2018 TLC Transmission delay to engage at low speed (1 Viewer)

[Edifer]

My LC will sometimes hesitate to accelerate at slow speed.

If I were to “roll a stop sign” and then try to accelerate my LC’s engine RPMs will go up and there is a brief, momentary “delay” and before the transmission “engages”. I just had the fluid replaced w/ OE Toyota fluid and it seems a little better.

I bought this 1 1/2 years ago w/ 38k on it and I now have 45+. When I bought it from the dealer, I had them change the transmission fluid.

I know this might sound crazy, but could the dealer have screwed up a transmission service?

Do they “always” use OE Toyota transmission fluid?

Or is it conceivable a dealer might use a non OE Fluid on a job they’re not making bank on?

TYIA for your thoughts and opinions…Edifer

 

[Zill]

This is a known characteristic of the 8 Speed. It does not handle the roll to a near stop and accelerate situation very well, and it’s mainly because 1st gear is so tall (which provides a ton of torque off the line), but then your 2nd gear is a much lower gear so there’s an odd spacing in the power band which is what you are feeling, and it takes a ton of time for the transmission to figure out what gear it wants to be in to get power to the wheels.

Toyota tried to tune it through a TSB in 2018, but it only helped the issue slightly.

It seems like Toyota wanted this transmission to be extra smooth, at the expense of having to wait for the transmission to engage to provide that smoothness. If they tuned it to be more aggressive, you would have harder shifts in these instances, but you would get power down to the ground faster.

Over time, I have just gotten used to this odd roll to a stop issue, and let it get in 1st gear before I give it gas again. On the bright side, If I needed to accelerate fast (skinny pedal to the metal), the transmission knows to just send it to 1st gear at the expense of having an aggressive shift, but at least you are moving out of the way of something if need be.

 

[Sandroad]

What @Zill says.

Also, it is certainly possible for some dealers to screw up transmission service. I once asked the local parts department what transmission fluid they used and the guy said “Whatever is in the tank out back.” This is the same dealer that uses Carquest for parts and broke the HVAC filter housing, so sure, dealers can screw things up.

 

[2021 LC200]

Same experience though on few occasions. I do use ECT PWR mode all the time, perhaps try if you have not done so yet.

 

[Edifer]

Same experience though on few occasions. I do use ECT PWR mode all the time, perhaps try if you have not done so yet.

I have started to use the ECT PWR for my last trip (300+ miles) of various speeds and it seem to have helped.
Thank you for your insight…

 

[Edifer]

This is a known characteristic of the 8 Speed. It does not handle the roll to a near stop and accelerate situation very well, and it’s mainly because 1st gear is so tall (which provides a ton of torque off the line), but then your 2nd gear is a much lower gear so there’s an odd spacing in the power band which is what you are feeling, and it takes a ton of time for the transmission to figure out what gear it wants to be in to get power to the wheels.

Toyota tried to tune it through a TSB in 2018, but it only helped the issue slightly.

It seems like Toyota wanted this transmission to be extra smooth, at the expense of having to wait for the transmission to engage to provide that smoothness. If they tuned it to be more aggressive, you would have harder shifts in these instances, but you would get power down to the ground faster.

Over time, I have just gotten used to this odd roll to a stop issue, and let it get in 1st gear before I give it gas again. On the bright side, If I needed to accelerate fast (skinny pedal to the metal), the transmission knows to just send it to 1st gear at the expense of having an aggressive shift, but at least you are moving out of the way of something if need be.

Zill, thank you for this in-depth explanation. It makes perfectly good sense to me based on your explanation. Additionally, as 2021 LC200 recommended,I have started using the ECT PWR setting. Thank you again for your time & insight…

 

[daneo]

I got an explanation from a regional tech that some of this is caused by a fuel cut that is done while coasting. The engine is kept spinning by the transmission even though the fueling is being cut. When the accelerator is depressed, the transmission has to go through a song and dance of disengaging lockup and then doing whatever shifting it needs to for the given situation.

I've had some luck applying like 1mm of accelerator pedal to exit the "fuel cut mode" for a few seconds before accelerating. It helps smooth things out a lot of the time.

Every time you go in to have any service done, be sure to ask the service advisor to file a complaint for what you've described in the original post. The regional tech told me they didn't "see many complaints" about this... despite several threads here on mud. If we complain enough, there's a chance it gets picked up and Toyota puts in some effort to fix it (one can dream).