Rough transmission shifts

[Vidman]

my trailhunter just turned 2000 miles. The only time that the tranny makes a clunk is when I shift it from drive to reverse without coming to a full stop.. other than that it shifts perfectly all the time. but time will tell if the tranny goes south

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[BAQ717]

I get at most 3 hard shifts when the transmission is cold and then it’s very smooth. Not uncommon for modern 8ATs. The ZF in my BMW did the same thing. Definitely not a reason to forgo buying the truck IMO.

 

[TacoFreak]

Even though I don't like it a lot, hard shifts seems to be how these transmissions work and how they were designed. I get an occasional hard shift out of park and into drive or reverse when first starting my truck. After that it is smooth as silk. Lots of 8-speeds in other Toyota vehicles have the same issue, so they have to think this is normal.

 

[izzy]

Feels like a beefy truck transmission to me.

I understand the MSRP gets wild on these but it's still a truck.

The guys complaining about the ride quality of the 4 link models have clearly never owned a truck before LOL cause it's gonna ride like a truck even if it's 4 link or not.

It's never going to be a 3 series or something (even then ZF8 are clunky bastards sometimes but very good transmissions). No matter how much it cost you it'll never ride like a car, even if it costs more than cars that ride very well lol. But you wouldn't take a 3 series where you take your Tacoma right? Isn't that the whole point?

I dunno, my first vehicle ever was a 1993 Toyota Pickup 2WD with no AC but the 5 speed (wow!) still drove it all over the bay and to LA once. I'm convinced anyone complaining about the Tacoma clunkiness or ride quality needs to go drive an old truck first then drive the new Tacoma and you'll see nothing has really changed LOL

 

[izzy]

Just go buy a used X7 (costs the same as a Tacoma) You can tow your toys around and complain when the ZF8 occasionally does a weird shift

But at least you'll be comfortable over bridge expansion joints...

 

[thor’s taco]

Feels like a beefy truck transmission to me.

I understand the MSRP gets wild on these but it's still a truck.

The guys complaining about the ride quality of the 4 link models have clearly never owned a truck before LOL cause it's gonna ride like a truck even if it's 4 link or not.

It's never going to be a 3 series or something (even then ZF8 are clunky bastards sometimes but very good transmissions). No matter how much it cost you it'll never ride like a car, even if it costs more than cars that ride very well lol. But you wouldn't take a 3 series where you take your Tacoma right? Isn't that the whole point?

I dunno, my first vehicle ever was a 1993 Toyota Pickup 2WD with no AC but the 5 speed (wow!) still drove it all over the bay and to LA once. I'm convinced anyone complaining about the Tacoma clunkiness or ride quality needs to go drive an old truck first then drive the new Tacoma and you'll see nothing has really changed LOL

That’s my problem though. I sold my second gen Tacoma to a buddy when I bought my fourth gen. And while the new truck rides better, the shifting is worse and way more noticeable. I even drove my old truck after I started noticing the shifts in the fourth gen and the transmission is way smoother in the second gen.

I’m not asking for this truck to drive and ride like a Lexus. I’m asking for something that is worth the value and quality of brand new vehicle. Meaning it should just freaking work.

 

[BAQ717]

That’s my problem though. I sold my second gen Tacoma to a buddy when I bought my fourth gen. And while the new truck rides better, the shifting is worse and way more noticeable. I even drove my old truck after I started noticing the shifts in the fourth gen and the transmission is way smoother in the second gen.

I’m not asking for this truck to drive and ride like a Lexus. I’m asking for something that is worth the value and quality of brand new vehicle. Meaning it should just freaking work.

I’ve driven my friends 3G Tacoma and this transmission is leaps and bounds better. If the transmission in your truck is worse than a 2G i have to imagine you have an issue.

 

[izzy]

That’s my problem though. I sold my second gen Tacoma to a buddy when I bought my fourth gen. And while the new truck rides better, the shifting is worse and way more noticeable. I even drove my old truck after I started noticing the shifts in the fourth gen and the transmission is way smoother in the second gen.

I’m not asking for this truck to drive and ride like a Lexus. I’m asking for something that is worth the value and quality of brand new vehicle. Meaning it should just freaking work.

Why not go to a dealer and ask to drive their demo truck and see if it feels any different.

4G has a lot of torque, I think expecting it to shift as smoothly as the 1GR setup is probably not reasonable.

 

[thor’s taco]

Why not go to a dealer and ask to drive their demo truck and see if it feels any different.

4G has a lot of torque, I think expecting it to shift as smoothly as the 1GR setup is probably not reasonable.

It's not reasonable to expect a brand new vehicle to shift smoothly? That logic doesn't make sense to me. It would be different if it shifted hard in every gear and was designed that way. But what I'm saying is people in this community are experiencing the same issues. It doesn't appear to be a universal symptom of all of these trucks. Just a minority.

I'm planning on test driving a new one when I go in for my 5k service. My concern is that this shifting didn't first appear until just under 500 miles. And now 1k later its the same story. I've even considered asking service if it's even possible to reset the computer to see if it helps and have the trans re-learn.

 

[TCW1184]

Feels like a beefy truck transmission to me.

I understand the MSRP gets wild on these but it's still a truck.

The guys complaining about the ride quality of the 4 link models have clearly never owned a truck before LOL cause it's gonna ride like a truck even if it's 4 link or not.

It's never going to be a 3 series or something (even then ZF8 are clunky bastards sometimes but very good transmissions). No matter how much it cost you it'll never ride like a car, even if it costs more than cars that ride very well lol. But you wouldn't take a 3 series where you take your Tacoma right? Isn't that the whole point?

I dunno, my first vehicle ever was a 1993 Toyota Pickup 2WD with no AC but the 5 speed (wow!) still drove it all over the bay and to LA once. I'm convinced anyone complaining about the Tacoma clunkiness or ride quality needs to go drive an old truck first then drive the new Tacoma and you'll see nothing has really changed LOL

I see a lot of people trying to normalize this behavior because it's a truck - except most other trucks don't act like that. Having spent time with ZFs in the Ram 1500 and Ridgeline, those transmissions are typically butter smooth. I've had more trucks than I'd like to admit, from Z71s to Tundras, Tacomas, Rams, and Frontiers. In almost all cases, I never found the powertrain rough or clunky.

Toyota knows how to make a smooth shifting trans. With the 8 speed, it seems they designed/programed it to act this way on purpose. Doesn't mean it's a mechanical problem, but it'll have to be an accepted annoyance because there's nothing to fix.

 

[TCW1184]

It's not reasonable to expect a brand new vehicle to shift smoothly? That logic doesn't make sense to me. It would be different if it shifted hard in every gear and was designed that way. But what I'm saying is people in this community are experiencing the same issues. It doesn't appear to be a universal symptom of all of these trucks. Just a minority.

I'm planning on test driving a new one when I go in for my 5k service. My concern is that this shifting didn't first appear until just under 500 miles. And now 1k later its the same story. I've even considered asking service if it's even possible to reset the computer to see if it helps and have the trans re-learn.

It's not unreasonable to want a nice driving experience. Toyota uses a learning ECU in the transmission (which is a large part of shitty transmission behavior in 3rd gen). That would explain why the behavior is changing after X amount of miles. It can be reset at the dealer, but it'll just relearn the same behavior in a few weeks.

 

[TacoFreak]

I agree with @TCW1184. I have driven trucks my whole life and clunky truck transmissions are not really all that common. Even my 2005 Tacoma shifted as smooth as silk, and my Tundra did too. Of course the 5.7L drivetrain in my Tundra was shared with the expensive LC, so I assume more was expected of it. But today's Toyota 8-speeds get lots of shift quality complaints in crossover SUVs as well, so it is not just a truck thing.

My truck is fine, with just an abrupt shift or two when I first start driving, but I have friends who's 4th gens shift like crap all of the time, and that is not something that I associate with any trucks that I have driven. I assume that increasing transmission efficiency was a higher priority that good shifting when this generation of 8-speed automatics were designed.

 

[Gfenza89]

It's not reasonable to expect a brand new vehicle to shift smoothly? That logic doesn't make sense to me. It would be different if it shifted hard in every gear and was designed that way. But what I'm saying is people in this community are experiencing the same issues. It doesn't appear to be a universal symptom of all of these trucks. Just a minority.

I'm planning on test driving a new one when I go in for my 5k service. My concern is that this shifting didn't first appear until just under 500 miles. And now 1k later its the same story. I've even considered asking service if it's even possible to reset the computer to see if it helps and have the trans re-learn.

Does your shudder at low speeds, you can feel the truck vibrating sometimes drastically?

 

[izzy]

Something it does do that's funny is that it'll come to a stop in 2nd but if you do a California stop, it'll take off in 2nd too which is probably too low of a gear for the situation and then rely on the torque converter a lot.

The next shift is jerky because the driver added throttle because the truck doesn't feel like it's moving fast enough. You put a bunch of inertia into the flywheel and torque converter so yeah, the 2-3 will be violent.

When I drive manual cars this is still a problem. I usually just come to a complete stop to shift into 1st (I don't like shifting into 1st while moving in any manual car) and then take off. Or if I have enough wheel speed, slip the clutch in 2nd to get going, which is fine but can be jerky. There was a TSB for

I think they should just program it to downshift to 1st always when below 10mph. ZF8s do that. Or just come to a complete stop, the take off will be in 1st and much smoother. Higherlander had a TSB to change the transmission programming to do this.

Either way though when I notice the truck is jerky its usually the fault of my skinny pedal smoothness.

 

[thor’s taco]

Does your shudder at low speeds, you can feel the truck vibrating sometimes drastically?

Does your shudder at low speeds, you can feel the truck vibrating sometimes drastically?

Not really. Every once in a while I get some shuddering after coming to a complete stop. I was having issues around 300-400 miles where my truck would lurch forward at a stop, but that hasn’t happened in almost 1k miles.

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