2020 Tacoma, improved auto transmission?

Likewise. Just saying they’re if needed.

 

You shouldn’t have to put it in S mode or proper gear to drive it. You should be able use cruise. After driving F150’s for years I miss putting the truck in drive and having the truck shift perfectly. I only used tow mode when I towed and I always used cruise on the highway. In retrospect I should have bought a new F150 but I liked the Tacoma size better.

Ok, if the issue was fixed in 2019 can we get out 2018’s to operate the same way? The dealer has no clue and is no help at all.

 

Lotta trucks have car engines .

 

Driving mine in D early on got so bad that I began to use S mode for everything. After a few thousand clicks on S, I decided to try D again. What I discovered by accident is that my tranny in D had learned all my shift behaviour from riding around in S mode.

Can’t say for sure but probably the 1.05 tune is the real reason for the proper shifting in D.

 

From what I have read the coding and programming of the drivetrain is one of the most complicated aspects on a new car.

 

I wonder if Toyota has fixed the rear differential sound at 50mph as well. Any 2018 or 2019 owners experiencing this. Are Tacoma’s still coming from the factory with low transmission fluid

 

My guess this is part real issue, part unrealistic expectations. Every auto vehicle I've ever driven hunts more than I like. Unless you have some high-end performance vehicle most don't have the torque needed to just pull a car up a hill and never shift. The auto is always going to try and balance load demand with fuel efficiency, so you will get shifts as this happens. A bigger V6 or even V8 won't really help. I had a V8 03 4Runner and it had loads of torque but still hunted and shifted aggressively up hills at speed. So I adapted and would manually shift to a gear that would climb the hill. You have to adjust your driving style to the vehicle - not the other way around. I drive my wife's CVT Outback way different than my 300+ hp Forester MT because they are different vehicles.

That said, some of the around town hunting stuff does sound excessive and hopefully what they are trying to fix. But you folks expecting to buy a mid-size truck and drive up mountain passes without constant shifting will never be happy with a normal vehicle and auto trans.

 

The Ranger, Ridgeline.

 

Unless Toyota decides to come out with a tsb, there is no software update for models prior to 2019.

 

The hardware is the same so any improvements 2018-2019-2020 are software adjustments which basically modify the shift points and maybe hold gears a bit longer even if the engine is lugging. Maybe they added something to the fuel mixture at certain power ranges (guessing) This does help a lot but there is only so much that can be done via software. The engine puts out X torque at X rpm and that's pretty much it unless you add a turbo. It's not going to magically have the power of a 5.7 Hemi.

That said, I don't have major issues with the shifting on my 2019. Seems a bit better than the 2018 even with the TBS applied.

 

So far I have not heard the “howl” from the rear diff. My trans fluid is at the proper level. Don’t know if the dealer had to add fluid at delivery or not. 2018 OR, 10,000 miles.

 

A video I watched on the 2020 Pro the Tacoma Chief Engineer said that they "reworked the Fox shocks" because of the new lightweight forged Pro wheels. I think they're blowing smoke on that and the transmission too.

 

If your transmission was at the proper level it came from the factory that way. Dealers are not known to check fluid levels as it is too involved and time consuming. My 2016 was low from the dealer. I topped it off. My 2019 is fine at the proper level.

 

I don’t believe so. My 2016 with all tsb’s applied did not function as well as my 2019 drive train. 2019 is improved over previous years with tsb’s in my experience.

 

Actually it’s the opposite. Driving in S-mode disables the learning crap in the transmission. It’s called AI-SHIFT in the manual. Once I read that in the manual I started driving only in s-mode and now it shifts like it did when I first got the tsb.
Still a little lag in the throttle response but nothing like before. I don’t know why Toyota tried to put skynet in our transmissions we are already slaves to these trucks.

 

Must be the 1.05 tune forcing that AI to learn right.

 

Mine whines/whistles

 

He's not lying - what does need to be determined is how 're-worked' the trans software and fox shocks were.

 

They probably just updated the part numbers and called it a day. lol.

 

Update on the tsb update drove around 1000 miles so far and love the it. Truck goes down the hwy like it should truck is more responsive on the throttle not drastically changed but you can tell it's improvement and the gear hunting is pretty much wiped out still bit of issue with cruise control the truck is still a bit stubborn on staying in 5th gear I manipulate it by tapping the throttle and it kicks back into 6th gear