TSB-0092-20 is awesome!

I just came back from the dealer having purchased a part for my Tacoma, and to have it installed when I questioned them about the TSB. The service person arrogantly quipped back and asked in a unprofessional manner if I was having any issue with the truck: I replied no, but would like to know the status of the current flash. She just ignored my request entirely. Their arrogance shall be reported to Toyota corporate.

 

I am betting that the dealer service departments get inundated with requests from Tacoma owners wanting their ECU reflashed (mainly from all the Tacoma forums promoting that this is the ticket to shifting nirvana). Some definitely need it but many probably do not.

 

Why would many not need it? That's an odd blanket statement.

 

Some of these dealer ships should be more customer service friendly. They would get so much more business. Everywhere you go now everyone is angry . No one wants to work anymore .

 

All I requested was to be informed with their ODB test to see if I was current. The service jerk didn't have to be so offensive about asking if it was an issue, and about my request. I guess a low wage doesn't buy one a personality at these dealerships in the service department. Unfortunately, this is the only dealership around. In fact, they are the largest Toyota dealership network in all of North Carolina.

 

Fair question. What I meant was if the truck has no symptoms that can be verified by the service department then why would they spend the time to work on the trucks? I really don't blame them for pushing back when there are no verifiable symptoms. I have a 2019 with the older program in the ECU and my truck drives and shifts fine!

 

So I'll provide my "long-awaited" update on combining VFTune w/ TSB 0092. I had the dealership flash the truck back in November or so. Said I would follow up with folks to detail the benefit of adding VFTune to the TSB update, so here it is.

I've now had the truck VFTuned w/ the 04B33 THX 33 premium tune for about a week now. The truck is still settling down after the LV's were reset, but all in all, things are settling nicely. The truck definitely has more power on the low end and it fully rev's thru first gear to optimize use of the power band. It has real throttle response now when driving in the 5-25 mph range and the truck now holds gears when accelerating. Doesn't automatically default to Atkinson mode whenever it perceives the truck is under light load, which I think is a source of most people's gripes about the shifting logic of this truck. After combining the TSB & VFTune, it seems like the truck only engages Atkinson mode when cruising at about 45-55mph and under very light load.

Once you get over 25mph, the truck continues to rev through the whole powerband and only drops into Atkinson mode when you are cruising on flat ground at cruising speed. It still takes a sec for the truck to "wake up" when getting out of Atkinson mode, but it has become much shorter process and it does not downshift two gears like it would before. Instead, it engages the torque converter (like it should have from the factory...) when accelerating in small bursts. If you need to give it more gas to go, the truck will downshift one gear and bump rev's up by about 1200 rpm while engaging the torque converter to accelerate. If you floor it, the truck hauls ass, cycles through the whole power band in each gear and no longer has the "surge" we all know about. All of these are solid improvements IMO.

I would also say the truck is much more hesitant to drop into Atkinson mode when cruising - instead, it now seems just cruise at 1500 rpms w/ the torque converter on-demand (as opposed to the truck cruising at about 1000rpm in atkinson mode w/ no TQ converter). When you hit the accelerator to speed up, the truck will rev up about 500 rpms and then engage the TQ converter to accelerate. Speaking from my own experience, this is how most vehicles accelerate and feels most "natural" to me. Another solid improvement.

Something else I've since noticed is the truck will actually downshift into a lower gear when decelerating while cruising without throttle, almost as if it's engine braking. I think this is great and it really adds to the improved throttle response of the truck. It doesn't happen all the time, but you can definitely feel it when it does it. Definitely helps you move quick when you need to.

All in all, I think it's a winning combo. The truck is much, much better to drive now. TSB 0092 did quite a bit for the driveability & VFTune fixed the issue entirely in my book. To those of you one the fence, I'd suggest getting the TSB done and if you want more, find someone to VFT flash your truck on the cheap. It was certainly worth the upgrade to VFTune in my book.

 

Ah! I get you now.

Some of that is a bit subjective though. I think some of that upsets folks who feel an issue, but a quick drive doesn't replicate.


In the end, given that some folks have traded their Taco because of the poor engine and AT tunes, these TSBs should be a quiet little Service Campaign, esp as it is a 10min process end to end that creates a whole lot of customer satisfaction.

 

I went in for the update this weekend complaining of issues specified in the TSB, and was told that my truck had the most recent update. Bought the truck in March of 2020. Was told that they probably included the newer tune on the trucks coming off the assembly line before they released the TSB. Wouldn't be surprised if I was fed a line of BS.

 

Just to add that they (dealership) get paid anyway when performing the TSB.

 

Yes, they do. 0.4hr is the typical shown on Work Orders. That would be a no brainer for me considering the actual amount of work to be done.

 

Agreed, I am sure they do! But this is probably a volume issue for them. They only have so many techs and so many hours in a day. Again, I suspect that they get slammed with Taco owners asking for this re-flash because this site and others promotes getting this done so heavily. In the meantime, they have people in line that need actual repair work done.

 

I was thinking about this in my drive over from PHX to San Diego this weekend; how many people buy new Tacoma’s and never find this site, and are just happy as hell to have their new truck? I think sometimes people are looking for a problem to solve, case in point I personally was looking to VFTune/OVT/K&D tune my truck because everyone on here says how terrible it drives. Honestly, I’m pretty happy with it, my shifting issues are pretty much non-existent, but I certainly got all caught up in the hysteria of “needing” to get tuned as fast as possible. I’m not saying I never will, but I’ll make that decision on my own based on my own experience, not what everyone tells me my experience is.

No disrespect whatsoever to anyone on this thread that does do any of those things, I am sure there are problems that should be addressed and if tuning does that, great! I guess I just realized I was falling into “groupthink”.

 

This is a common issue on all sites where repairs are discussed around an enthusiastic crowd.

Take any of the truly very rare issues posted here, I guarantee many folks will wonder if they have the issue. A good one was the loose sparkplugs found on some 2017s or so. Hell yeah, I spent the time to check mine. Paranoia is part of the situation.


Still, software updates have proven to be a fun way refreshing the feel of just about any modern device that has flashable firmware. I've been through two of the Taco TSBs and many OVT versions. It's been fun. But, none of it involved the dealer. I had more fun doing it and none of the begging, frustration, or bad feelings. Group think brought around all of these updates, so I can't fault it.

 

This is interesting because my father and I both got Tacomas in Feb of 2020, he got his 1 week before me. He needed the flash and I was already updated according to the tech. They even showed me a picture of their computer showing I was already current. So maybe they really did start putting it on trucks before they officially released it. But I can tell you too that my tech was super confused and surprised to the point that he claims they called Corporate to ask them what to do and Corporate told them "there is nothing you can do it is already installed."

 

The 2019s and 2020s (AT and MT) had two ECU IDs in the production runs. They all got TSBs to update the early production folks after the production run ended. We'll see what happens with the 2021s, but folks might finally be happy enough to not be complaining about it.

 

My 2020 manufactured 8/20 has the latest update so you should be fine.

 

The 2020s and 2021s have different ECU IDs. They are not comparable.

There are no known TSBs updates for the 2021s.

The Mexican / South American Market AT-only Tacos have a new ECU ID from the factory. 04B00 and 04B01.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ovtune-april-4-17-2021-k-d-tuning.709247/page-10#post-25416450

 

Whats the latest TSB for 2017 auto? Want to make sure I got the right one.