2018 3.5 Auto TRD Offroad - Stumbles...feels like a slight miss.

[lougar]

Greetings all. I have had my 2018 TRD Off Road for about 14 months. It's been to 2 dealerships a total of 5 times, and back again for a test drive with a service manager. Toyota Corporation North America's final resolution is they agree with the service departments, "it is an acceptable characteristic of the vehicle". In 4th, 5th, and 6th, with a light pedal at low RPMs, the truck jerks, hesitates, stutters, stumbles, and misses...maybe not always in that order. The service manager had me test drive a 2019 with less miles, and I was surprised it was almost identical to what my 2018 does.
But in looking at the the forums and threads, no one else is experiencing this?
I've owned a 2004 Pre-Runner, a 2006 TRD Sport 4x4, and now this 2018 TRD Off-Road 4x4. I am disappointed to say this is the worst running vehicle I have ever owned. It's probably my 7th Toyota.
I traded in my wife's perfectly running 2012 F-150 for this, and I am now stuck with it.
It's been re-flashed, all the recalls done, and test driven by 4 different techs. All can feel the problem, and all agree it's normal.
Anyone out there have this issue. And if so, found any way to get rid of it?
Thanks, Lou.

 

[Tacomadad18]

Greetings all. I have had my 2018 TRD Off Road for about 14 months. It's been to 2 dealerships a total of 5 times, and back again for a test drive with a service manager. Toyota Corporation North America's final resolution is they agree with the service departments, "it is an acceptable characteristic of the vehicle". In 4th, 5th, and 6th, with a light pedal at low RPMs, the truck jerks, hesitates, stutters, stumbles, and misses...maybe not always in that order. The service manager had me test drive a 2019 with less miles, and I was surprised it was almost identical to what my 2018 does.
But in looking at the the forums and threads, no one else is experiencing this?
I've owned a 2004 Pre-Runner, a 2006 TRD Sport 4x4, and now this 2018 TRD Off-Road 4x4. I am disappointed to say this is the worst running vehicle I have ever owned. It's probably my 7th Toyota.
I traded in my wife's perfectly running 2012 F-150 for this, and I am now stuck with it.
It's been re-flashed, all the recalls done, and test driven by 4 different techs. All can feel the problem, and all agree it's normal.
Anyone out there have this issue. And if so, found any way to get rid of it?
Thanks, Lou.

You should try OV tune next.

Are you giving it a bit of gas at these occasions?

 

[lougar]

I've heard of the OV tune. Looked expensive at the time I did some research on it. Figured the dealership would have had a fix. I guess it's time to go back to looking at a tune. Thanks.
And yes, just a light press of the pedal. Once it downshifts, it goes away. Higher RPM's, you don't feel it as much, if at all sometimes. It's there, but can be mistaken for road condition if you didn't already know better. Most noticable between 35 - 60 mph if you keep the RPM's under 2 grand.
Thanks again for the tip on the OV tune. I'll start looking into that again.

 

[SpaceTrim]

Not to beat a dead horse, but almost all negative driving characteristics that plague these trucks is solved by the ov tune. Or trade it in for a hand shaker

 

[Snow Squall]

The AT drives very well when you get to give it some gas -- not flogging it, just some. It's those moments where you can't accelerate much and have to use a very light pedal due to traffic and such even though you may be going 45mph, or have to crawl around a curve and you have to wait a couple seconds before the AT it needs and wants to downshift.

It's not without quirks, but I am thankful I traded for a 6MT.

Maybe unhook the battery and drive it kind of hard for a while? Although perhaps the ECU flash does the same sort of thing...

In the end, the thing will probably go 300k miles no sweat despite its "charm".

 

[Tacomadad18]

I've heard of the OV tune. Looked expensive at the time I did some research on it. Figured the dealership would have had a fix. I guess it's time to go back to looking at a tune. Thanks.
And yes, just a light press of the pedal. Once it downshifts, it goes away. Higher RPM's, you don't feel it as much, if at all sometimes. It's there, but can be mistaken for road condition if you didn't already know better. Most noticable between 35 - 60 mph if you keep the RPM's under 2 grand.
Thanks again for the tip on the OV tune. I'll start looking into that again.

Ok makes more sense. Mine does that too I just don’t care enough about it. I IMO think it has to do with the Atkinson cycle. If you were to give it just a tad more gas and then I would imagine it would not be so noticeable or go away. Try adjusting your habits (im only saying this so you can not be frustrated with it)

These engines just perform better in high rpm

 

[Mr. Nobody]

Did the truck throw any codes? You may want to look into a Bluetooth OBD-II dongle. I run a Veepeak that I got on Amazon for less that $30. I have it connected to the OBDFusion app and I can monitor a lot of the running conditions on the truck in real time. It can also scan for CEL/DTC codes and erase them.

I also run OVTune, and while many think it is expensive, compared to many other tuning software it is competitively priced. The software also allows you to datalog and create your own tunes. So if you did figure out what exactly it was that was causing the stumble condition, you could potentially write a tune that remedies it.

 

[Tacomadad18]

I've heard of the OV tune. Looked expensive at the time I did some research on it. Figured the dealership would have had a fix. I guess it's time to go back to looking at a tune. Thanks.
And yes, just a light press of the pedal. Once it downshifts, it goes away. Higher RPM's, you don't feel it as much, if at all sometimes. It's there, but can be mistaken for road condition if you didn't already know better. Most noticable between 35 - 60 mph if you keep the RPM's under 2 grand.
Thanks again for the tip on the OV tune. I'll start looking into that again.

also search for someone in your area that can flash it. Typically between 200-300$. I know of guys in Iowa, Mo and IL and CO and CA if you are anywhere near that.