Hill Assist feature

Can anyone help me out with how the hill assist control is supposed to work on 2017 Tacoma 4x4 with standard transmission. Seem that on a hill there is about a two second delay before the brakes unlock after the brake pedal is released. This delay interferes with the brief time during which the clutch pedal is being released to engage the clutch and start moving the vehicle forward up the hill. The locked up brakes and the engaging clutch fight each other.Not much about this in the owners manual.
Thanks,
Ron from Connecticut

 

First, welcome to TacomaWorld! Second, it doesn’t release as soon as you start moving forward? I have the same configuration as you, and while I definitely notice it working, it hasn’t caused me any trouble. Might be worth taking a trip to the dealer and seeing what they say.

 

It's not two seconds, it is only about one second. I had that same problem until I learned to just relax and treat it as being on level ground. Just nice and smooth. It only takes a few days to adjust to it.

 

Same here. It doesn't prevent it from moving foward at all. I don't feel that I need the fearure, but saving probably 1/3 of the wear on the clutch makes all kinds of sense also.

 

This feature and the clutch accumulator are just there so Toyota can make people on a test drive who don't know how to drive stick feel like they kind of can.

The 3rd gen has an honest-to-god mechanical lever handbrake. Why would anyone want mandatory hill start assist?

 

Because it works? I don't need it but it's a nice feature that definitely saves your clutch.

 

But you can use the handbrake to do the exact same thing. Personally sometimes I want to roll back on a hill and the computer doesn't let you when you're in neutral.

 

Are you referring to this? If so, he explains how to use this feature.

https://youtu.be/JD1jMD_J6pU

If this isn’t what you are referring too... Just relax and watch the vid. Lol. Good tutorial either way!

 

Sure it does. It just takes a second.

 

Exactly. That lost second or so is no big deal. I coast back out of my driveway every day after it releases.

 

Hill-start assist only engages if you have your foot on both the clutch and the brake. If you don't want to wait 2 seconds, leave the truck in neutral with the clutch out, and when you take your foot off the brake it'll start rolling.

edit: Or just tap the gas pedal, as that cancels the hill-start assist.

 

No, the 4 cylinder manuals and the sport manuals have hill holders.

 

Gotcha!

 

I am perfectly capable and willing to pull the handbrake myself. I don't really like having the truck decide when I need brakes applied in this situation. The delay is annoying when you want to roll back, and when you start on a hill the brakes like to stick and let you burn clutch.

 

You should get that checked out. They should release as soon as you touch the gas pedal.

 

I've been confused about this the whole time I've owned my truck. I've read threads that made me second guess if I do since it's been said the sport doesn't have hill assist. But it feels pretty obvious if you're not rolling backwards with a manual.

 

Forgot entirely about this feature. OR models don’t have it then, right? My OR definitely will roll back if I let it. I can see how this might be a nice feature, for example, city driving or stop and go up steep hills ie San Francisco (which I avoid at nearly all costs anyway) when working the hand brake repeatedly might get tiring.

 

Right, thankfully the OR and Pro Manual do not have that feature.