Switching the manual gear selection

Hey guys. Just bought a 2014 limited and I’m wondering has anyone reversed the manual shifting or is it possible. Want to change it to pull back is up a gear and push forward is down a gear. Thanks

 

First off, welcome to the forum.

Second, why? It works just fine as is (presumably it is working as designed). There's no reason to complicate things.

 

Welcome to the forum!

I have never thought about it. But, it might be doable depending on how the mechanism works.

 

Thanks guys, I’ve gotten some great info already from reading previous posts. Amd some ideas of how I want to modify mine.

well it just doesn’t seem right to me, and all the other automatics I’ve driven had it the other way round. As I can buy a manual in this model I use the manual shift a bit. I’m thinking if it’s a matter of changing two wiring blocks around I’ll do that, but if it’s a pain or expensive then I won’t bother

 

You may be opening a Pandora's Box.

 

Well, the manual mode isn’t really a manual mode. It’s the sequential shift mode.

When you move the gear shift over it automatically goes into S4. The highest gear the transmission will go into is now 4th, but if you mash the skinny, it will drop to 2nd or 3rd (automatically) before it increases up to 4th. Same principle applies with S3, S2, S1, and even S5. It’s kind of like using the 3 or 2 on an old Camry. It just locks your highest gear.

It’s useful in 2HI if you’re driving in the mountains or hills and find your transmission constantly hunting for gears; when towing to keep your tranny from working too hard, when descending some hills to get some engine braking, or any other situation where it is more beneficial to be able to lock out you highest gear.

I use it in 4L when I’m going downhill to control speed or when driving up steep hills where more I’ll need more torque.

I’m sure you could use it as a manual shifting option, but this tranny will never be anywhere near a manual. It’s not even close to being a dual clutch.

I’m a huge fan of manuals and can even get along with dual clutches (my TDi wagon had a DSG and I was very happy with it). If Toyota offered a manual 4Runner with the 4.0 I’d be the first in line, but at this point in the life cycle of the 5th gen, that’s just not going to happen.

 

That’s backwards from *most* SMG conventions.

Are you a Dodge fan?

 

You can either swap the front and rear switches inside of the shifter housing (PITA), or you can swap the 2 pins in the main connector on the shifter. I can remember which wires they are, but a Google search should help you out. The pins labels are something like SFTU and SFTD

 

I really wish the Japanese would stop doing it backwards. There is a standard and they threw it out, for forward is fast and back is slow. Now anyone who has ever used a real sequential shifter knows it the other way around.

Steve

 

Pushing forward is the conventional way to shift down on sequential gear boxes, when you’re braking you push forward to down shift getting engine break also. Performance cars are like that.

And if I was a dodge fan i would’ve bought one.

 

Not on my PDK.

 

Ah perfect thanks. It’s two wires in the main connector. I might ask a Toyota mechanic would it cause any wiring issues before I change it. Cheers

 

It won't cause issues. When you move the lever to S it activates a center switch. When you move the lever forward or backward it activates either the up or down momentary switch. If you flip the wires it will still send the correct signal. The only issue is the indicators on the shifter will be backward

 

Nothing a couple small pieces of white tape and a sharpie couldn't fix.

 

If you think of it in terms of "an old Camry" as was referenced above, it's easy to understand why Toyota did it that way. On all "older" auto trans the further back (or down on a column mount) you pull the gear selector the lower gear the transmission will hold. This is the same concept, just with a center resetting shifter. It's not a manual.

 

This is true of all column shifters and floor shifters that I've seen and used. Down is always the lower gear, and up is higher... I think I only drove one vehicle where the sequential shift was backwards as described in the OP(pushing forward shifts down, and pulling back shifts up), and it was pretty weird to use.