The abridged 4th gen owners manual

Not a lot. But if you change from two round gauges (tach and spedo) to one spedo only, you can put more of the auxiliary gauges on the side. So it's possible to see battery, oil pressure, oil temp, and transmission temp, coolant temp all on one screen.

There's a lot of redundancy. Like the center screen will show phone calls just like the infotainment system. And then the turn by turn directions show up there and on the infotainment too.

 

Mind blown. I knew only 1/3 of that.

 

I got a faraday too

 

They use signal boosters. Keep them more than 6’ away from the front door.

 

I (like many people I'm sure) have a key hook right by my front door. It sounds like there is an attack that someone can amplify my proximity key to open the doors or even start my truck? yikes, that's good to know!

 

Yup. It's done with two people. Seems like these types are thefts are typically more common in cities closer to ports - as soon as the cars are stolen they are shipped overseas and never seen again.

Typically one thief stands close to your door or window with a large antenna. The second thief stands by the car. The wireless key response is then "relayed" to the car, allowing the 2nd thief to enter the vehicle, start it, and then they both drive off.

A common misconception is that your car will just eventually shut off once the key is not in proximity. But this is far from the truth, the car will keep running until it is shut off manually. It would be a serious safety issue if the car just stopped in the middle of the road, or even a worse, a highway.

 

That's what happened to me. Houston - Port of Houston is one of the biggest in the US. They stuck it in a rail car and trd pro was gone (my best guess as GPS cut after 20 minutes).

I parked out front and live in town. My garage door was off the tracks otherwise I’d park in the garage which I always do. Two guys came and did just that. My keys were in the living room and they just pulled it remotely. Now I have keys in faraday box and truck 100% garaged. Will also take additional measures.

 

Damn, that really sucks. Hopefully insurance took care of you.

Even though we haven't had too many of these types of thefts in Chicago, I wouldn't be surprised if it started to occur here. Nonetheless, I keep all my keys in my faraday box as well, just as a precaution.

 

They did - hence the TH

 

I agree, but since the car detects as soon as the door is closed the fob is out, why does it allow the car to move at all? This would not prevent the theft since they essentially duplicated the fob.

 

There's the very real scenario where your battery, after being left to rest for a while, has enough chooch left in it for the fob to talk to the truck just long enough for you to start it but dies soon after. It's kind of the same thing that might happen if you're on a road trip starting with a very low but not dead battery and it dies four hours into the trip. You wouldn't want the truck to suddenly decide you're not allowed to operate it when you're in the middle of the desert in Nevada, for instance. Chemical batteries can develop what feels like really strange behaviors when they wear out. They've gotta account for those so they don't put their owners at risk.

Not to say that theft isn't an actual risk; just look at how Hyundai/Kia's reputation has suffered because of the whole Kia Boyz debacle. It's just that the risk of having the vehicle disable itself during a trip and the risk of theft overlap in regards to solutions. It's a tough nut to crack. If it weren't, somebody would have done it by now.

 

Good point, hadn't thought of that. Not familiar with the Kia debacle, my friend works there, he usually talks about the bunch of cars in the yard waiting for a new engine. Those can't be stolen, they are disabled, but using a different approach.

It would be nice if using the Toyota app, we could disable the truck if stolen the same way I can do for my smartphone, smartwatch or credit card. And also track it on the move instead of just when parked.

 

Kias are a different story entirely. They're easy to steal as most lower end models didn't ship with immobilizers and their steering columns are easy to rip apart. Conveniently a USB-A male plug fits perfectly inside ingition cylinder and off you go.

But Kias aren't stolen to be shipped overseas, it's just kids stealing them for clout.

https://youtu.be/fbTrLyqL_nw

 

A Faraday bag dosen't keep the alarms from going off if the fob is in the bag and the mechanical key unlocks the door in my 2024 Hybrid Taco

 

So I was poking around on my 2025 Hybrid in the customization options with TechStream and found a cool option that is not enabled by default. You can turn on an option to lower all windows (and the moon roof according to the description on the option, although I don't have one to confirm) by holding the unlock button for 3 seconds. I confirmed this works too! In fact, it lowers the windows only until you let go of the button, so it can be used to crack all 4 without putting them all the way down.

Interestingly though, Toyota did NOT add an option to put them UP with the lock button. The only way to do this is with the key in the door lock cylinder, which is also an option not enabled by default.

I made these changes with Techstream, but they might also be available with something like a Carista. I don't have one to test this though.

 

Yes, same change can be done with Carista. Verified yesterday. Turned off stereo engine noise, seat belt chime and changed blinkers to go on 5 times when tapping the stalk vs just 3 times.
Also, no option for putting them back up.

 

Interesting! I did not see an option for the stereo engine noise in Techstream. I didn't even know the Tacoma had that option. I knew the Tundra had it, but I've not noticed anything like that in my Tacoma, so it must be off already.

 

in the cluster settings is one to change from the default ("Tough") to Casual or Sports mode for the actual MPH and RPM gauges:

Tough:



Casual:



Sport:

 

4lo can't be engaged unless you are at a full stop and put truck in neutral. I tried to engage at a full stop in drive and 4lo just blinks on your dash, not engaged.