2024 Tacoma Transmission Overheating on Long Climbs Off-Road

[GSPHerder]

I had to put the truck in park at the top and Rev the engine for maybe 10 minutes at 2k rpm to bring the temps back to the middle normal halfway point. Frankly this is a huge pia simply driving up a small mountain and doing all of these preventative measures because Toyota didn't get their platforms up to speed. Toyota royaly screwed up with the transmission design or cooling on these Tacomas...

Mine was doing the same, but I just put it in S Mode and kept it in lower gear to keep rpm's over 2k. Once I did that I ran around offroad for days with no issues.

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[lauren01]

A couple weeks ago I crossed the Canadian Rockies and back on Hwy 5 and Hwy 1. Drove through Roger’s Pass in 28C - 30c+ (82F - 90F) temperatures. Steady climbs for an hour. No issues, kept an eye on the trans gage because of this thread and saw it peak at just past the halfway mark, never higher. Truck performed as expected on the entire 3200km (2000 mile) round trip. No off roading so always in 2Hi.

I wonder if it’s some trucks and not across the board? Either way I agree with you all this is bs. A dedicated transmission cooler on at least the off road trims should have been a given!

This may not be a popular place to read this here, especially with @lauren01 but I still standby the best trucks I ever owned were my GMT400 K1500’s - Silverado & Yukon. Both had over 200k miles on them (Yukon had 250k miles - 400k km). Both original engines and transmissions. Pretty well only regular maintenance and a transfer case in one. Logging roads, up mountains, in winter and summer. Never in 4Lo except once I remember. Never an overheating problem of any type. Only fault really would be the mileage. (Tacoma is definitely better mpg, as I’d expect as it is smaller too). Maintenance was easy to do, even at home. Parts were low cost.
I wanted a Tacoma for a long time and really like mine so far, but gotta say it’s not on the pedestal I thought it was anymore. And threads like these, people shifting to 4Lo just to avoid transmission overheating, are unsettling and doing that is unheard off in my old Chevs and GMs.
I will say for new trucks, a Tacoma is still the only one I’d buy (unless you need a HD or towing capacity). GMs are not the same and don’t seem to be as durable as the GMT400’s were.

My dad’s early Silverado HD diesel had a long lasting engine but he had a lot of repairs and upgrade work done to it (e.g. double oil filtration). I remember helping him fix the center console lid when the hinge broke off. It was the best of his trucks, just such an expense when it kept breaking down. Too many fishing trips were hampered or delayed because of that truck. Glad to hear you had great experiences with yours.

 

[Someguysomewhere26]

Will +1 the S mode and setting it to 2 or 3.

 

[Kodachrome]

These are about 20F degree cooler temps for the same effects as I have been finding online. Either way I am not "cool" with 220-230 as I am seeing so I will look into an aux cooler. I also need to add the Toyota gauge to one of my readouts so I can at least compare what the scale is saying vs my actual temps on the iDash gauge.

I spent the better part of an hour reading about this issue in great detail, people’s accounts of going into limp mode, what the Toyota gauge is telling you in terms of temp across the scale and even watched that crazy towing video with the guys seeing trans temps over 270F on the iDash gauge and the Toyota one still not in the red.

Bottom line for me is I am glad I am taking my time in putting my pop-up camper on my new truck, because I am not putting it on my new rig until I get an aux cooler installed. I’ll take it though to Spring and then should have it ready for the camper, but not before.

This shit is cra-cra…

 

[Dutchman4]

Even my 2010 Tundra, with the tow package and dedicated transmission fluid cooler, would over heat the transmission if I did a long, steep, slow climb in 4HI.
The 5.7L engine had plenty of low rpm torque and the engine temp never increased but the transmission temperature would go into the red on the analog gauge.
The lesson I learned was to put it in 4LO for those types of situations and there was never a problem again.
What I think happens is that if the transmission is running in too high of a gear and under a sustained heavy load, the torque converter generates excessive heat and the fluid is not moving through its cooling system fast enough to dissipate the excess heat.

Regards, Ceril

 

[joebangle]

Even my 2010 Tundra, with the tow package and dedicated transmission fluid cooler, would over heat the transmission if I did a long, steep, slow climb in 4HI.
The 5.7L engine had plenty of low rpm torque and the engine temp never increased but the transmission temperature would go into the red on the analog gauge.
The lesson I learned was to put it in 4LO for those types of situations and there was never a problem again.
What I think happens is that if the transmission is running in too high of a gear and under a sustained heavy load, the torque converter generates excessive heat and the fluid is not moving through its cooling system fast enough to dissipate the excess heat.

Regards, Ceril

What I don't understand is the overheating will occur when in 2wd driving slowly up a paved mountain road. I don't see other Subaru, Honda, American suv's having trouble with elevated transmission temps at the top of the mountain idling engines or reving them to cool of high transmission temps. How is it that toyotas competition can manage these inclines without elevated transmission temps, but a supposed "adventure" vehicle has issues? If you advertise a vehicle to be used for camping trips and adventures you would think they would have rested them in this capacity. I also didn't see anything in the owners manual mentioning shifting into manual mode when driving up hills or higher grade slow moving roads. I am also well versed in rowing gears with a manual transmission in the past. I purchased the automatic transmission non hybrid due to the higher towing capacity compared to the manual and hybrid. This in theory should provide extra safety margin and increase durability and longevity. Instead apparently we have automatic transmissions that need to be used as a manual just to prevent overheating in drive. Isn't the computer supposed to determine the optimal gear for the application? Old mechanical transmission would take into consideration line pressure, throttle position etc when determining shifting points. Why on God's green earth can't these tacomas adapt to the driving conditions with all of the electronic sensors and inputs they have? I believe they even ha e a clinometer, so the vehicle knows when it's on an incline. So what is the excuse Toyota? Is it too hard to test your vehicles and develop appropriate programming to manage your transmissions? Too difficult for the electronic system to figure out the elevated transmission temps? Or is it toyota hyped the tacoma model before doing real world testing to work out these issues before customers started experiencing problems? I'm sorry but this is inexcusable, and it gives Toyota a lousy reputation.

Do better Sheldon Brown and Toyota North America!

 

[GSPHerder]

well, "my opinion", Is Toyota stopped making trucks awhile ago. Now they cater to the california market where apple car play and cosmetics override gear ratio's and durability. They and all others are slaves to NHTSA/epa and their cafe regulations and have completely sacrificed the brand "Toyota" to the "American bean counters and covid mask wearing politicians".

Real truck users/off-roaders are few and far in-between compared to the " do these rims make my butt look wide crowd"

The thin hood and body panels that vibrate when your driving down a smooth road, the small gas tank, and the transmission that always wants to be below 2k rpm for cafe requirements, weak axles/torque limiters. Not to even mention all the nanny bs they put on these trucks. Toyota sold out the brand, and a lot of it was because of the current gen buyer who wants cosmetics, but couldn't even begin to tell you what axle or gear ratio their $60k truck has.

just saying

 

[Dutchman4]

What I don't understand is the overheating will occur when in 2wd driving slowly up a paved mountain road. I don't see other Subaru, Honda, American suv's having trouble with elevated transmission temps at the top of the mountain idling engines or reving them to cool of high transmission temps. How is it that toyotas competition can manage these inclines without elevated transmission temps, but a supposed "adventure" vehicle has issues? If you advertise a vehicle to be used for camping trips and adventures you would think they would have rested them in this capacity. I also didn't see anything in the owners manual mentioning shifting into manual mode when driving up hills or higher grade slow moving roads. I am also well versed in rowing gears with a manual transmission in the past. I purchased the automatic transmission non hybrid due to the higher towing capacity compared to the manual and hybrid. This in theory should provide extra safety margin and increase durability and longevity. Instead apparently we have automatic transmissions that need to be used as a manual just to prevent overheating in drive. Isn't the computer supposed to determine the optimal gear for the application? Old mechanical transmission would take into consideration line pressure, throttle position etc when determining shifting points. Why on God's green earth can't these tacomas adapt to the driving conditions with all of the electronic sensors and inputs they have? I believe they even ha e a clinometer, so the vehicle knows when it's on an incline. So what is the excuse Toyota? Is it too hard to test your vehicles and develop appropriate programming to manage your transmissions? Too difficult for the electronic system to figure out the elevated transmission temps? Or is it toyota hyped the tacoma model before doing real world testing to work out these issues before customers started experiencing problems? I'm sorry but this is inexcusable, and it gives Toyota a lousy reputation.

Do better Sheldon Brown and Toyota North America!

I should have made it clear that my "use case" for the 2010 Tundra was for an OFF-ROAD situation where the road was so rough that I was forced to drive slow.

If your 4th gen Tacoma has transmission overheat problems per your above statement:
"What I don't understand is the overheating will occur when in 2wd driving slowly up a paved mountain road." then your local dealer service departement needs to resolve this because there is something wrong.

 

[joebangle]

Why make a truck that has difficulty doing truck things? Maybe this explains the drive train being taken from other platforms and modified for use. Fyi the 4 cylinder turbo engine only has external modifications to make it work in a truck application. The transmission was taken from a car and adapted for rear wheel drive. Supposedly beefed up for truck use, but who knows if it overheats driving up slow paved roads.

A transmissionis supposed to adapt to its operating conditions and shift accordingly. With the amount of sensors these vehicles have it should recognize lugging, overheating, heavy towing, and steep inclines and adjust the selected gear accordingly. Otherwise why have all of these sensors in the first place. If the transmission is getting hot, downshift and bring up fluid flow to cool transmission and torque converter. Driving on a steep grade with higher throttle input, downshift appropriately to increase rpm and needed torque. Engine lugging, downshift to reduce scenario. On a steep incline traveling at slow speed, downshift and hold gears to raise engine speed and increase fluid flow.

This isn't rocket science. Nobody is saying," hey I saved .5 mpg driving up a paved mountain road". While transmission temps spike to high levels. Do the engineers test these vehicles in real world use? As a consumer I should be able to drive on any road in north america and not have to worry about transmission overheating. I shouldn't have to manually shift my automatic transmission, put it in 4low or do anything out of the ordinary unless the weather dictates otherwise. 4hi and 4low make sense driving on dirt roads and severe weather conditions like snow etc. Using them on a sunny 75f day driving up a paved road, they don't.

So what is the design intention here, a truck that has trouble doing truck things? A Fairweather truck for 75f days that still struggles driving up paved mountain roads with overheating transmissions? A truck that actually has a sedan drive train? I have to ask, what could possibly go wrong with this combination?

Sheldon Brown was I charge of this abomination and Toyota allowed it to pass with flying colors knowing their reputation was on the line.

Do better Sheldon Brown and Toyota North America!

 

[GSPHerder]

If your 4th gen Tacoma has transmission overheat problems per your above statement:
"What I don't understand is the overheating will occur when in 2wd driving slowly up a paved mountain road." then your local dealer service departement needs to resolve this because there is something wrong.

Its the way this gen is designed, and the service dept or AWOL Sheldon Brown wont fix it!

 

[Dutchman4]

Nice shot.

You're causing your drivetrain more stress by using 2Hi instead of 4. That's going to hit your torque converter a lot, and all that excess energy is going to heat. And the upsized tires don't help. Use 4Hi or 4Low.

Transfer Case Ratio: 1.00:1 for both 2H and 4H (4L drops to a 2.57:1 reduction).
So it appears that using 4H would add additional load on the transmission vs 2H and only using 4L would help with the extra gear reduction.

 

[joebangle]

I was under the impression after the from differential broke on TFL Sheldon Brown did an electronic patch to prevent this from happening o future models. This is why I didn't buy the first year model intentionally. I expected the first year model to work out the kinks in their r&d and manufacturing processes.

Service departments from my experience give the could not duplicate mantra when test driving locally. They obviously will not drive 4 hours north and do a test drive where it is causing an overheat.

And Sheldon Brown Is AWOL, washed his hands of the tacoma program and went to Japan for greener pastures. Apparently this must be the corporate culture at Toyota. Design a parts bin engineering vehicle with sedan drivetrains, call it a pickup, make it look new and take off to another country when issues are found. Frankly it's disgusting and pathetic for an engineer to walk away from one of their project babies that end up as Frankensteins from poor testing and vetting....

 

[GSPHerder]

Transfer Case Ratio: 1.00:1 for both 2H and 4H (4L drops to a 2.57:1 reduction).
So it appears that using 4H would add additional load on the transmission vs 2H and only using 4L would help with the extra gear reduction.

I didn't check the temps in 4wd, most of the time Im in and out of 4wd fairly quickly, but for sure "S" mode and what ever gear to keep you over 2k rpm in 2hi works. I'll run it in "S" mode and 4hi next time around.

 

[joebangle]

Transfer Case Ratio: 1.00:1 for both 2H and 4H (4L drops to a 2.57:1 reduction).
So it appears that using 4H would add additional load on the transmission vs 2H and only using 4L would help with the extra gear reduction.

My applicatIon required 2wd due to the paved surface. This road was paved from the bottom to the top of the mountain, just like Mt washington, Mt kearsarge, and Mt pacmadnock. There isn't an option to engage 2wd low by leaving the hubs unlocked. Which would have worked perfect...

 

[Someguysomewhere26]

I’m by no means smart enough to talk about this in anything but a broad sense but it is my understanding that the torque converter stays open when it should be locking up creating a ton of unnecessary heat.

When going into sequential mode and locking it at 2 or 3 the converter locks and doesn’t produce the same amount of heat.

I believe wether it’s poor programming or emissions requirements that they are programmed poorly for off-road use

Or maybe I’m coping that they arnt just built terribly idk.

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