My 2 cents on a few Mods

Vehicle: 2017 Tacoma TRD Pro. 12,000 miles.

Thought I’d give whoever cares a little write up on a few mods I’ve done. If you have any questions let me know.

As we all know, the 3rd gen has a little sloppy shifting issue. I bought the Shift Sense unit and it works great. Not sure what setting I have it on but it works really well. Very simple install and it does what it’s suppose to do. ( I did mount it under my phone charger so that it’s not visible. Plenty of room.)

I actually ended up not using ECT for quite a while than, slowly but surely felt the need for having it on again even with the proper shift points from Shift Sense.

So, No problem. Just buy a ECT module from MesoJdm. Well, I’ve been waiting for a long time and MESO hasn’t been able to restock the ECT module so I went with Motomatic. Bought it on Amazon Prime. Showed up in a day. Install took 10 minutes and Boom, ECT on ALWAYS. No offense to MESO at all. His stuff is beyond awesome. I have his Map Lights and his Ultimate dome and his Fuse Panel Enlarger lid and ALL of his stuff rocks. I just couldn’t handle the wait and I didn’t want to splice in the timer relay etc. etc. Plug and play is really nice and Motomatic had what it took.

So now the truck shifts properly and the ECT is on when I fire up the rig.

The next thing I noticed was about 2 weeks ago heading home from a fishing trip. I’ve read all the posts about lag on acceleration. Never thought too much about it until that trip. Heading home making some sketchy passes (after a long day) sure enough I noticed the truck wasn’t kicking down and taking off until it hit the HIGHER rpm’s.

So, Could the Pedal Commander or the Sprint Booster help out with the lag? Well...I researched and researched and tried figuring out which of the two would be the best bang for the buck. I obviously knew they weren’t going to add power but they were going to open my throttle body butterfly faster than the stock ECU setting. I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t able to come up with one single comparison on the net. I ended up going with the Sprint booster. Cheaper than the Pedal Commander and, usually when I “set” something I’m happy and don’t adjust it anyways.

Once again the install on the unit was super simple plug and play. The settings are rediculous. From hardly touching the pedal and having the rig take off like a wild beast to a nice and mellow take off. Wow. People can say all they want about “Just push the pedal harder or faster” BS. You can slam your pedal to the floor and the stock ecu settings will still tell the throttle body to open nice and easy. These throttle modules literally tell that butterfly to flip open “Right Now”.

OK, It’s shifts right. ECT is on for the right amount of power and the throttle feels like I just adjusted the throttle cable.

I know I could have taken care of all of this by just doing the OV Tune but...I’m not the most computer savvy guy out there and I don’t want to have to de-tune it when taking it in for a warranty issue. (Trucks got 12K in it)

When the Warranty runs out I’ll do the OV Tune or..Maybe by that time someone will come out with a Super Charger for the 3.5. But until than, these are the simple little mods that I’ve done to make the daily drive nice, normal, the way it should be.

If you have any questions, let me know. If you want to talk crap about how these products don’t work, please don’t contact me.

 

Good write up, I’m interested to know if anyone has used the Sprint Booster on a Manual trans.

 

There must be someone... Anyway, I'm sure there's a setting on those devices that may work reasonably well with the M/T. Personally I like my throttle to be responsive and consistent, but I also don't want to lose any fine control "resolution". Too much boost to the accelerator position signal = twitchy. Not fun in 4lo or stop and go traffic.

 

Thanks, I just did a search, not much on here except members selling them, which makes me wonder. Also, others have said they’ve had problems with it on Manual Trans. Their website says it has 18 settings for MT.

 

Thanks for the write up. I asked the ShiftSense Sprint Booster question and never got a response . So Thanks. I'll get a Sprint Booster to add next month.

 

Early M/T trucks on the 04B10 ECM calibration could definitely have problems if the settings are too aggressive. IIRC what is stated in the service manual, the ECM compares the change in accelerator position output to what the throttle is actually doing. If there's too big of a difference, a code will set and the truck will go into fail safe (limp mode). You do NOT want to be in limp mode, especially with a M/T. Ask me how I know lol.

Edit: The code that caused limp mode in my case was P2119XX.

 

All I can add is there is a little switch on the unit that you click from A/T to M/T. All the settings on A/T for the Auto Trans make a difference for Throttle response. Today I used Green #8 all day pulling a trailer to the dump and it was great.

 

Good info, just curious on this. I’m ok with the stock manual trans

 

Thanks for the write up I’ve been thinking of getting these. I love this truck but that lag and riduculius shifting drives me nuts.

 

Race settings in the upper range are pretty aggressive. I can see how a sensitive ecu in a M/T might mistake it as a sensor fault. If it see's the TPS signal moving way faster than it should but... you probably wouldn't want it set there anyways and it'd be an easy fault code erase ( I'd think)

 

So let me ask, I have a 2017 SR5 that shifts like crap... Will the Motomatic ECT module fix the issue? I don't have any ECT issues...

 

Yeah, but you just know someone is going to try it lol.
The thing is, if it happens in traffic well you're in for a stressful time until you can safely pull over and correct things. The truck has almost zero power in fail safe mode.

 

Oh and,

In before :

1. Did you test drive it first?

2. Push down on the gas harder.

3. Learn to drive.

4. Some shit about personal accountability.

Sorry OP, these threads always end up the same way.

 

No. Motomatic just turns on you etc whenever you turn on your truck. ShiftSense helps withe your poor shifting. Google shiftsense.

 

Thanks, I will!

 

I have found the ShiftSense the single best thing I have done on my truck.

 

I have it at the dealer today for the second update TSB 0058-18 (new flash). I figured I would let them try one more time before I pull the trigger om the ShiftSense. At least I know there is a remedy out there if this does not work!