2020 guys how you liking your transmission?

it's on the verge of lugging the engine, combined with low octane (occasional pinging resulting in pulled timing) and the tcc partially engaged and you get this . it gets better as the transmission learns and 89 octane also helps a bit over 87.

 

I didn't realize these trucks with the auto could go down that far in rpm at those speeds. Mine won't, it'll downshift around 1300, so the engine always runs smooth in the right gear.

 

KDMax tune for the win. Worth every dollar and the truck should have left the factory in this configuration!
@TWTaco is THE MAN and whatever his costs are you shouldn’t hesitate to throw $ for his product!

 

Love my 6 speed manual - was a requirement when searching for a Tacoma.

 

sounds good. will try that when there are tunes available for the 2TR-FE.

 

Flashed the ECU this morning, about 30 miles on it, low end shifting seems better, not wanting to peak up so much. Going on another road trip this weekend so hopefully we will see how the cruise issue goes.

 

I'm not seeing any tranny hunting. Just chukkars and quail.

 

17k on mine, cruise control sucks with AT and needing to keep up with 80+ mph traffic. if you leave it to its own, it'll run the engine at 5,500 rpm to keep the speed and its got no qualms running it like that for more than 5 minutes. you have to float the gas pedal manually to keep it at speed and around 3k rpm. then theres the lag when you want to accelerate a little and there is zero response. you press farther and it downshifts 2 gears and you are accelerating mildly in a 35mph zone but sounds like you are drag racing. taking it to the dealership doesn't fix it, the 'tech' said they could see double taps on the gas and that is why it down shifted so fast...to him 10 seconds in between presses is a double press..then again the guy couldn't troubleshoot oil seeping along my armor (oil filter cap needed less than a 1/4 turn to resolve)

 

My 2020 2.7 shifts pretty much exactly how I want it to. The only exception is that it sometimes refuses to shift to 6th going downhill in D (basically gets "hung up" in 5th). Never a problem in S6. It will hunt when I'm driving up a hill that doesn't have a constant grade and I try to maintain the same speed, CC on or off. I've learned to allow for some change in speed to allow it to hold a gear longer. I also learned how to use S4 and S5 when it hunts to prevent it from trying to go into the "wrong" gear with CC on.

The main problem with the automatic Tacomas is the gear spacing. It's too wide for the power band of either engine. Rather, the gaps between 3rd, 4th, and 5th are all too wide. The AC60 transmission is mechanically a 4 speed transmission with an auxiliary gearset and some extra clutch packs to give it an extra overdrive and another gear between 1st and 2nd. The first and last gears are spread out more than on a 4 speed to give the transmission a wider overall ratio spread, but gears 3, 4, and 5 are literally the 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears of a conventional Ravigneaux 4 speed automatic transmission.

That puts the whole system at a major disadvantage from a drivability standpoint. You have 6 gears to work with, sure, but gears 3, 4 and 5 don't know about the others. The result is that when you need to shift gears when you're working with 3-5, you often get a bigger change than you ideally would have wanted. If you want a lower gear, the next gear is too low. If you want a higher gear, the next gear is too high. That doesn't matter as much if your motor has a ton of torque at any rpm, or if you stay in the power band all the time anyway.

The trouble is, both Tacoma engines are high strung, and the ECU wants to keep the gear high enough to keep the RPM well below the power band at any given time, unless there is a lot of demand for power. When the demand for power is not constant, combined with all the factors above, that's what causes the hunting. (barring this truly aggravating behavior of getting "stuck" in too low of a gear, that is beyond the scope of my knowledge) If Toyota took notes from Mazda (whose "skyactiv" 6 speed auto is mechanically identical in prinicple to the Tacoma's 6 speed auto, just with tweaks to work in FWD) and made revisions to 3rd and 5th gears (as Mazda has done starting in 2019), it would improve things a lot. Or they could give the Tacoma an 8 or 10 speed transmission, that would help solve the problem of wanting a gear "in between" 3rd and 4th or 4th and 5th and make the transmission happier.

This is one of the benefits of regearing to a lower (numerically higher) final drive ratio. Not only are the higher gears more accessible/usable, but scaling the ratios to all be lower puts them closer together. The size of the gaps are the same, but since there is less speed gain per gear shift, they are closer together in that sense. We all know that 1st and 2nd are very widely spaced, but since they are such low gears, the wide spacing is not as consequential. The gap between 4th and 5th is numerically smaller in size by a little bit, but since they are much higher gears, the effect is more pronounced. The exact same concept applies to regearing.

 

Ah yes! i forgot about the 3rd gear lunge as a gripe, most pronounced in 4LO but makes sense by your description of how our transmission is set up.

 

Been great for me. As some have mentioned there are rare occasions when it won’t want to go into first but it’s usually only on a quick shift when it doesn’t find the right spot

 

had over 600 pounds in my bed tonight at work and noticed the truck seemed to have a lot more power. seems like the ecu adjusts the shift points when it senses a heavy load.

 

My transmission doesn't hunt either, seemed it liked to when it was younger. Now if won't even flush a pheasant.

 

You folks are missing a pedal. Just do the shifting yourself!

 

Yep, I've been happy with my 6-speed manual. I'd prefer a shorter reverse or a 2-LO mode for maneuvering trailers, but I've done a good amount of towing without issue. I'm glad I was able to get it.

 

I agree. Higher octane really wakes up the low end of this engine, which makes sense given that port injection is used below 3k rpm. On 87 octane, my truck hesitates and even surges (oscillates) when pulling hard from low rpm, then it suddenly snaps to life at 3000 rpm when it switches to direct injection only. In other words, the power is there, but it's all at the top end and comes on abruptly, making it feel sluggish in everyday driving. I'm sure this impacts drivability with the automatic which wants to keep the revs low for economy.

This week I topped up a half-empty tank with 93, and the difference was astounding. The hesitation has disappeared completely and the engine delivers much more torque below 3,000 rpm. Power builds steadily rather than coming on suddenly at 3k, so drivability in town with the A/C running, or at 55 mph in 6th gear, is much better.

Yes, the 2GR-FKS will run on 87, and Toyota labels it as such in order to sell trucks, but it's clearly at its best when running at least 89.

 

I was just talking about this in other threads. And made a graphic showing 3.9 axle vs 5.29

 

Just got done towing our Off Grid Exp 2.0 to the UP in Michigan and back home, roughly around 1900 ish miles. No hunting really at all as I used S4 mostly and then manually shifted as needed. Virtually never any hunting when in D without the trailer, and the only time the tranny seemed unsure at any point was when we had the trailer loaded with 260 some odd lbs of water and were facing headwinds and hills. Even then there didn't seem to be any real hunting action, just up shifting at inappropriate times under load.

 

My 3.5 doesn't like higher octane at all, seems to kill the lower end, not the mention feels softer on top with lots of tranny hunting. All our fuels are E10,..87 octane works the best. I have no problem maintaining 60 mph in 6th at 1600 rpm, as long as its a small grade. Imo, its really no different than my old tundra.

 

My 2022 automatic has less than 100 miles. It does seem to want to lug which must me an EPA mileage thing. I have been using the “sport” shift function to vary the revs as part of my break in process.
Good Forum, learning a lot from y’all.