17 TRD Sport Hesitation-Shudder

I have a 17 TRD Sport Autt tran- Bewteen 20-50 I have a hesitation or shudder while maintain speed especially on a hill. Took it to shop they said it needed transmission update. Waited two hours and they came out and told me it had newest update nothing they could do. I'm ready to trade this thing. I have read about OVTune and still don't know what to do. It feels like it is an engine hesitation at times. It still does it when I manually shift it in keep it in 4th. Anyone have any suggestions or experience with same problem.

 

Just the nature of the beast. There's the ShiftSensePro and the OVTune which are "solutions". I'm at almost 10,000 miles on my truck and either the truck adjust or I adjusted my habits, because I don't run into this situation as often as I once did. Not to be an asshole, but my solution is just push the pedal harder.

 

Use ECT and report back.

G.

 

I have the same issue, 20000 miles in and it still happens
ETC helps, but it seems to happen in every gear at low rpm.. it's my understanding ETC changes the shift points.
Trans was 1.5 quarts low at the 10k checkup. Shifts fine though..

 

Mine did this stock as well - but running Shell VPower killed the "slight miss / hesitation" feeling. Else OVTune will be your best bet - and really makes the truck so much smoother and more fun to drive in every other way...

 

I had to learn to predict changes on the road and adapt. It kind of happened naturally. Give it some more time.

 

Thanks for the input. It's hard to tell if it's a miss or slip.
Would an OVtune void the warranty?

 

Yes it'll likely void the warranty. You'd have to rip it back out and upload the stock program. For shifting, I'd go with Shift Sense Pro. It gives you direct control over shifting in S-Mode.

 

Ok took a 40 mile trip and left in ECT- was not as noticeable but still did it and it was running higher rpms so really no help as it did not take it away. Found a Shell oil station and filled up with 93 VPower. The hesitation is now smoothed out and not noticeable so this tells me not tranny but engine timing. Wondering if the low grade is causing pre-ignition and the computer is fighting to take it out when it lugs down on hills. I would hate to have to run 93Vpower all the time as this shoots the whole concept of having a Tacoma for economy purposes. It is 60cents per gallen higher here- $3.09 compared to $2.49.

 

Saw on the OVtune thread something about a VVT surge- anyone know what that is?

 

There's nothing to rip out. Reports indicate that OVTune is undetectable by the dealer, but if you're still concerned, you can easily flash back to the stock tune before a dealer visit. Takes ~5 minutes.

 

Ok after running a tank of Shell Vpower gas my hesitation and shudder is gone. This thing runs now like my 2011- Who would have thought that the gas was the issue, I read on a Lexus forum that they were having issues with the 3.5 in the suvs and they switched to high octane gas and it stopped the hesitation too. These must like the high octane. It's a bummer though because of the high cost.

 

Yeah, I had the same experience. The ignition logic on the ECU is wonky at best on these trucks. When I ran VPower the stuttering stopped and then I did OVTune and continued to run VPower for several months b/c I was afraid of putting 87 back in and it driving like crap. Well, the tune has an 87 octane tune now and I can tell you there is no stuttering on my rig running regular old gas now. But if you ARE going to put VPower in there, might as well get the tune so you can get an extra 20-30hp out of it!

 

Yeah the OVTune alleviated that. It's a factory issue but do what you need to do. The OV tune made my truck loveable again.

 

Can you run the 87 octane with the OVtune and it still runs without the hesitation? I am now running Shell midgrade and so far I still don't have the hesitation issue I was having. To me if I have to run gas that is 60 cents more per gallon to get it to run I should have just bought the Tundra if it will run ok on 87.