If you hate your transmission, read this.

And one could say toyota's inital tune on the truck heavily favored getting the highest EPA rating they could, not necessarily for driveability or performance.

 

ETA: Damn Matt beat me to it...but used almost the exact words...

I am not a tuner by any means but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last week....So can make a few guesses. Toyota was responding to the challenges of trying to make the truck conform to the new US CAFE standards. It would have been easy to just underpower the truck with a tiny engine and leave a bunch of unhappy owners. What they appear to have done instead is to put an engine with a decent amount of power in the truck, but then program the transmission and ECU controls to value fuel efficiency over just about everything else. The power is there if you really want it, but the truck is going to make you really mash the pedal to the floor to prove that you actually want to use it. Otherwise, the system is going to try to force slow controlled acceleration and jump to the highest gear it can as fast as it can to be more fuel efficient, even if it means having to step back down several gears for slight changes in speed. The "executive privileges" are there so that the system can learn how to be more fuel efficient based on how each individual drives their truck.

If you realize that the system is designed to value fuel efficiency over drivability, then all of the flaws in the shifting make sense.

 

Why does some models shift fine and others having so many issues?

Does Toyaota use different software or
program these transmissions differently?

Mine shifts perfect, built July 2018.

On the 2016 & 2017, seems the dealership
service dept could update the computer
for the latest TSB and fix the ones having problems. Some say they have tried, but same problems.

 

M/T 3rd gens (at least the earlier ones like mine) were not without problems. Off the line bogging, terrible throttle delay/inconsistency and stuttering were a few reasons I jumped on the OVtune train early. It took almost three years for Toyota to come up with a better calibration, and even to this day it's a real bitch convincing a some dealerships to perform the update. I just did it myself.
Full disclosure, if my truck had shipped with 04B13 code, I would probably not be running OVtune.

 

Do all Toyota's suffer with erratic shifting or is this just Tacomas? For that matter does the Tundra suffer with it?

 

No complaints to date with my March '18 AT build.
Couldn't be happier, and I hope it stays that way.

 

TSB helps

 

No

No

 

I love my 2017 4runner sr5 premium

 

Ok, and i have driven a IS350 and didn't find it to shift wonky either.
Really back when this first was talked of I thought "Oh, they messed up with CAFE tuning" I don't know if that's the case.

Telling is the omission of the 3.5 in the Tundra. Other makes have used the 6 in years past to increase CAFE across the platform. It didn't perform.

 

I'm convinced every single one has these issues, just to different extents. Also, perception. My buddy tells me he thinks my truck drives great and thinks I'm crazy anytime I bring up the transmission complaints, meanwhile it's the only thing I can focus on while driving it. Those that say their trucks shift perfectly just don't know how much better it COULD shift. Guarantee you they would never go back to so-called "perfect".

 

You first said you had a Gen 2, then followed up with thanking the Lord that you still have a Gen 3? Which is it?

 

One could argue that you're misinformed..... just saying.

 

well said.

prior to the last TSB, kinda felt like the truck had to run a trick play every down... instead of just running it up the gut three times for first down.

 

Mine shifts just like an automatic supposed to!
I'm not insane either

 

I've owned a lot of vehicles in my lifetime and can't say any of them shifted perfectly. Where would one look to find the unicorn that would be the baseline for perfection? Bit of a relative term, given the broad spectrum of use the Tacoma sees.

Is the transmission in my truck perfect? of course not, but nor is it by any stretch of the imagination, problematic.

Just keeping it real, and best of luck to the folks out there having genuine issues.

 

so i watched the video right out of the gate he says ECT Power on. i run the ECT "on at start up " mod and am a happy camper. so are they saying that ECT has to be on if you get this tune gizmo. plus everything he did is in S mode, again what am i missing?

 

Mine shifts perfect. Period, no problems.
My 2017 Pro had serious problems with shifting like everyone is talking about.
Pissed me off so bad, traded it in.
I know their pain.

 

I find this hard to believe. The MPG sucks on the Tacoma. I get 19.5 mpg if I’m lucky and it’s totally stock. There are full-size trucks that get better gas mileage.

 

Are they turbos and/or more gears in the transmission? Also there are guys here who swear they get mid-20's with your truck.