Undriveable 2021 TRD-OR - HELP WANTED

Ha. True. But the funny thing is, I love the 1.5L I4-T + CVT in my wife's Honda CRV too! I think I need to buy her a shittier car so mine feels better.

 

You know, there's a guy on here (not going to point fingers) who says torque doesn't matter, its all about horsepower... Seriously though, you guys are all absolutely right. I'm really just a crybaby with unrealistic expectations kicking himself for trading in his powerstroke...

 

I'll buy, you gotta a new truck to save up for

 

The 6’ bed makes me think go full size. The deals are back on those in full force. I’d probably go with a V8… so that makes it a Chevy/gmc etc

 

Nah, they are just as anemic. The whole 5at and 4.slow myth is just prevalent on this forum and not in real life.

 

Thank you for this response. I needed to hear at least one person admit that it should be better. I feel slightly less crazy now.

Personally, I'd get rid of that stupid locking torque converter in a second if I could. I'm sure it would cost me as much as $12/year in extra fuel...but if I could lock it in 5th using the 'manual mode' and didn't have it locking/unlocking every 20 seconds, I think I me and this truck could be happy together (assuming I can fix the dead-pedal issue...). Anyone offering a tune that prevents the torque converter from locking?

 

Yeah, I was thinking I should go drive an F-150. Maybe it would be just as bad, and I can at least sleep better knowing that every new truck sucks as bad as mine.

 

Unless you are absolutely in love with the Tacoma or need a small truck, an F150 will be better in almost every way. More power, better fuel economy, larger bed and cabin.

 

I have a 2017 F150 with the 3.5 EB and a 10 speed. It has tons of power and can't decide what gear it wants to be in, which has gotten worse over the years. Cold starts are bad, the ECU has it holding first gear, which is on/off like an electric motor.

 

It's a 5,000 lb truck with max torque at 4700 rpm. To keep it at 4700 you are gonna get downshifting. Sell it and buy a V8 Ford, Chevy or Ram

 

Who let this guy in here???

 

Are the shifts less noticeable with a 10 speed? Does it always go 'one-at-a-time', or does it jump a few when it needs to? Holding 1st gear...I don't like the sound of that...

 

After posting this thread, I'm convinced that the best thing about Toyota Tacomas is this forum. You guys are great. Even posts that aren't intended to be helpful are good humored. You guys have all earned yourselves another drink.


What about that dead pedal issue though? Anyone out there had a similar issue? Anything I should check / try (aside from the ECT button, which I will try tomorrow)? You guys think that's the tune, or do I have something wrong with my pedal?

 

No, it skips 2 and sometimes 3 gears, of course should you need to get back on the throttle in that time, BOOM! it will downshift 2 or 3.
The 1st gear hold is only when cold, but the damn thing takes so long to warm up, I am stuck with it for a while each morning.
I used to rave about this truck when it was new, but for some strange reason it has gotten worse over the years. The power and efficiency is amazing though, and still get better MPGs than my Tacoma. I recently had the dealer do fluids and recalls, and while it was there look for updates and a transmission flush. No updates and the flush didn't help. Oh well, it's a company vehicle, I am not gonna send it back, but do try to share real world experience with others.

 

Drive around in S4, and when you’re on flat highways use S5 or D.

I have 33’s on my 2012 and I drive around in “4” unless I’m really hauling on a flat highway.

Same issue when I’m in D …. a ton of torque converter unlocking and downshifting 4. Leaving it in 4 the TC stays locked and it’s happy. A few extra RPM don’t hurt and in fact I’ve got better fuel economy this way.

 

How do you know the state of torque converter? Cause this is not how it works on 3rd gen, even on tuned ones. It is pretty much locked as soon as the gears change at high speeds.
Unlocked torque converter will cook your tranny. By design, unlocked converter causing increase of the valve body temp to max limit.

 

Any time the truck downshifts, the RPMs will jump, and then they will eventually (sometimes quickly, other times it takes a while) drop by a couple hundred RPMs. I assume that small drop is the torque converter going from unlocked to locked. When I'm in 5th, and I hit an incline, rather than jumping all the way to 4th, it will typically start by unlocking the torque converter (at least that's what I'm assuming its doing based on the relatively small jump in RPM). If that unlocking doesn't get the job done, it will jump to 4th.

Do you think I have that wrong? If running with the torque converter unlocked is bad, then my transmission doesn't have long to live...

 

Can’t comment on the dead pedal. I too have the OTT tune and it was a night and day difference on acceleration and ease of using the skinny pedal. My 22 never had any of the shifting issues from the beginning though.

The only thing I could recommend and I would have you think about this before you do it is have someone with tech stream ( my tuner had it) reset all the learned values on the transmission( and the rest of the truck). Just my 2 cents.

You move my pedal a 1/4 inch and we’re getting up and going places in any gear.

 

I run 5.29 on 33" tires, smartcap and load it up with a lot of weight and the downshifting isnt bad at all. if i have the truck in ETC mode i can notice the downshift more but still not bad. 33" with stock gears would make it a slug.

 

If you feel tc unlocking in 5th doing 70, especially in the mountains, monitor temps.
There are tunes out there that unlock tc (disable lockup solenoid) at high speed to gain performance , but it causes a sharp temp increase of the valve body. The bad part about this, the ftemp does not go down until the solenoid is back on.
3rg gen tranny torque converter uses PWM signal to keep torque converter in a slipping mode (great acceleration,). On OEM tune ,this state exists in a very narrow (low) speed/load range .
Lockup solenoid is disabled until the tranny gets to 90-100°F.
After that, the solenoid is On and follows PWM logic and line pressures to keep torque converter in slipping mode or fully locked
I don't think tuners have access to modify the PWM logic to manage torque converter so it changes its fully locked state to a slipping state under high loads without cooking the tranny.