Tacoma - OVTUNE - VFTUNER - Update Info and Original Development

I imagine the TC is killing power if you're mashing the pedal from a stand still. Try it with the TC off, it might be overly sensitive

 

You know fellas, I'm pretty sure that OVTuning is not sitting around waiting for everyone to give him a list of their own personal desirable traits for the Tacoma. He seems to be a really intelligent guy, who understands how motors and transmissions work in concert with their shared ECU's. Constant fiddling with performance traits that are considerable less important that those he's alreaddy addressed will likely slow the development process, and in some cases (like the S-Lock) may prove dangerous for some people. We might consider letting him do his thing, and if you like it, buy it. If not, don't.

I'm just sayin'..............................

 

There is a reason that Toyota doesn't have a S lock in their vehicles. It would cause too many problems.

 

Speedometer calibration > S mode lockout

 

Ohhhhhhhh YES!!! That's great news.

To those who are against the S mode lock. How can "bad things" happen, or how is it a "bad idea?" As long as the proper fail safe controls are in place, it is safer than a manual transmission. I would imagine the S mode lock feature would not allow you to shift down to 2nd or 1st gear from highway speeds, for instance. What is there in a manual transmission vehicle that can do this? Fuel cut? Ignition cut? Maybe one, maybe both, but those will never stop the mechanical action of downshifting to the incorrect gear, severely over-revving and smashing valves with pistons.

Being able to lock into a gear will sort of turn the auto into a manual, which would be a million times nicer in cruise on the highway. This could eliminate the constant 6-5-4-5-4-5-6-5-4 gear shifting bullshit while trying to cruise down the road. I'm 100% in if this happens.

 

I have tried it with the nanny stuff "off", same result. The truck will start to go, then lose power, then try to go again. It may start to break traction after the power loss. At no time during the initial off the line "bog" do you get any indication displayed that TC or VSC is active. I've made those things light up in other situations btw, so I know what it looks/feels like.

 

Toyota already has failsafes put in place. Such as not allowing gear lock.

 

Also, requiring more than a button press or whatever you have in an auto to change gears (NFC because I haven't driven a auto and have no idea what everyone is talking about with their S mode nonsense). Even if someone wasn't trying to be stupid, it isn't hard to accidentally tap more than once and go to 2nd instead of 3rd.

 

So....the Lexus LC500 has a S+ mode gear lock that will disable automatic upshifting, however...it will automatically downshift as the RPM comes low in that gear. It also does not allow you to make an unsafe downshift. This is what we were considering implementing.

 

Drivers that have learned how to drive a manual. Consider the vast majority of people with automatics don't understand the reasons why you can't/shouldn't lug the engine because they've forever had a computer do it for them.

Here's how I see it playing out. Joe Blow gets OVTune loaded up with shift lock. Joe goes out and does 50 6th gear pulls at 45 mph because he's datalogging the crazy surging he's seeing. THERE MUST BE A PROBLEM WITH THE TUNE! Joe is detonating like crazy because of how he was driving it. Joe blows up a piston or throws a rod through the block and gives it to Toyota to investigate without ever removing the tune because it's undetectable. The internet told him so. Toyota sends out their best engineers to investigate. Something seems fishy with the ECU. They find the tune. They develop a way to sniff out the tune on others' trucks. We take in our trucks for an oil change. Their routine check via Techstream with the nifty updated tune sniffing update finds our maps. We get flagged, get future warranty claims denied.

Thanks Joe. Thanks a lot.

 

That's what our S mode already does. Whatever gear you select is the maximum allowable gear. IE: S1 won't upshift out of first gear. S4 won't go higher than 4th gear.

It will automatically downshift to prevent lugging which is what I assumed you were considering working on preventing.

 

That makes sense and is pretty typical of most every "sport mode" in a car with an auto trans. It is convenient too because you don't actually have to downshift at a stop light. I think what people are complaining about is they don't want a downshift unless absolutely necessary.

 

Really, interesting the AT truck we did R&D on would upshift if you held at the rev limit in S mode, and would auto downshift any RPM below 4000 if floored in a higher gear. I thought you guys meant where it will upshift if you hold it at the fuel cut limiter for an extended period of time and you wanted no upshifting ever


I will not disable safety based automatic downshifting. Extremely risky.

 

I've not intentionally tried to hold it at the rev limit in S mode so maybe it will do so, but with how slow the truck actually upshifts compared to when you've told it to, I've bounced off that rev limit in first gear more than once. Now I'm curious though...I can see the desire to prevent it from downshifting so you can keep it in 6th on the highway without the ECU shifting down for your (however unwise), but I'm not seeing a benefit to preventing it from upshifting so you can bounce off the rev limit all day. Given as it's definitely going to bounce before it upshifts, that seems like a desirable safeguard.

 

Maybe I was confused about what was being asked for specifically, when I read Gear-lock I immediately thought of how the LC500 does gear-lock. Sorry everyone!

 

No upshift, no downshift. Stays in selected gear, so it will not hunt around through the gears on the highway or at moderate city speeds. The AT already has a Speedo safeguard that will not allow downshift if moving too fast in the truck. It beeps at you and does not allow the downshift. @OVTune

 

Okay so then the main change would be adjusting that automatic downshift. We can't "delete" it entirely, but we could set it to downshift only when the RPM is very low, like 12-1300 RPM and nowhere after. I do remember specifically on the Dyno, 4th gear it would still downshift when floored below 3500-4000 RPM. I'll look into it but there are a few things to accomplish first


I'd like to also add, we are keeping note of the things people are requesting, we will implement what is most popular and most feasible. Not everything is going to be possible.

 

Locked rear anytime (gray wire mod) was discussed a while ago. Is that off the table?

 

I thought this was already a current attribute of the Tune for the OR...

 

I think that's what they're looking for: essentially, a manual select, with only safeguards to prevent overrev and extreme lugging.