Jerks at 45-50 mph, transmission suspected

On my ‘21 Tacoma automatic when driving I noticed around 45-50 mph,1200 rpm the truck starts to jerk. At first I thought it was the roads but I’m sure it’s the truck because when I give it gas it seems to go away. I haven’t brought it to the shop yet but at my last service the I told the Toyota technician about it and he said it sounds like my transmission is going out and I should bring it another day so they can have a “pro” look at it for $180. Anyone experience this??

 

Torque converter shudder. Search the forums. Nothing mechanically wrong, or to do about it. Wiping the learned memory from the ECU will help temporarily.

 

I have a 2021 Auto TRD Sport and have had no issues as you explain...knock on wood.

Hope you find out what's going on.

Did you purchase Extended Warranty at signing?

 

May want to check out the ECU setup. I believe there were TSBs/recalls related to this that can be corrected at Toyota for A/T's. At least for the 16s-18s anyway... TSB is T-SB-0058-18 to check.

 

Sub'd... Mine does this too.

 

Bring it to amp other dealer or talk to the service manager
It’s the torque converter shudder . Can be just programming. It’s a 21
Don’t pay a dime
Dealer sounds like they don’t know what they are doing

 

Drive it with ECT on and see if that helps.

 

Welcome To TW..........How many miles?

 

I have a new '23 that does this. At around 52 mph, I know it is in 6th gear, rpms around 1200, it will start jerking, especially on a very slight incline. I wondered if this was the gear searching everybody complains about this auto trans, but it is not gear searching. It stays in 6th gear; the rpms don't jump up or down like it would with gear hunting. So, this is not normal? And there is a fix?

 

Unfortunately this is a very "normal" thing from Toyota's perspective. It has happened on mine since new. I had the dealership look at it and they said it "operates as expected." Happens if the RPMS are lower than 2000rpm which falls perfectly in line with the 45-0ish range. As said above, search for "torque converter shudder" on here and you will see many posts about it. It's the one thing I hate the most about my truck. It is noticeable even to passengers but hopefully it is just an annoying thing and doesn't affect long term reliability of the transmission.

 

Does anybody know if the tunes help with this issue (torque converter shudder)?

 

My 2021 does it as well. I usually just mash the skinny pedal and rev it up or switch to S mode. A few times it pissed me off and I've tried to blow the truck up, it always shifts at the red line though.

 

It's just hard to believe the Toyota engineers test drove this truck and said, Yep, that's the driving experience we want our customers to have.

 

Most definitely. The stock transmission and TC logic is terrible. Chasing the almighty MPG and neutered the truck in the process.

 

2020 mines perfect

 

i bet erasing the transmission shifting tables are more difficult than one would assume.

 

Go to another dealer. Separate from possible abuse from a previous owner, shudder while feathering the throttle at 45-50 mph is pretty normal and has been exhaustively discussed.

Otherwise, these trucks are relatively (delightfully) primitive and will happily vibrate, shudder, hesitate shifts, and make diesel noises reliably to 300k+ mi. If that’s not someone’s ideal, they also have rockstar resale, so there’s always a long line of people who’ll buy it from you. Good luck.

 

Dealer could do it. Pretty sure you just need tech stream. There’s threads on what files need to be cleared.

 

Driving in S5 takes care of it.
RPM's stay high enough to prevent the shudder.
I did it for a while, but honestly, it became even more annoying to always have to shift into S5.
I've learned to love the shudder since I drive on 45mph roads most of the time.

 

Some are saying torque converter shudder is normal and others are saying their trucks don't have this issue. Somebody is lying. If it's normal every truck would be doing it. Or the people that don't have this issue did not buy their trucks new and their trucks have been tuned or had some other adjustment, without their knowledge, that corrected the shudder.