Third Gen Tune...? Yes or no?

The latest tsb tune was done before i took possession of my truck. The shifting was funky till i got some miles on the truck. Its been fine since, even better than my past tundra. I've seen where the lasted tsb didn't do much for a buddies trd and he traded it for a nissan. Seems the nature of the beast for these tacoma's where some run real well on the factory tune, and others suck.

 

Same really for mine. Been saying it, its a hit or miss with the way these trucks perform from toyota. Strange part is no one seems to question it when they get a new truck that sub performs. They either live with it...fix it, or trade it in.

 

KDMax Pro tune with the sport throttle is 200% where the truck should be from factory. I've bounced around on nearly all the available online tunes and by far KDMax Pro is the best tune I have ever ran. It shifts like butter compared to other tunes (even previous versions of KDMax) and pulls very linear in all gears. Even with my 33" MT/s, it feels great.

 

Anyone doing tunes in SW Florida??

 

@G8R_Taco
Might be able to get you set up

 

https://kdmaxtuning.com/locations

 

, brutha

 

Thanks! Saw they had a location in Tampa. Might be worth the drive unless I can find someone local. Ft. Myers/Naples area. If there’s no one available I might look into becoming a tuner for my area…

 

I ended up just getting a pedal commander rather than a tune. My family also drives my truck sometimes so it's nice to be able to turn it off so I don't give my mom a heart attack haha. Even with the PD though, I find myself having to set it to City -4.
I will say, shifting was never a big deal to me. Just needed a little more from the throttle

 

Question i have is why do you have the spend the money to make a new truck run better when it should have from toyota? I'd be pissed.

 

My truck ran great on stock tune, none of the TW complaints. Well except for dead pedal feel but I worked around it. I did always use 91 E0 shell though.

Full Otto tune really wakes up this 3.5 and it’s a ton more fun to drive while getting same or better MPGs.

YMMV.

 

It’s a fair question. I’ve long felt that the modding is so strong with this truck because it’s just not good enough from the factory, on the other hand I think it’s better than most of the competition and many people take pride in the truck and want to “make it their own”. I for one would rather drop $400 on a tune and have a rock solid truck that drives the way I want then deal with the very expensive problems my buddies at work deal with in their Ford’s and Chevy’s. Having owned 8 Toyotas I feel their quality is on par with the best of them, but they aren’t perfect and each one I’ve owned had a few quirks that make me scratch my head. This is my first Tacoma and I feel like the truck gets a lot of passes for it’s “quirks” as the dealer calls it. The truck is very likable unless you let Tacoma World convince you your truck sucks.

 

I think that even if the engine/transmission were perfect from the factory we’d probably still look for ways to make it better. Toyota opted to please the powers that be and went for epa standards at the expense of drive-ability. With the tune we have both, and more.

Money well spent.

 

Aftermarket additions, whether it be a tune or upgraded parts...will always make things run better than what it did from the factory. I have a motorcycle that I also have tuned, ran fine before but now its more refined and produces a lot more power. Did I need to tune my motorcycle or truck? No. Even if the shifting was solid from Toyota on these trucks, I'd still buy a tune that squeezes out more power from it because I want to and enjoy doing things to my vehicle regardless.

 

Again why did you have to use a more expensive fuel grade when these trucks run really well on 87 and 87 E10 at that. I get good mpg and good performance with the stock tune, i didn't need to spend any more. Still curious the reason why some are having all these issues that they need to have their truck tuned when they shouldn't. These are suppose to be trucks not high performance cars.

 

I think Toyota has learned from the ‘16s to ‘19s and has adjusted the later models to work better from the factory. Your 2020 probably has a better factory tune than my 2018 so you’re not noticing crappy shifting and dead pedal/bogging like earlier model years. I agree with you, we shouldn’t have to tune it, but it is what it is. Mine runs waaay better on KDMax Pro than on the stock tune.

 

The reason I used 91 E0 is because my truck sits 5 days a week and we don’t have 87 E0. From my experience, all my Japanese vehicles ran better and got better mpg with 91e0. Now I’m tuned to premium and use 93, it’s a freaking beast.


Also, if you read the manual it says 87 OR higher.

 

I have never felt the need.

 

Me neither, but then I joined TW…