ECT POWAH

I was reading a thread last week that was talking about having ECT on and it's effect on MPGs. Thought i'd post a new thread instead of thread-jacking the other one. Note that my truck is a stock 2017 TRD Sport 4x4 DCSB, with the exception of a K&N drop in panel filter, a Bakflip MX4 and some pretty cool brewery stickers.

A few observations (and i'm sure most of you know this already, but thought i'd share it anyway):

1. Shifting is a lot more tolerable at most speeds, and you get a lot less gear hunting going on. It also feels so much more torquier and responsive. It shifts closer to the expect shift point if you were driving manual. When i test drove, i didn't even know about this button, and the truck felt sooo underpowered it was unbelievable. Especially when you see 268hp V6 on the sticker. I was like "where the hell is the power??!?"
2. Best when used when cruising uphill. the shifting goes nuts trying to decide if 5th or 6th is the best uphill gear.
3. With ECT off, the computer wants to shift gears right before it gets into the powerband, which is pretty lame. Without stomping on it all the time, the tranny prefers to shift at ~1900rpm.
4. Based on ~30% city driving:
   1. ECT off: 18.393gal, 348mi, 18.9mpg
   2. ECT on (~80% of the time): 17.121gal, 320mi, 18.7mpg
5. I tend to just turn off ECT once i get up to around 60-65 mph or when driving below 20 mph. Seems like ECT on prevents the transmission from going into 6th.

So long as you're not trying to redline all the time (so tempting), and you just turn off the ECT when you're in traffic so it doesn't feel like you're driving around in 1st gear, you should be fine.

My mpg display keeps telling me that i'm averaging 23.1mpg, which is completely bogus.

Next experiment, taking off this lower front air dam. From what i read, the difference is negligible as well, but it never hurts to try it for yourself and draw your own conclusion.

 

I run it all the time and to me seems to just make 1-4 hold better and shift when it should once I get on highway and up to speed 70+mph I see no difference in shifting it will still kick to 5th on slight hills at 80mph and 4th at decent inclines to maintain 80mph. Just my observations and as far as my fuel mileage I've seen no effect some tanks I can get 20mpg some 18.5mpg depends on me mostly.

 

"ECT is best used when" ... RACING!!

 

Ya i love the way it’ll pull all the way to redline if you let it. Getting to 3500-4k between shifts makes it so much more fun to drive.

 

I've just started playing with the ECT but I don't have any fuel usage data. It does feel like the transmission is behaving more like I would expect it to with the ECT on.