2020 Tacoma Engine Hesitation

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Ed LeBlanc

New Member
Very unhappy with the performance of this 2020 Tacoma. I have had many Tacoma in my lifetime, this is the worst model I have owned. If I had known that this model had power issues, I would have never traded my 2012 Tacoma 6 speed manual, V6. Of course the dealership salesman never mentioned it.
My 2012 Tacoma could climb mountains without down shifting to a lower gear.
This 2020 is a slug. My recent trip to Salt Lake I had to down shirt to 4 gear thru the Virgin gorge.
I scheduled an appointment with my dealership and the tech told me that he believes that a firmware needs to adjust the performance of theses model (manual & automatic).
The dealership tech has told me that all 2020 trucks are all like what I am experiencing.

My 2012 Tacoma with the V6 was awesome flew thru the Virgin gorge in 6th gear.. No issues.

Does anybody else have a similar problem?

Toyota of America told me that there is no fix for it.
 
I know from 2016 on, they put 3.91 gears in the tacoma V6. Way too tall for the truck. Below are the ratios for each gear in the 6 speed A/T:

1st: 3.60:1
2nd: 2.09:1
3rd: 1.49:1
4th: 1.00:1
5th: 0.69:1
6th: 0.58:1

You can see that you're at a 1:1 ratio...in 4th gear. You may occasionally see 5th, but most people rarely see 6th at any point. Almost as rare as gym gains right now. Even worse is that it likes to constantly shift between 4th and 5th at highway speeds, killing your power and fuel economy. If you want better performance out of the new Tacoma, you're probably gonna need to regear to a 4.88 or 5.29 gear set.
 
Are you talking with stock tire size or big tires? My 19 with stock tires aint bad at all, sure it downshifts some but nothing I'm gonna worry about. Of couse I realize it depends on youre terrain, its fairly flat around here, just a couple hills.
 
Those gears were only really intended for stock tires. They're ok with them, but the 3.91 ratio doesn't pair the right RPMs to each gear, making it shift up and down a lot depending on your RPM and speed. Itll work, but regearing will get it to run a lot better.
 
Its just like most other mods, its never as simple as just doing one mod, that one mod will affect something else that needs to be changed, and then the list just keeps growing. It cracks me up these young kids come into the store, obviously driving mom's or grandma's land yaht, complaining the battery keeps going dead. First thing ya do is open the hood and see this big old hot wire wired straight to the battery, then after a little discussion find out they have a night club style stereo system hooked up, dahh.
 
Ed LeBlanc said:
Very unhappy with the performance of this 2020 Tacoma. I have had many Tacoma in my lifetime, this is the worst model I have owned. If I had known that this model had power issues, I would have never traded my 2012 Tacoma 6 speed manual, V6. Of course the dealership salesman never mentioned it.
My 2012 Tacoma could climb mountains without down shifting to a lower gear.
This 2020 is a slug. My recent trip to Salt Lake I had to down shirt to 4 gear thru the Virgin gorge.
I scheduled an appointment with my dealership and the tech told me that he believes that a firmware needs to adjust the performance of theses model (manual & automatic).
The dealership tech has told me that all 2020 trucks are all like what I am experiencing.

My 2012 Tacoma with the V6 was awesome flew thru the Virgin gorge in 6th gear.. No issues.

Does anybody else have a similar problem?

Toyota of America told me that there is no fix for it.
Click to expand...
My 2019 6m does just fine, I'm guessing you opt for the automatic
 
Ed LeBlanc said:
Very unhappy with the performance of this 2020 Tacoma. I have had many Tacoma in my lifetime, this is the worst model I have owned. If I had known that this model had power issues, I would have never traded my 2012 Tacoma 6 speed manual, V6. Of course the dealership salesman never mentioned it.
My 2012 Tacoma could climb mountains without down shifting to a lower gear.
This 2020 is a slug. My recent trip to Salt Lake I had to down shirt to 4 gear thru the Virgin gorge.
I scheduled an appointment with my dealership and the tech told me that he believes that a firmware needs to adjust the performance of theses model (manual & automatic).
The dealership tech has told me that all 2020 trucks are all like what I am experiencing.

My 2012 Tacoma with the V6 was awesome flew thru the Virgin gorge in 6th gear.. No issues.

Does anybody else have a similar problem?

Toyota of America told me that there is no fix for it.
Click to expand...
Sounds normal to me. Atkinson motor in the 2020 vs Otto in your 2012. The intake valves are held open for a portion of the compression stroke and there can be a feeling of hesitation. The motor feels different and takes some getting use to for sure. There was a lot of TSB’s for the transmission from 2017-18. I think there is a transmission flash for folks who live in a mountainous region. Using the ECT PWR button helps some. Also don’t be afraid to give her hell. Don’t be afraid to use the gas pedal when you want more power. I got use to getting 11-13mpg going over mountain passes in 4th gear with RPMs at 4500 doing 70 and not wanting to shift out of it. My 2017 was on the shop for about 38 days of the 18 months I owned it. Now I have a 5.7L V8. It gets 11-13mpg going over mountain passes but it’s not at 4500 RPMs. ;)
 
Ed LeBlanc said:
Very unhappy with the performance of this 2020 Tacoma. I have had many Tacoma in my lifetime, this is the worst model I have owned. If I had known that this model had power issues, I would have never traded my 2012 Tacoma 6 speed manual, V6. Of course the dealership salesman never mentioned it.
My 2012 Tacoma could climb mountains without down shifting to a lower gear.
This 2020 is a slug. My recent trip to Salt Lake I had to down shirt to 4 gear thru the Virgin gorge.
I scheduled an appointment with my dealership and the tech told me that he believes that a firmware needs to adjust the performance of theses model (manual & automatic).
The dealership tech has told me that all 2020 trucks are all like what I am experiencing.

My 2012 Tacoma with the V6 was awesome flew thru the Virgin gorge in 6th gear.. No issues.

Does anybody else have a similar problem?

Toyota of America told me that there is no fix for it.
Click to expand...

I purchased a 2019 automatic Tacoma Sport and knew beforehand that the shifting/gearing on the truck was not what I wanted. Toyota geared these trucks to get up into 6th gear on the automatic in order to meet the EPA demands, but it makes the truck shift like a dog, trying to get up into the higher gears too early and bogging the engine. This engine is also designed to generate it's power at higher rpms, so it's a double edged blade. What is the solution? You can try the OrangeVirus tuning as some really feel it does a good job changing shift points, timing, etc. The downside is going to a higher octane fuel of at least 91 and likely not as good mileage. OrangeVirus may be great, I just wanted a hardware option and hate paying for expensive gas, so I chose to go with new gears from Nitro, 4.88s to be exact, costing me around $8000 dollars when all was said and done. It's hard to add 8k to a brand new truck, but I wanted the truck and knew I couldn't accept the crap shift patterns and lugging that occurs with a stock automatic transmission truck. Other than the cost, there are no negatives. My truck now shifts like butter and no more jumping up into 5th, downshifting into 4th continually, revving like a nightmare on hills, driving me crazy. It smoothly goes through the gears and gets into 6th without effort, staying there unless the grade is severe. I can't comment on mileage as I hadn't had the truck long enough to know my average prior to the gear change. Nitro claims there usually is an improvement dependent on the driver and driving style/conditions. Nitro gears have proven to be great for me, I'd recommend them. Trust me, this is NOT a paid advertisement for Nitro.
 
wbeaton2 said:
I purchased a 2019 automatic Tacoma Sport and knew beforehand that the shifting/gearing on the truck was not what I wanted. Toyota geared these trucks to get up into 6th gear on the automatic in order to meet the EPA demands, but it makes the truck shift like a dog, trying to get up into the higher gears too early and bogging the engine. This engine is also designed to generate it's power at higher rpms, so it's a double edged blade. What is the solution? You can try the OrangeVirus tuning as some really feel it does a good job changing shift points, timing, etc. The downside is going to a higher octane fuel of at least 91 and likely not as good mileage. OrangeVirus may be great, I just wanted a hardware option and hate paying for expensive gas, so I chose to go with new gears from Nitro, 4.88s to be exact, costing me around $8000 dollars when all was said and done. It's hard to add 8k to a brand new truck, but I wanted the truck and knew I couldn't accept the crap shift patterns and lugging that occurs with a stock automatic transmission truck. Other than the cost, there are no negatives. My truck now shifts like butter and no more jumping up into 5th, downshifting into 4th continually, revving like a nightmare on hills, driving me crazy. It smoothly goes through the gears and gets into 6th without effort, staying there unless the grade is severe. I can't comment on mileage as I hadn't had the truck long enough to know my average prior to the gear change. Nitro claims there usually is an improvement dependent on the driver and driving style/conditions. Nitro gears have proven to be great for me, I'd recommend them. Trust me, this is NOT a paid advertisement for Nitro.
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Really? Why did it cost 8k for 4.88s? I just had mine done for just over 2k total.
 
I don't understand all the panic about shift points. Sure if you baby it and wanna quote gas mileage, yes it does upshift early, get in and drive it and don't worry about it and it runs just fine. Now if youre jacking it up and putting big shoes on then yeah, gearing makes sense.
 
The problem is the gear ratio. Even stock, it holds gears too long. It wastes fuel and doesn't make more power. On top of that, the ratio paired with the electronic overdrive transmission constantly changes gears unnecessarily, for the sake of emissions. Toyota screwed up, setting the Tacoma up to look good for EPA standards, but lacking fuel efficiency and power for the consumer. It was a bureaucratic decision.
 
TacoTruck2019 said:
I don't understand all the panic about shift points. Sure if you baby it and wanna quote gas mileage, yes it does upshift early, get in and drive it and don't worry about it and it runs just fine. Now if youre jacking it up and putting big shoes on then yeah, gearing makes sense.
Click to expand...
No offence, and I guess we all get used to everything eventually, if you drove a geared truck after driving a stock Tacoma, you'd change your mind. Mine is not lifted nor do I have oversize tires, but it lugged so badly and then rev'd through the roof when I had to give it the beans, I hated it. Everyone is entitled to their thoughts.
 
So, I could be dead wrong here, and if I am surely someone will jump on and correct me. When I bought my 2019 Trd sport I was looking actually for a TRd off-road. Something that I read said that the sport and the off road are geared differently, and also the sport had an anti roll bar. So, it seemed to me that most of my driving was country driving, sometimes towing a boat, that the sport would actually be better for my day to day. If it is true that the trd off road is geared different from the sport, maybe this explains what you are referring to. Also, there are known issues with the automatic transmissions and shifting. I notice it at low speeds, say neighborhood driving. The tranny hunts like a minivan. I will say though, when I tow the transmission is great.
 
Check out the shift since pro. Read about it on the DZ Custom website and draw your own conclusions. I’ve had one for 3 years and love it. It solves most of the problems and makes the truck drive like it is supposed to.
 
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