Tacoma Transmission, not a rant, a theory…

The transmission is fine. The engine isn't designed for a truck

 

I traded in my 2016 (in 2017) for a 2014 one year into ownership because it sucked that bad. Dealership did three flashes that were supposed to fix. Like two weeks after every time it was back to gear hunting.

 

What are you calling mountain driving?
I'm tucked against the Green Mountains in Vt. I would describe the roads I drive as hilly. Today I drove to Montpelier on the interstate that I would decribe as hilly. Performs great, always gets 25+ mpg per tank including goosing it to pass. It all works out. I punch it the tranny drops a gear and its off to the races.
I just don't experience what others have said. It seems like forever, but stay on the gas and give it a thousand count. I find my 2019 Sr scooting along just fine

 

I-70 in the Colorado Rocky Mountians

 

Here's my dumbed down understanding of how the 2nd gen vs 3rd gen transmisison controller works

2nd Gen: 1 -> 2nd. 2nd -> 1st or 3rd. 3rd -> 2nd or 4th. 4th -> 3rd or 5th

3rd Gen: 1 -> wherever it wants to. 2 -> wherever it wants to. 3 -> wherever it wants to. And so on (for best fuel efficiency)

 

This. My truck (with the TSB-0092 already applied) has the weird 3rd gear shift where rpms butterfly down, up, and then down again; and the premature shifts into fourth and fifth gear (under light throttle) where it falls flat on its face on the torque curve. Thus, I often drive my truck in S mode between gears 2-5. Would love to try out the OTT 8.0 tune.

 

Exactly!

And I’m looking at the OTT tune as well.

 

Everything automatic transmission I ever owned tried to stay in the 1500-2000 RPM range. This is probably the most economical/ecological range. If you need power, you press hard on the pedal and it will shift down to provide some. Thankfully, I’m driving a MT and can only blame myself for bad shifting and lower MPG.

 

Its all about mpg and EPA these days. Every new truck I have driven shifts like ass. My 3rd gen is way better than any of the new GM/ford 8/10 speed trans.

 

I agree, in general.

I’ve owned everything from some really crappy cars to some very special ones. It’s true that automatics in general are designed to be in that economical sweet spot, but somehow this Tacoma transmission is just different.

I had a Second Gen, 2008 4.0 Tacoma a few years back. It ran how is should, with the exception of a high mileage torque converter shudder, but even that I was able to resolve.

I’m looking forward to what a tune will do for me.

 

The issue is there is no way to choose your own gear in the Tacoma unless you're in S1. It will still shift on its own in every other S setting.

Everything auto I've ever driven was the same 1500-2000

Tacoma though goes to 1100 rpm immediately, city and highway, and the slightest touch of the gas pedal sends it shifting all over the place.

 

i did the exact same thing with my first 2016, drove it for a year, hated the gear hunting so much i traded her in on a 2014. drove it for 2 years and found a 2016 with the manual transmission .....

 

Its friday again.

 

Not true, toyota has there own proprietary ecu language that was very difficult To back door into, thats why the maggy SC and OVTUNES TT took so long to develop.

 

89 is definitely a good test road for mileage and gear hunting. That’s impressive mileage for around here. I’m a rolling brick and was down to 11-12 mpg, had to constantly shift to 4th. After the tune I’m around 16-17 and usually can stay in 6th.

 

But you also have an increased amount of owners/vehicles and the fact that people are more tech capable now than ever to hop on a forum or app to voice thier concerns opinions and problems

 

I would say its more likely that they programed the transmission to be just bad enough that people can ignore it until they test drive a 4th gen tacoma, where the transmission will be great. Then they will trade in their 3rd gen for a 4th. The 4th gen will have a similar issue with some part so when the 5th gen comes out people will trade in because the new one is so much better.

Its planned obsolescent without inducing a actual failure to get people to buy the new one. If you dont think toyota would do such a thing, just remember apple throttles your phone with new updates "due to battery wear" to get you to trade in a perfectly fine working phone for a new one.

 

well dude you figure it out!!!!.

of course they design the transmission shift pattern to be fuel efficient and provide the most torque the engine can get, the only issue is the TCM and ECM trying to decide who needs to move every time i floor it to pass someone, you can fell the engine and transmission trying to decide if they gonna lower a gear and rev the engine, keep the same gear and rev the engine or just drop a gear and keep seem engine speed

 

Ive only had my truck for a week, but yeah, it does feel a little weird. Its hard to describe, but it doesnt feel like its hunting, but its just in the wrong gear. I assume the engineers set it for optimum mpg's, so the rpms are always too low. Combine that with a relatively tame engine and there it is.
FWIW, Im coming from the past 8 years with a manual, so any automatic is probably going to feel weird. Im hoping that it learns my driving habits over time as many have said it does. Should be a little better when that time comes. I do drive like a grampa (cuz I am one) and I live in a flatland midwest rural area so it wont be as bad as many of you in the mountains or "faster" urban areas. The fact that its "tuned" for maiximum mpg's is fine by me actually.

 

I don’t experience that at all. I use S mode going up/down 6000 ft. in elevation in the mountains several times a week for work, over the (almost) 2 years I’ve owned my truck. I’ve never had any problem controlling what gear I’m in or having it hold the gear as long as I want it to. I drive it exactly like I do a manual, just minus a clutch pedal. It can’t upshift to a higher gear when you are in in S mode. And the only instance where it ever downshifts to a lower gear is well after I should have downshifted manually anyway (and failed to)… and by that time the engine was starting to bog so it downshifts because it needs to. That scenario only rarely happens to me if I forget I’m in S mode, and at that point I’m always glad it did make the downshift rather than bog out my engine needlessly.