AT Transmission Hard Shifting

[about94ninjas]

Yes the shifts should be hard, however when the problem occurs, it violently shakes the entire car. It's kind of cool tho, reminds me of Corsa mode shifts on an Aventador haha

[about94ninjas]

Sorry for the quality, took it on my iPhone haha. Idk if anyone else noticed this, but in the first clip, when you let off the throttle and get back on it while the tranny's acting up, theres a "bounce" in the RPM. It'll go from, say, 3K to 3100 back down to 3 then up to 31 and accelerate like normal. I'll do further testing to see if maybe it was just a one time thing.

Also, the RPM drop during idle isn't connected to this problem, the idle stayed constant, with the A/C on and off.

[Razzamatazz]

Okay so I actually have something to contribute! My car is currently in the shop and this is one of the things I had them look at. They were able to reproduce it during their testing, but they said that it is acceptable behavior. As for my rear differential that's another story for another time but they said the hard shifting in the transmission was just considered "normal" under certain conditions. I don't know if I should get a 2nd opinion on that but that is what they came back with!

Hope that helps.

[pantdino]

Originally Posted by MechEGR

I definitely get some funky downshifting as well but have never gotten any tire chirp. This is 100% an electronic issue.

I haven't noticed the RPM's jumping like that but I'll keep an eye out for it.

I think its an electronic problem and will probably get worse or fail completely as time goes on.


How much time / mileage do you have on your warranty?

[fitcious]

i've experienced this in mine too..i currently have 26,000 miles. 2013 FRS

[punisherfan]

I have exactly the same symptoms in my car. It has been into Toyota 3 times. When I read the original post here, it was crazy, I thought maybe I had written a post in my sleep because it was identical symptoms, and exactly what Toyota told me, about the automatic transmission fluid level check.

I have had a technician ride in the car with me when it was doing it, and he said it needs a new transmission. He could not explain why. The service manager said no. Toyota USA said it is a characteristic of the vehicle.

In my opinion, characteristic of the vehicle means they don't have a clue what it is. My Toyota dealer did open a case with Toyota USA, and the case was closed with no remedy action.

I will try again with a different Toyota dealer, the one that did my first oil change, and who seems most sympathetic and sounds interested in solving a difficult problem.

Sorry that others have this problem, but I am happy to find out I am NOT the only one, and there may be a design flaw in the transmission.

I have a 2015, and this problem started around 1000 miles, and only affects manual upshifts, happens when driving in any mode. I thought that sports or traction control off fixed it but it came back.

I have tried every combination of hot engine, cold engine, uphill, downhill, hard acceleration, gentle acceleration, you name it I have tried it. It is random, and usually disappears after cycling the ignition key, although sometimes it does it every time.

[carbonBLUE]

Originally Posted by MechEGR

Sorry in advance for the long post. I've been a long time lurker and love all the information on here, I'm hoping some of you may be able to shed some light on my transmission issues.


I bought my auto 2015 FR-S in late May. At about 1K miles, I noticed that occasionally when I was in sport mode, I would get hard, notchy shifting, particularly going into 2nd or 3rd gear. The most interesting thing, is that if I'm getting the hard shifting, and I pull over, turn the car off, and turn it back on, it starts shifting smoothly again. Exactly as described in this previous post:


http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80500


I tried everything I could to consistently recreate the problem to no avail. It happens probably every 3 times I drive the car. Sometimes it will happen when I put it into sport mode with a cold engine in the morning, and sometimes it will happen after I've been going 80MPH on the highway for half an hour. Seems totally random. I tried all the obvious things like making sure I wasn't letting off the gas during acceleration or doing anything weird. I tried resetting my computer as well by disconnecting the battery for 20 mins.


If it is happening in normal auto mode and manual mode, it's much more subtle.


I took it into Toyota a couple weeks ago, and was unable to recreate the problem for their tech since I turned the car off. They said that next time it happens and you're in the area, stop by and keep the car on so I can show them the issue. Sure enough, 1 week later I was in and the tech agreed right away that something was wrong. Multiple techs and service managers drove it that night and they all agreed that something wasn't right.


So I left my car there last Tuesday night and just picked it up last night (Monday). They took OBD data, sent it to Toyota, and their response was to check the transmission fluid and reset the computer. They were unable to recreate the hard shifting during the four days and putting close to 80 miles on the car. They ended up adding half a quart of transmission fluid. They still couldn't recreate the problem so they gave it back to me and told me to drive it and see if it comes back. Sure enough, as soon as I pulled out of my work parking lot today, the hard shifting was back.


I did some datalogging comparisons with and without the hard shifting with my Bluetooth OBD reader and have it all in excel if anyone wants to PM me and take a look at it (I'm an engineer who loves data). I wasn't able to really see anything. I also took videos of it happening:



***Watch the tachometer, you can see it stumble going into second gear.

Sorry for the bad quality, youtube wouldn't let me have them in HD.


So here I am. Anyone have any experience with this or ideas on what might be going on? I'm pretty frustrated and don't want to have to drive a rental for another week while they putz around figuring out what's wrong.


Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by pantdino

I think its an electronic problem and will probably get worse or fail completely as time goes on.


How much time / mileage do you have on your warranty?

my best guess is that you have a bad ground, jack the car up and tighten down and grounding wires between the TCU, ECU, and battery. while you are in there you might aswell get a brass wire brush or something and some cleaner and try to clean up the grounds.

This is my guess because if the computer is undershooting the torque converter lock up and throttle position/engagement then the delay is either a programming issue or a grounding issue. grounding issues can cause a delay in information passed between the ECU and TCU.

[boxerfan]

I have an interesting finding regarding this issue. I've managed to almost duplicate TS video at will. (a) manual mode without sport - small shock as I shift per my earlier comment; (b) manual mode with sport - car lurch forward when shifting, feels like AT locks up immediately after shift compared to (a); (c) manual with sport and shifting in the torque dip zone of 4000rpm, the lurch forward is very strong - I am guessing shift from low torque band to high torque rpm band causing stronger lurch; (d) sport auto - similar to (c) depending on when the computer decides to shift. Can u guys confirm my observation? Seems that sport vs non-sport makes a difference in the AT shift behaviour. Good chance this is normal behaviour, and the quick AT lockup/lurching is the personality of Sport. It's actually fun!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bergen23]

Just went out on a diagnostic test drive with a tech. He told me the car is supposed to do that.

Getting really tired of dealing with this. Almost ready to sell the car at a massive loss and just move on.

[soulreapersteve]

Originally Posted by Bergen23

Just went out on a diagnostic test drive with a tech. He told me the car is supposed to do that.

Getting really tired of dealing with this. Almost ready to sell the car at a massive loss and just move on.

My guess is they don't know what the issue is nor how to fix it...

[Bergen23]

Originally Posted by soulreapersteve

My guess is they don't know what the issue is nor how to fix it...

The tech doesn't have a clue. But, my salesman gave the keys of a MY 16 to me to see if I could replicate the issue. It happened as well. I think there's a correlation between cruise control and this problem.

But yeah, shout out to the Guelph Toyota bro who came out with me on the test drive and told me "this is how it's supposed to be, but it's not shifting properly"

I give up at this point, and once I'm paid off to the point that I won't be taking a loss on the trade in, my car is gone and I'll be giving my money to a different company.

[the new guy]

As someone that's had this car for nearly two years now, you eventually stop noticing the "issue" and it becomes an afterthought.

Considering how the manual transmissions have grinding gears and a host of other issues I'm very happy with the AT.

[go_a_way1]

Yeah TBH it is a sports car so rough shifts are in its nature? I have an auto and yeah sometimes seems rough but doesnt bother me?

[Bergen23]

Originally Posted by the new guy

As someone that's had this car for nearly two years now, you eventually stop noticing the "issue" and it becomes an afterthought.

Considering how the manual transmissions have grinding gears and a host of other issues I'm very happy with the AT.

I shouldn't have to "live" with a car that doesn't function properly, when it's pretty much brand new. Especially when on some downshifts it functions properly and on others it locks up the rear wheels.