WTH?

Driving w son across northern USA. 2019 w v6. Cruise control is worthless. Upshift/downshift/upshift non stop. Crazy yall would tolerate this. Don’t the Japanese test these things before selling them? Good God it’s bad. Truck has 80k and in good shape.

 

There's tsb's that address this for you 2019, they used to be covered under warranty. It doesnt solve it 100% but it improves it.

You are not alone, many many complained of this. When I owned my 16, my then wife thought I was messing around because of how much it gear hunted. Like an old 3 speed automatic struggling on the highway.

 

So no fix? Thx for responding. Technical Service Bulletin?

 

Welcome to TW…

 

Many modern automatics shift alot when going up and down hills, having cruise on exaggerates it because cruise trys to maintain the set speed by adding throttle so the transmission will downshift then when it reaches the set speed throttle is reduced so the transmission will upshift.

You wana row your own get a manual, they just keep adding more speeds to autos so more shifting.

 

It’s not smooth. If that’s how Toyota thinks it should work then that’s just the way it is. I’m 70. Never seen anything so annoying. lol. BTW, it does it in level roads. Like I 90 in South Dakota. Up, down, rpm’s from 2500-4000. Ridiculous

 

Not sure, I've only driven a couple 3rd gens and they seemed to behave like most other automatic I've driven, if anything they seemed a bit lazy to downshift.

Alot of it probably comes down to the engine, the 3.5L doesn't make much of power under 2k and makes most of it's power over 4k. It's not like the American V8s of the 80s and 90s that made a ton of torque down low, most of the newer smaller engines gotta rev to make power.

 

It's not the transmission, it's a mini-van engine in a truck that needs lots of rpm's in order to make power. 3rd gen Tacomas need 4600 rpm for power. The old 4.0 doesn't do this nor will the new 4th gen engine. Same with the small engines made by Ford or Chevy.

There is an easy fix. Just manually drop the transmission to a lower gear so it runs at higher rpm's all the time and doesn't upshift. If it doesn't upshift, it doesn't need to downshift. You'll get better fuel mileage. The engine is actually working harder when in higher gears in this case.

Other issues:

Most of South Dakota's elevation is around 2000' with parts as much as 7000'. The road can be flat and still be 4000'-8000' above sea level. There is less O2 in the air at 2000' than at sea level and MOST engines lose power as they go up in altitude. The newer engines with turbo's are much less effected by altitude. It's rarely a problem below 5000', but you can feel a difference at 2000'-4000'.

I've traveled all over this country in a variety of vehicles. Driven through every state except the 5 with a coast on the Pacific. Wind is a serious in much of the west. Last summer I drove into a steady 20-25 mph headwind from Oklahoma City to Amarillo. A few years ago, the same issue from Denver to Kansas City. Both times the trucks struggled, and fuel mileage dropped significantly on those stretches.

 

You've got a 2nd gen, you don't know...

 

It's all about EPA certification. The TSB was a minor help...minor being the key word. The tune for the trans shifting sucks to put it mildly. Many times, especially while the cruise is on, it will take forever to upshift after a downshift.

Getting a tune was the best thing that happened to my truck. Quite possibly the best money I've spent on it. The shifting is soooooo much better.

I hardly use my cruise anymore. cruise being reactionary. I get into the throttle just a bit earlier when getting to a hill to reduce the 6th to 4th downshifts. When it does downshift, it's usually just to 5th because the computer doesn't see the bigger throttle input to maintain speed.

 

Uhm, he's right though...

 

Yea. I just run my cruise in normal mode and on a down hill I just touch the gas pedal to make the tps think the throttle is open. I get no 4 gear downshift, it coasts and then on the uphill side it just goes…
It’s not right but, I’m so use to it I don’t even think about it..

 

The cruise is completely worthless on this truck. I never ever use it. It may be an emissions or epa thing with the tranny gears etc but Toyota completely screwed the pooch on cruise control.

 

They never fixed their cruise control. Hell, It's been the same for 30 years. It even says in the owners manual to not use cruise control up a steep hill because it has no idea what a little bit of gas means.