Tacoma - OVTUNE - VFTUNER - Update Info and Original Development

I don't have the random surging, but I do have the holding in 4th for an extended period when it could easily shift up to fifth. I found the problem is mostly mitigated once the truck is warmed up although if I accelerate and drop to 4th at highway speeds it can take a little bit to drop back to fifth. That's definitely annoying.

Reason for my post though, Extended review of 1.03.

I ran it for two weeks with my TRD Rims and 265/70 R17 Cooper STT Pros and was happy with the shifting, happy with the power.

Disappointed by the torque though. Still can't hold 70mph without getting godawful fuel economy. But it can hold it in 6th! Fuel economy overall improved by 1.5 mpg. Went from 14.5mpg to 16mpg which is great. Anything in the 40-55mph range gets fantastic fuel economy. 20-23 mostly. Overall though I wasn't pleased with how my truck was performing. OVtunes tune was a huge improvement over stock but this truck still leaves me wanting more.

Fast forward to last week. Gas prices topped 5.70/gallon in my area (Vancouver). I swapped back to my stock tires.

HOLY HELL. What an improvement 1.03 is with stock tires over the stock tune. The shifting is so smooth, I can "old man drive" and get 22mpg easy.

Today I saw my first ever Hwy trip at over 25 mpg. And I have over 40,000km on my truck so it's not like I haven't driven it much. I LOVE my truck now. It's buttery smooth shifts and smooth acceleration. Im averaging 20-22mpg easy. I guess I'll be selling those Cooper tires now.

At least I'll be keeping the truck. Thanks Ovtune, you breathed life back into my truck again.

 

I'm in the Vancouver area as well and I echo your observations. I run 265/75/R16 Falkens and my mileage has gone up quite a bit.

 

Regear it mine does not have the tune yet. But it does have 4:88. Feels better than stock with 33” tires

 

When will next update be released? @OVTune

 

Don't own it unfortunately, I'm on a lease otherwise I would. And I MIGHT have to give it up for a new job which pays less, but gives me more family time.

 

Today i left the grocery store and i pulled up to a stop light and the truck rev’d between 600 and 1k rpm for about 3 seconds. Never did that before going to 1.03. Im on the 87 tune and have about 1200 miles on 1.03. Scary cuz there was a car in front of me luckily i just pressed harder on the brake pedal or else i would of had an ooopsie

 

I was just asked if my truck had cams because my idle is bouncing around. From the outside of the truck that’s what a complete stranger thought.

FML

 

For anyone experiencing any issues with bouncing idle I will have a new flash manager and tune version that solves this I should have this ready tomorrow

 

Mat any luck with the harsh downshift when approaching a stop? It's not tune related because it's done this since I bought the truck.

 

I've had this since tuning a week ago. It seems to be getting progressively more intense.... though I'll admit I might not have isolated it yet to various settings.

 

Without reading 728 pages of comments, how is this tune doing? I'm about to BUY IT! I just wonder who's got the most miles on their truck with this tune? How's it doing as far as reliability/dependability?
I also drive a Mk7 Golf-R, and I never tuned it because there are so many horror stories. But a lot of that is due it being a turbo'd engine and people are adding 10+ lbs of boost to stock internals and it often equals disaster.
I think this tune sounds super legit, and I've heard really good things.
So, is everyone loving it?

 

That definitely explains a lot of why I felt like I could never figure out the original transmission! I felt like I was always fighting it!! Now that I've been using the 87 tune since Wed, I've been impressed with how smooth the truck is and how much fun it is to drive again! It reminds me of the Mazda CX-9 that we had traded in (which my wife and I loved...but we just need to haul more stuff). So far, I've been super happy with this!!!!!

 

Read some of those 728 pages, lots of info here. But for a more concise and distilled set of reviews, go to the review thread. There’s a thread specifically for posting reviews. There are some very thorough postings in there.

 

Props on your priorities.

 

I do not have a ton of miles on mine yet, but the tune so far is awesome. I had my first regular morning commute with the tune this morning and instantly noticed 2mpg better with my 265/75 tires and armor weight compared to the crappy mileage i was getting during my commute. Traveling in traffic is WAAAAY nicer too, no more sluggishness. Only thing I have noticed is that it seem better to let the truck warm up for 30 seconds or so. The RPMs idle between 600-700 when warmed (minute needle hopping). The exhaust sounds cleaner and more harmonic with the tune as well, it is noticeable with my Flowmaster exhaust.

 

Big difference of danger with a turbo. Turbo = more heat = more likely damage to an engine. I believe it was @bshammer0 who said that he has taken his ride into the dealership for regular maintenance a couple times already with the tune and they did not detect or say anything about it.

 

You shouldn't tune a Golf-R - you tune the base Golf and GTI! I had a 2001 GTI for 17 years and had all sorts of problems in the first 20 months when it was all stock. Lots of carbon build up on the spark plugs, turbo went out, bad gas milage, etc. When I tuned the GTI, all that went away and I had 15 reliable years with less problems and better gas milage than when it was stock. But the Golf-R is already tuned out the wazzo - I'd leave that alone. And the stock Tacoma is a lot more comparable to a stock Golf... a bit underpowered with plenty room for improvement.

 

Yep, been to the dealership multiple times - no issues. Got emissions testing done and passed, no issues. Engine runs in the normal range for heat (generally 195-208F) and no abnormal heat in the transmission after all the torque converter changes that were in this last release.

 

How did you find out the engine temp? (may be a dumb question)

 

How much did re-gearing cost?