Dissapointed with my Taco

I have a CCSB TRDOR4x4 and it is 18 months old with 21,000 miles. I bought it new and have lived with it long enough to form an opinion as to my likes and dislikes for the vehicle.
I really want to like it and keep the truck but I have issue with it in several areas. I have the dreaded decell shudder which seems to be getting worse ,happens every time around 25mph and also every morning the brakes are extremely sensitive for the first few applications before acting "normal".
The worst for me is the transmission with its odd programming, never seems to know what gear it wants to be in, shifts up too soon in every gear making the truck seem gutless and drops 2 gears just to make it up an overpass at highway speeds. Overall the guy who designed the way this tranny works should be taken out back and shot.
I fear that these issues will be hard to overcome after reading on this forum about others with similar problems I am thinking of dumping the Tacoma while its still going ok.

 

I have learned to sometimes shift my auto and it does fine ... good luck whatever you do.

PS ... I have had 10- or 12 Toyota pickups and this 2016 is one of the best ... but I had to learn how to deal with some things too.

 

I can overcome the shifting issues for the most part by operating it manually but.....its an automatic and should work as such.

 

I assume you are posting for advice.

Options for transmission/throttle response are:
Shift Sense Pro
ECT always on mod
OV Tune

Or sell the truck
Or live with it.

 

I was ready to dump my 16 Sport due to the the driveline shudder and erratic shifting.

The shudder was fixed once the TSB came out and the rear leaf packs were replaced.

Shifting issues were resolved initially with a Shift Sense Pro. I'm now running the OV tune and its even better.

 

Vibration in the drive train should be under warranty, no? Also, if your trans is not shifting correctly, maybe get a manual? When I go from my truck to an automatic I am less aggressive on the gas to give a chance to shift. Maybe it's just instinct to drive the same regardless of trans type.

 

New to the Tacoma stuff. The shift sense pro and OV tune, is this a dealer upgrade? Or an aftermarket option? Regardless, how do I get info on what it does and where to get it? I love my taco, but the shifting could use some help! Thanks

 

I went from a 2002 Ford F-150 Lariat with the 4.6L V8 and a 3" Flowmaster exhaust to a Taco. It's definitely been an adjustment to say the least lol. But after 2 months and 3k miles, which I hit today on the way home from work, I'm learning I can't drive this thing like I drove my previous truck. Been playing a lot with accelerating and cruising speeds and seeing how the varying RPM's mess with my MPG's. Now I'm just waiting till I hit 5k so I can go to the dealer and ask about this ECU reprogramming everyone's talking about...

 

What you gonna trade the tacoma for ?

 

Ov tune is a ecu aftermarket upgrade and the shift sense pro is a plug and play device that works in S mode. If you do a simple search you will find a lot of the shift sense up for sale. The ov tune has it's own thread as well as the shift sense.

 

I owned the auto trans for 4 months.... Ditched it and traded up for a MT. The MT was cheaper, all together did loose much. Now I don't have anxiety and buyers remorse overtime I would accelerate. LOL. So worth it.

However I didn't realize there was ecu upgrades, and shift programmers until after. I would definitely give that a try first.

 

FOILED AGAIN.. I get the point I'll stop now.

 

I have shift sense pro and pedal Comander. Makes the difference ! There is a SSP in the general for sale thread for $115.00, it will make you happy.
Then get the pedal commander, it will make you love your truck again.
I've heard good things about OVtune also. Ask @erok81 .

I've also recently REGEARED 4:88's locked the front ....I now have an extra SSP and pedal Comander . The regear will make you happy in love with your truck while dancing !

 

I currently have an '02 F-150 with a 5.4... that doesn't sound good. I love my torque.

What gears do they have stock? Hard to reset the speedometer?

 

3.9 I did not bother calibrating the speedo.

 

Interesting, that is already a fairly deep gear.

 

I’ve had stock gears. 4.88’s. Ssp. Pedal commander. OV tune.

Honestly I think most people would be happy with the ssp and pedal commander. You are aboit half the cost of the tune at the point.

The tune is nice. You can tell there is more power. If you feel you don’t have enough power and need to be +50% throttle all the time then maybe the tune is better.

I didn’t really notice the extra power that comes with the tune at first. That’s because I don’t really race it around.

Pedal commander makes a good improvement over the stock throttle. I really liked that. Ssp helps with shifting too (as much as it can).

I’ll probably get roasted for saying this but the tune didn’t really do much for the shifting. I hate the shifting so bad I had to go back to manual shifting. I hate automatics and there’s not much you can do except bandaid it and pretend it works well.

The ssp is cheap. If I was new and thinking about it is probably start there. Pick up a used one. The tune isn’t a whole lot different as far as shifting goes. Then if you hate it you can always sell it. Same with the pedal commander. I bought mine and sold it for something like 50 bucks less than I bought it for. So kind of like renting it. With the tune you pretty much own it. Be sure you want it due to that.

 

Not when combined with the extremely high 6th ratio. If you search for 3rd gen gear ratios you'll see.

 

You will definitely notice a difference in throttle response and acceleration then. It's been a challenge getting used to the V6 but I can say that I'm really liking the truck so far. Its certainly fun to drive around still. And its 4x4, my previous truck was not, so I'm loving that aspect of it as well. I will certainly be doing research on how to improve it though.