Auto Trans in the mountains

Change is scary. But I don't miss changing (pun intended) points and condensors, setting timing, changing plugs every 6k miles to keep my car running. I mostly think back and laugh when I read the complaints on this forum

 

This one meets your criteria and looks better than any Tacoma...

 

So the Tacoma isn't a pro race vehicle? Who knew...

 

Yup, the transmission tries to get to the lowest RPM gear at any give moment, regardless of what you need to do. It's a pain the ass, and results in the transmission shifting like crazy when you're in the mountains or hills. I think Shift Sense solves this maybe a little by giving the tranny some prozac and letting it know it's OK to live in the proper power band of the engine and resulting maybe less shifts. I think if the trend for new vehicles is to shift like hell all over the place, then put a 8 or 10 speed in there and muffle the hell out of it so I don't have to hear it shifting every 4 seconds.

 

The Tacoma, especially the 2nd generation has been often criticized for its "poor" fuel economy; I think to the extent that in the 3rd gen Toyota went so overboard trying to eek out a couple more mpg they lost sight of its being a truck--in fact placing so much emphasis on mpg that they crippled a 4200/4450 lb. vehicle with a low torque, high-revving engine that has no business being in a truck--add the "goofy-mode" faux Atkinson nonsense on top of that and you've got a guaranteed dog.

The 6-speed slush-box was something they had to do to get any sort of truck-like performance--"gears" are added when an engine has a narrow torque band and they are necessary to keep said engine in that rpm range, or when a vehicle is so heavy you need more gears to get it to move at all. In recent years as engines have shrunken the rage has been to add gears as a way of keeping up. Also"6-speed" has a magical marketing ring to it.

I had a 2003 Mustang Cobra a decade back, it had a Tremec T56 6-speed, 1st gear was nearly worthless as it went by in a flash, and after I pumped the engine up to 495 RWHP it was completely useless--I replaced the tranny with a T600 5-speed...

 

Well I hate to tell you that the peak torque of the 3.5 is one less than the 4.0 and that it happens 600rpm higher, but that more importantly it makes a majority of it's torque between 2000 and 4500 just like the 4.0.
It's a great motor for the state of Colorado, and off-road acquits itself just like the old ones...

Transmissions like seemingly everything evolve, once a 2 speed became a 3 speed became a 4, 5, 6, 7... Generally they don't add gears because it has a narrow torque band so much as it allows them to tailor the trans to be better at both being able to do work, and try to be efficient. It used to be that if you wanted economy that would be all the transmission is, and if you wanted performance, likewise. Now we add gears and trans tuning and we get a balance of both.

Heck, Ford and GM co-developed the new 10 speed unit for the Ford and GM trucks. 10 gears, one ties to a 2.7 turbo, 3.5 turbo and a 5.0 V-8 (the turbo sixes have some massively flat torque curves) on the Ford side, and the new gen GM V-8s up to the 6.2L (also not a peaky motor).

What Toyota did was attempt to balance what the truck is (a lifestyle vehicle mainly used for daily driving and off road) and Fed fuel economy standards for the line up. Used for what it is it's a great truck, used as a heavy 1500 or 2500 it'll fall on it's face! But so will the 2nd Gen...

 

Actually I think you rather enjoyed it.

But that aside there is no way the 3.5 has bottom end (1200 to 2200 rpm) torque even closely equal to the 4.0; drive them both "back-to-back" and the difference is in-your-face obvious. It may well be that puny engines and ever-more gears are the wave of the future--which in a way makes me glad I'm old and pretty much all over worrying about stuff like that. In the spring my SL500 (8.6 mpg @ 140 mph-top down) is going "on the block" as I am over that too...

 

How does it compare to the 4Runner 4.0 ? I think that has more torque and horsepower doesn't it

 

I drove both back to back. The 4Runner had a bit more torque, but still felt slow.

 

I have no idea, however the 4Runner is an SUV so it would not surprise me if they were tuned differently--I think the 4Runner engine is also Dual VVT-i...

 

Everything seems slow compared to my '98 SL500...

 

I bet!

 

It will pass almost anything--except a gas station...

 

Our tacomas don't pass too many gas stations either with its horrendous 15-18 mpg in the city.
I guess those extra 2 MPG on the turd gen is coming in handy now that gas prices are skyrocketing back to $3-4 a gallon.

 

4runner peaks at 4400 rpm and has 13 more torques. Yet people rave about it.

 

V6 engines like to rev. its okay.

 

I don't do "cities", don't like 'em, don''t go anywhere near them any more. I used to commute 48 miles each way to downtown Jacksonville, drove a supercharged 1990 Miata--24 to 28 mpg depending on how fast you got there. If I were still doing that a Tacoma would not be my first choice...

1.6 L 173 rwHP @ 12.5 psi:

 

Comparing my 14 trd sport to my 17 off-road I thought I made a mistake about trading as far as power goes and shifting kinda bothered me also but after 5,000 miles I love this truck and glad I traded up. The shifting even improved alot, I can see the horse power increase now after the break in. No longer feels like I'm dogging the he'll out of it and even average 25 mpg most of the time.

 

at around 10k miles - the second oil change - it's like the transmission took on a totally new personality. it's not nearly so annoying any longer. my gas mileage went up approx 2 mpg as well. now i'm running 17+ mpg mixed driving and 18+ if I can get into the sweet spot - under 65 on the freeway.

the tranny still does some weird shit once in a while but in general it's REALLY calmed down. i can even drive it in the mountains without threatening to light it on fire. the first week i owned the truck i did a long mountain trip - that was frustrating.

now, pretty smooth. if i'm doing an incline where the truck doesn't know what i want - i just slide it over to S and it's no trouble.

 

Hey OP,
I hear your frustration and deal with the same thing. I live in Reno and go to Tahoe periodically. Coming back from Incline my Tacoma shift 30+ times between 3rd and 4th. It's either revved out in 3rd or gutless in 4th. Too much of a difference in gearing between the two. That is my only complaint with the 3rd generation Tacoma, so much so that I started looking for the Tacoma with a manual transmission, but I don't want the sport. well also the rear end howl that the dealer can't hear!
Wish I could have gotten my configuration with a manual. From my experience the problem has not gone away with more mileage on my truck. I am currently at 5,600 miles.