Weird Shifting on New Tacoma

Obligatory you should have bought a manual post.

 

There is no learning.
ECU/TCU learn they stuff in minutes.
There are sets of predefined values for shift points, torque converter on/off, load/rpms, hot/cold, accelerator/throttle limits, etc. Some values are speed dependant, some -torque dependant. Vsc, ASIC and internal algorithms also contribute to the process.
I'm on 6th year of the ownership and it still has not learnt to upshift from 4th to 5th at high speeds and I'm the only who drives it.

 

Takes a bit for it to get used to you. And you to get used to it!

 

Yes, Toyota calls it "Force Value" The engine and transmission have a meeting and decide what to do based on your input. We are all fighting the soft A.I. to some degree for control. I use S-Mode when I need to intervene.

 

A tune will completely address those shifting issues! It's a huge difference. I installed the KD Max tune on mine and loved it so much, I actually joined their team as an authorized tuner! I was so excited by the improvements, which aren't limited to only shifting, that I wanted to share the experience with other Tacoma owners.

 

If you're driving around town and you don't want it shifting into 5th or 6th to conserve fuel then bump it into S mode and take those gear choices away.

If you're using cruise control at a speed and it's shifting between 5th and 6th bump it to S5.

If you want to prolong the shift points use ECT.

The transmission is configurable so why not learn to use it as such?

 

Good advice - appreciate that!

 

The "learning" process probably affects line pressures for smooth shifting. That's why it drive like sh1t after TCU learning values reset. But "learning" does not change shifting points, tc locks, etc.

 

Unfortunately it's not quite the same transmission in these later gen3 tacomas as in your 2016. Toyota has made many upgrades including the latest tsb, that your 2016 I believe won't take. There are similar principles as you stated, but the end result, these later trucks should perform better. I think too many new owners expect too much right from the get go while using other modes in the truck to try, and achieve that. What you get is a clumsy shifting truck that doesn't know what gear to belong in.

 

2017. Respect.
It is the same tranny with increased memory ECU and some slight modification to the calibration(what I've seen). But continues same fundamental issies-choked throttle and the torque converter management(especially in lower gears).
Tranny itself is fine

 

Actual shifts are smoother than my prior 5spd. Mechanically this tranny will outlive our grandkids.

However…after eight years, it’s pretty obvious that the shift programming is exactly as Toyota wants it to be, which, for many is a complete dealbreaker and btw may not bode well for the next gen.

I’ve had a ‘16, ‘18’ ‘23 and zero issues, but I’ll be the first one to say that Toyota obviously needs offer a better sorted auto on Gen4 that’ll satisfy a greater bandwidth of owners.

 

Tried out some of the advice today… seems like it is much better when I don’t ease into the throttle. Accelerate enough to get to 3000-3500 RPM in first and shifts as expected after that. In traffic, I just let the vehicle in front of me take off for a second before I accelerated and it worked great… long story short… my truck doesn’t like being driven by a grandpa… and I don’t hate that at all.

 

I've understood that the 2019 tacoma automatic is suppose to be the same as in the 2020 after doing the latest tsb, but in reality it's not. I haven't tried other 2020's the same as I have, but have been my. buddies 2019 when he owned it. Big enough difference. His truck just seemed so lazy, and didn't get the fuel mileage the 2020 got.

 

I'm pretty sure I towed around 500 mile's. Remember carrying around 1300 lbs of concrete bags in the bed, plus my 5'x10' utility trailer loaded with a steel mixer, and a bunch of gear 75 miles to my brothers home. If anything the truck never ran so well after that.

 

Going to find out real soon how it responds… cross country move with light trailer/boat (1500 lbs) this week but have gotten past 500 miles. Going to rely on the engineers and the recommendations from the manual (S-4/5… depending on feel and terrain… and ECT). Been mostly better but still acts wonky if there’s a lot of traffic causing constant breaking and accelerating. Virginia Beach traffic has not helped my confidence in this truck lol

 

It’ll be alright, it’s just different, it’s tried and true, just run it and enjoy your outing!

 

It's a learning curve, half truck and half you. After about 1500 miles you get acclimated to how it drives. I have also noticed my truck seems to run better on 89 octane in the warmer months when it's over 85 degrees and throttle response may seem to be more delayed.

I'm in Chesapeake BTW so I know the traffic you're talking about.

 

I've towed my 5'x10' trailer with a 500 lb snowmobile up north a number of times already using S5 only, and it's been fine getting 19 mpg. I don't think there's quite 1500 lbs there, maybe 1400, but you hardly know it's there. I had a 2k lb. plus boat with trailer I towed a number of times using S4 and S5 no problem. I once tried the ECT mode with the boat, and hated it. This mode must be for towing trailers a lot heavier.
Seems once the transmission learns your road conditions, and driving habits, after that, mine was like any other Toyota automatic I've had. I like better than my tundras. I think the whole trick to these is keeping it in the D mode right from the get-go, and resist the other modes till this automatic starts behaving like normal. I began to notice an overnight difference at 1200 miles....by 1500 it was perfect.

 

Makes sense, especially because I’m seeing improvement. I want to use only D until more miles but this move is going to intervene and require a lot of S.

 

Seems right. It doesn’t like to be driven like my 06 4Runner did, and that’s taking some getting used to. Had to drive it through the bridge tunnel yesterday… not fun when it’s hunting gears and the cars in front of you keep slamming on the brakes for no reason.