New 4Runner - minor transmission quirk and stinky new engine, anyone else?

My wife and I took our new SR5 with only 100 miles on a 350 mile trip this weekend from central Virginia to the mountains of West Virginia and stayed in a rustic cabin (no electricity of running water) in a state forest to do some hiking and just get away for a while. On the way there and back there were at least 3 long mountain acsents/descents full of hairpin switchbacks.

This is my first auto transmission vehicle in 15 years. I was very impressed with how well the transmission held lower gears while making a 2-3 mile steep descent off of a mountain, it definitely helped to reduce braking. Something weird that happened a couple of times was that, after a particularly long downhill session, the transmission delayed the upshift for about 30 seconds after reaching flat ground and trying to accelerate up to regular speeds (55 mph). I am still babying it during break-in, so I didn't want to push it too far above 3000 rpms, but I was on the accelerator trying to get it to upshift and it just wouldnt. I know 2nd gen Tacomas used to have a "rev hang" issue that owners would sometimes complain about, so I'm wondering if this is just the nature of the transmission programming. It was a little embarrassing because the people behind me coming off the mountain both times wanted to speed up when hitting the flat areas, and I just couldn't get the truck to upshift and didn't want to rev the engine too high, so I was about 15 mph under the speed limit for half a minute or so. It did not do this at any other time during the trip, and it was relegated to long mountain descents. Gear selector was in "D" the whole time. Has anyone else experienced this rev hang?

Another minor thing is the new stinky engine. I have ~450 miles on the truck now and the engine bay still stinks like burning plastic when it gets hot and windows are open, and especially up and down those mountains. This is the longest I've ever had a new vehicle smell like this, but again, it could just be a quirk of this particular vehicle.

Lighting wasn't great, but here she is:

 

First is normal. Regardless of having room with rpms to do so, I t’s not going to upshift if the load is too high.
The second is probably detailing spray or something they used in the engine bay. I wouldn’t be concerned.

 

That smell. I had the same with my 21' ORP. Even after normal driving, I would exit the vehicle and the smell was obvious. The truck now turned 6k and the smell seems to have disappeared. I have read on this Forum where others experienced the same smell. But it does appear to go away after a couple thousand miles.

 

Thank you, appreciate the reply. The issue is there was no load. After coming off the mountain, you hit flat or slightly downhill. I was trying to accelerate from 25-30 mph up to 55 mph and the transmission stayed in what I think is 3rd gear for almost 30 seconds while on flat surface and/or slightly downhill. I didn't push it and just stayed at 3000 rpms. During normal driving it usually upshifts before 2000 rpms, so it was weird. Didn't have any shifting issues after the two times coming off steep and long downhill runs.

 

Awesome, thank you!

 

Enjoy the new car smell, it won't last long, lol. Regarding the upshifts, you can put it in S and push it manually up, sometimes that helps. S acts as a "gear limiter" not as a manual shift, so if you have it in S 5th and accelerate hard, it will downshift. If you have it in 4th and accelerate, hard or not, it will not go over 4th. I found out that lightly accelerating while downhill will make the transmission upshift most of the times.

 

Nice looking 4R, congrats.

If it smells like burning plastic, take it back to the Dealership and let them check it out. A new car smell never has an odor like burned plastic.

The lag in shifting up, do you experience the same type of lag on flat surfaces all the time or just on this occasion?

 

Mine does it all too often, TBH. I just slap it over into S real quick and back to D and it seems to go up immediately after that. Extremely annoying that this is the case

 

Thanks! It was just this occasion after descending two mountains, both times was going downhill for 3+ miles and never really touching the accelerator (lots of hairpins). Below is an aerial showing the one road, it's about a 1000 ft drop over 3.5 miles.

The transmission seems overly eager to upshift most times, so it seems like this could just be a fluke. I know a lot of folks on here are from mountainous areas in the western US, so just thought I'd see if anyone had encountered something similar.

 

I live in the mountains; to get rid of the lag I installed a Pedal Commander which works like a charm. When I go off-road I just turn it off.

 

I have noticed that transmission shift quirk as well. What I have done is just remove my foot from the gas pedal for a split second, then goose the pedal, and it seems to send a signal to the transmission to shift.

Sounds funny, but it has worked for me. Lol

 

Good info, thank you!

 

You have a beautiful ride. Hope you enjoy it. I’ve noticed the transmission delayed occasionally on my 2021 4Runner. Like previously mentioned, I just switch to S and back to D and it shifts fairly quick. I also experienced the engine smell probably for the 1k miles. The truck just turned 5k and the smell is gone.

 

Burnt plastic? Yeah that was an odd new car smell for the first 500-1000 miles for me, but for some reason, mine smelled like burnt hair wrapped in Indian food?

 

I have 1,400 miles on my 2021 TRD ORP that I bought a month ago. The engine still smells. I undercoated the frame last week and now things smell even more lol.

 

BTW, you are in VA, give some rust protection to that bad boy.

 

I don’t know what Toyota calls it. But these T4R engines (and Tacoma’s) have automatic engine breaking programmed into the throttle mapping that helps to keep your foot off the brakes on downslopes.

Honestly, it’s very well executed and you often don’t even know it’s happening (it’s that good). But these ECU’s also take some time to learn your driving habits (in regular D mode). I think being so new, your truck might just have hung on to the shift points longer than you’d have preferred… and I bet this changes after you get some more miles on the truck.

You can usually “defeat” the auto engine breaking by tapping into the throttle, but sometimes it’s finicky. That’s usually the one time in ten that it doesn’t work exactly like you’d have hoped or expected it would.

You’ll get used to it. And you’ll figure out how to “override” it when you want to. But mostly it’ll perform to your expectations. Again, they did a good job with this feature. It’s more often right than it is wrong. I bet you don’t even notice it after a couple thousand miles on the truck. Maybe once in a great while.

 

Awesome, thank you! I agree since it only happened in specific circumstances and the rest of the trip it shifted flawlessly, and has been great since then as well. Not going to worry about it. Thanks again.

 

Transmission shifting quirk is just that, a quirk designed into the programming for engine breaking. It happens. Just drive, you'll be fine.

Engine bay odor - all new cars have an odor for the first few thousand miles. It goes away. I was concerned about it when I was in cars sales for a brief time. Then I got my 4Runner and it had that same new-engine-burning-off-whatever-was-used-in-the manufacturing-process smell. I think one person summed it up very well as smelling like burned hair wrapped in Indian food.

Either way, you're gold, Pony Boy.

 

Thanks!

 

Reference to the film adaptation of The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton.

 

I don't know about that, please elaborate how this exactly works?

I have a 2019 ORP with 17,000 miles and live in the mountains; shifting down is the only understanding I have for engine braking.

Taking you foot off the gas pedal will automatically slow the vehicle because the throttle body is closing. The ECU does not regulate the throttle body, neither downshifting, the shift points are preset.

Toyota 4R ECU is sequential programmed, so, it’s an imbedded system that is hardcoded to execute in a specific order. Sorry, I don't get where you coming from?

 

The AT design is more than 15 years old.

I haven’t had transmission issues with driving in mountains. Those little hills should be fine.

 

I have experienced with not-so-regular frequency, that sometimes while driving downhill, I will use brakes to slow down and the 4R will downshift. I assume there is some algorithm that under certain vehicle descent and braking conditions, the trans will downshift to allow increased engine braking to aid with slowing the vehicle. Once on flat ground, or trying to accelerate, the transmission will sometimes not immediately return to the higher gear. This can go on for 5-10 seconds or so (I haven't actually timed it), before upshifting.

 

Well, stepping on the brake the 4R will slow down. The transmission will catch up to the engine as the brakes force the slowdown of the 4R. For example, when you stop fast, the pressure is increased on the transmission to bring you down to first gear without skipping the sequence. All automatic transmissions work that way.

In the second point you are really talking about lag, the 4R has quite a bit of it; this is one of the complaints from a lot of 4R owners. Under certain circumstances the lag is more obvious.

 

The quirk described as I have experienced goes beyond normal torque-converter automatic transmission downshifting with speed. Let's add some more specific details, Let's say I'm driving 60-65 downhill and decide I need to slow it down a bit to just under 60, the tranny has shifted down to 4 on it's own.

I'm not complaining about it, just relaying experience. No matter which way you slice it, I love this vehicle and plan to keep it for a long time (unless I am offered a ridiculous amount on trade for a new one).

To address the OP, just drive it. You'll learn it's quirks.

 

So?

 

See post #24; that’s my understanding too (I’ll admit, I don’t know much about this, only that it happens). Somehow, when you break going downhill, the truck “knows” you don’t want to be riding the brakes. So it downshifts for you. And it’ll hold that lower gear until you either press the gas or the road flattens out.

Automatic engine breaking is likely mentioned in the owners manual. It is a real thing. All my Tacoma’s did it and now my 4Runner does it. 9 times out of ten it’s spot on and it does what it’s designed to do. Occasionally it’ll hold the lower gear longer than you’d like.

 

Often, if you’re going down a long grade and tap the break and release it, it’ll downshift automatically, and stay in that lower gear until you reach the bottom of the grade even though you might still be gradually accelerating (you just won’t be accelerating as fast as you would have been if it didn’t downshift).

Alternately, if you tap and release the brake, the down shift might cause you to decelerate. It’s too much for your liking so you press the gas again to speed up, but it stays in that lower gear and feels unnatural when it doesn’t up shift. This is the rare occasion where the “feature” isn’t “successful”, so to speak.

 

I wouldn't waste time for the smell. Mine had it as well for the first couple thousand.

Completely gone now.