Tech Wants to Gather Data on Ride Along - Any Experience?

I have a 17 OR 4x4 AT that has all the usual trans issues of constantly shifting, clunking on downshift, delay when you punch the throttle, etc. The truck is in for service and a tech wants to ride with my this afternoon to gather data to report back to the FTS. Anyone do this with a tech and did anything come of it?

 

It's pretty common for service tech/mechanic to do this when trying to confirm an issue a customer is having. Is there some reason you are concerned or are you just curious?

 

I work as a service advisor for Subaru. It is a normal practice for this to occur so everyone is "on the same page" making sure that the concern is duplicated and the tech knows what to look for exactly

 

I'm trying to better understand if this will actually amount to something. I don't want to spend more time at the dealer to be told the truck is operating normally. I'm sure that's a bit vague but the service advisor who has helped me for the last year can totally replicate my issues so this seems a bit redundant.

 

I don't know what data he may be collecting, but it's likely to be more involved than the service advisor report. Bottom-line is, if you want the issue resolved you have to let them follow their process.

 

Two people - two opinions on what is "right" and what is "not" right. Drive him around. Discuss every issue with him. If nothing else, you might learn something.

 

What are your issues?

 

He listed them in the first sentance of his post.

 

I was interested in "etc"

 

Appreciate the help guys

 

Definitely follow their process so they can at least get more data / customer complaints logged but the issues you describe are generally considered normal for these trucks and may realistically not be anything "wrong"

The shifting is busy, only fixes for this I've seen are OvTune ECU re-calibration to hold gears better/differently, shift sense pro which controls your S-mode to specific speed-based shift points
The clunk, I'm assuming is a delayed downshift generally felt early in the drive when the truck is warming up. If it happens every time you come to a stop there may be an issue w/ low trans fluid or something but the delayed clunk cold is very common and not (by Toyota, at least) considered anything other than a "characteristic"
The throttle delay is also in the ECU and the way the truck is programmed. The electronic throttle in these trucks doesn't equate to more gas always. It has a delay and sometimes just causes a downshift and it is actually programmed to where if you want to really MOVE you almost have to floor it - though it's a bit better with ECT on. One thing that will reduce the throttle delay somewhat is if you turn off traction control.