicable to the 2019?

I truly believe it is an electronic mapping issue. My concern is the undue wear and tear on the actual transmission and I am hoping it can corrected before the transmission is hit too bad.

Any suggestions would help. It’s going in 7/2 for its first service. I’d like to walk in and tell the tech exactly what I’d like them to do because I’ve lost confidence over time (other experiences) in the Toyota techs/service departments. I’ve dealt with.


Thanks in advance. Everyone here has been helpful before & my apologies for ripping Toyota apart just now - I really do love the truck and just wish this situation could be resolved.

 

Get ready...

 

Not another one of these. Please god.

 

I know this is most likely just a bored Ford salesman or a bitter 2nd gen'er but here ya go...

On 7/2 when you take your truck in... test drive another Tacoma at the dealership to see if it has the same issues. If it does.. then sell it.

Thread.

 

So you buy the top of line Tacoma, you abuse it and now you're claiming tranny issues?!...something tells me you're in the company of Ranger or maybe a Colorado...,perhaps even a Gladiator...car preference is like politics...if you want to dethrone something...bad mouth it...

 

Quit babying it. Drive it normal. It has plenty of power. Use the ECT.
When you buy your next vehicle it's always wise to test drive test drive test drive.
Lastly, it will learn, to a point, your driving habits. It will be shitty if you are driving like a grandma.

 

Here we go
If you can't find this topic on a search, you're not searching, you can see this tired old subject from the moon.

PSA: always test drive before buying

 

It's an automatic transmission and is designed to shift, let it.

/thread

 

Negative. Drove the 2010 like crap. Driving the 2019 responsibly.

 

Test drove it -didn’t notice the issues and I’m happy to read old threads if you have a link.

 

The learning transmission is supposed to adjust to your driving habits. When you drive babying it, it thinks, hey this is how I am supposed to drive.

Drive it normally. It is a modern vehicle and a proven engine. The transmission should settle down. Just drive it and don't be afraid of the gas pedal. I think part of it, and its the same with all of these threads, is people have a notion of how they WANT the truck to drive and by gosh if its not how the truck drives then its wrong. Yes you will rev higher in a 3G then other trucks on the market and no your 2G was not a low rpm torque monster it was a similarly high RPM truck (within 200 or so RPM if I remember correctly) with nearly identical stats. Also, I find it hard to believe that you can be in high RPM 2nd and then bog out in 3rd. As I think through this. I am getting on the this is a troll post bandwagon.

Also people will throw use ECT use ECT. The only thing ECT is going to do is hold you in particular gear longer by changing the shift points. It will not make you faster, in fact it will slow your 0-60 down.

 

I can assure you I’m not a troll - at least by my standards - I’m not on the forum frequently, but had success here requesting info on a remote starter so I figured I’d give it a shot and ask for advice.

Maybe my description of a bog is different. When it hits back into 3rd it’ll run what I’ll describe as a constant wave from 1500-1600-1500-1600 rpms. Don’t quote my numbers there but I’m describing the feel of an inconsistent and unpredictable power delivery. I do not use the ECT, but have toggled it on and off without good results.

Seems like this post is taking another direction instead of help though and I’m assumed to be a Tacoma expert for my 4th post in the forum.

Either the insinuation is that I’m crazy, or the forum has come to accept that the 3rd gen drives like shit - talk down on people who didn’t realize it at purchase - and it’s taken me 5500 miles to discuss it.

 

I had the same issues with my 2016 auto and it drove me crazy.

There are 3 possible fixes.
1) OVTune
2) Gears
3) Trade for a MT

Check this out. This will explain the issues with the stock calibration in detail
https://www.ovtuned.com/blogs/news/...-tacoma-transmission-and-how-we-are-fixing-it

 

I'm not defending the OP, that said my truck (also a '19 OR) will go from 1 to 2 and hold the rpms then bog down in 3 if I drive like Grandpa Jones out for a Sunday stroll. Solution is not to do that and it drives just fine.

 

Do you see the search bar at the top right of the page? What search terms did you try? There are literally dozens of threads just like this one, hundreds of posts to read through. People on forums tend to help those who try to help themselves first. Saying you can't get the search function to work properly is bullshit. I hate it when people just want to be spoon fed.

 

Mine has driven fine since day one. Though I can relate to the statement about the adaptive cruise, I've learned to anticipate when the truck wants to slow down, by either changing lanes or temporarily switching cruise off. The car cant "forsee" likely events like you can, such as if a car moves into your lane right before McDonald's, you can guess that car will turn and you dont need to slow down, but the truck doesn't know that. Just tap the break and when the car moves out of the way, boom, push the resume button and no breaks or prompt acceleration will occur. I mean, its not rocket science here folks.

 

Call me suspicious, but this post screams Smitty99 alternate troll account.

 

I just bought a 2017... no adaptive cruise control so I cant help you there. I will say that the manual cruise control on the 2017 is the most agressive I have ever used for accel/ decel- but to me thats welcome. My wifes CRV has almost no response.

As far as transmission...I bought this thing used w 25k on it. The first week or two the transmission and I were at odds. It wasnt used to a new driver and I had never driven a Tacoma, but after awhile things evened out. I use S mode around town mostly now. I like it a lot and have no complaints.

If you do after 5500 miles maybe the Taco aint the truck for you.

 

The number of threads and complaints regarding a short list of issues, this one included, is nearly a constant. It is well documented and even can be found in reviews from the various car review sites. These posts often are just intentional bashing with no look for resolution from the OP. If you are different, then my apologies.

The thing is this truck likes throttle and RPM; which for some reason people dont like they seem to think everything needs to be a low RPM diesel truck (over generalization I know). The gears can be tall, especially 6th. There are multiple work arounds that seem to fall in to two categories, change how you drive to fit the truck or change how the truck drives. One is cheaper than the other. The cheaper way is to acknowledge how the truck likes to drive and adjust yourself to work around it. The benefit to this method is it is free and over time you wont even notice that the truck drives differently than your previous vehicles. Two things will happen, the transmission will make what ever adjustments that it makes (can take several 1000 miles depending on how consistent you are) and you will know how much pressure to put into the pedal to get it to do what you want. This is the method I took, my dad took, and my cousin took (all with 3Gs) all of us have no complaint on how the truck drives and it does not bog on us. If you have problems with 6 being too tall for your travels, put it in S-mode and lock it to 5th. My Dad has done this in some cases. For me when it wants to jump, I just back off the throttle a little, it will shift up and then I ease back on it presto it cruises in 6th. TLR: use the gas pedal and 5,000 miles is still not very long to adjust to the vehicle.

The other route and mentality is to change it all up, do a OVTune, change the gears out, etc.

Also, note on cruise control - I understand the complaint, but thats not Toyota specific. Cruise Controls have always been a drag race feel when speeding up. My Chevy 1500, Ram 2500, Ford F150 all did the same drop 2 gears and floor it to speed and then just cut power at speed. Hence I dont use cruise controls.