09 PreRunner - Surging/Lunging/Pushing/Unintended Accel At Slow Speeds/Stop

Meant to start thread on this but by accident replied to another thread... So here we go...We have a 2009 Prerunner SR5 60k miles. Just did 60k service (did not help this issue.)

From running some searches, I can't believe how everyone thinks this is normal. No other car I have driven in does this to this magnitude. This is enough to literally surge the car forward. It does this also when coming to a stop without AC on (granted it's worse with AC on.) It like hard downshift and then lunges forward.

Not Cool.

My SO (with our 6 month old son in the car) says the car surged forward as she was pulling into a gas station. She said it felt like it unintentionally accelerated, but no accelerator was pressed. We already had the recall done for the pedal/mats.
She had to slam on the brakes hard to get it to stop. What if she had hit the pump? No one would believe her (if she even made it out alive) and they would surely blame driver error for hitting the gas instead of brake. What BS.

I feel this 'push/lunge/surge' every time I drive this car. This should not be normal, no other car I know of does this.

That being said. Any fixes for this? I see Toyota has denied that something is wrong with these trucks.

 

i only notice a jump from park or neutral to drive... but never to the extent to where if my foot wasn't on the brake before hand it would lunge forward.. ( i always keep my foot on break when changing)

 

The only surge I feel are P-> Rev, R<-N->D but my foot is always on the brake in those circumstances. Also the normal A/C compressor kicking on, mostly at a stoplight when my foot is lightly on the brake. Nothing as drastic as what you are referring.

 

Maybe some additional details too....

It seems like the problem is in the transmission. When I slow down to go around a curve or decelerate for any reason it does a hard down shift, and then when I proceed to press the accelerator the truck acts like it is searching for what gear it should be in. At the same time the rpm is increasing (engine starts to race) and finally the transmission lurches forward and goes into gear. This is what happens when going 10-20mph and not coming to a stop. It's not as drastic when actually stopping.

Maybe it's just something with this truck. Thought it was more widespread based on the google-ing / searching I did.

 

that sounds like a tranny/gear problem..mine doesn't do that.. I would try a different dealership and have a tech ride with you..

 

How many miles on the truck? I have a sort of lurching when accelerating, it pulls, maybe shifts gears, pulls, shifts, pulls, shifts, pulls (the engine never races, likes it's in neutral looking for a gear). Just feels a little odd, but I have 102,000 miles on the truck now. Time to change the trans fluid.

[edit] 60k miles, got it.

 

Yup 60k.

Did a drain/refill on the tranny (3.5 qts - Toyota WS Fluid) - No difference. I was hoping this would fix it.

 

Maybe check the fluid level again? Take it to the shop to do a full flush/refill?

 

Delete - Duplicate Post

 

There was a TSB in 09/10 that addressed the ECM or computer that controls the transmission. Maybe you need it reflashed?