New Gen Tranny

Why was this transmission not in our V8 Tundras, especially the newer years? All that time it took for a refresh they could have at least slapped that in there. It won’t even shift into 10th unless you’re going over 80 and it has buttery smooth shifts. It’s hard to get this truck to cruise over 2000 RPM’s on the highway

 

It’s geared for the torque curve of the V35A-FTS. It wouldn’t play well with a NA V8 tuned for longevity.

 

My wife has had a couple of Armadas and always had the same V8 engine and the transmission grew over the last few years and it made a difference

 

Probably several reasons to include the one given.

You have to ask yourself why would they change out the transmission after a long run of reliability?

They probably didn't want to split their potential costumer base for then Gen 3s. Nor did they want to introduce new problems to Gen 2/2.5 after a long run. It is quiet possible they tested it and seen negligible impact on MPGs on the V8.

Point is driving characteristics wouldn't be a good enough reason to change out something tried and proven.

 

You wouldn’t need 10 gears if you weren’t granny shifting, and were double clutching like you should.

 

I usually traded my Tundras around 100k and the rough shifting characteristics always made me feel the engine would outlast the tranny by a long shot. I’m not saying it’s bad or un proven, I’m just surprised it wasn’t something that was changed

 

From a business and design stand point why would they?

 

I don’t know, the truck was around for 15 years. I also had two first gens back in the day and they went from a 4 speed to a 5 speed and that seemed to make a difference back then. It woke that truck up

 

Short answer is Toyota calculated they could make more money leaving it alone until they rolled out the new model. The cost of changing the manufacturing process wouldn't translate into required sales revenues plus ROI.

 

Probably reliability, just wasn’t needed as the mpg improvements wouldn’t be significant enough to offset the investment. The 5.7 6-speed is rated for 442 ft lbs torque, has flex lock torque converter, and built like a tank. Not sure where Toyota reliability is headed recently though, the 10-speed is rated for 479.5 ft lbs torque with a 479 ft lbs torque engine. Not sure what the hybrid does to handle the additional torque.

 

To be clear I'm not being critical of your question. It is a fair question. I am re-framing it to get you to think about why they would or would not have made the change.

You are missing my point. In the design space you don't randomly change the design for snorts and giggles on a whim. There has to be a good case for it. All changes come with tradeoffs. Ultimately if the tradeoff isn't beneficial to making/saving Toyota more money or meet some regulatory or statutory requirement it is not needed. We call adding unneeded things to a project "gold plating".

In this case an argument in favor for a new transmission could have been a requirement such as "Improve MPGs by X%" or "Increase 0-60 to X.X". When you go test a design (the design works as intended) all the criteria (requirements) have to be verifiable. I can't verify "wakes up the truck" or "shifts smooth". Those are meaningless in terms of engineering. Even if they were meaningful how would those impact sales vs cost of R&D or integration?

We'll never know but in this case I'm fairly sure they tested that transmission mated to the V8 and it wasn't a significant enough improvement especially when you consider it would be sourcing the new part, manufacturing, new tech manuals etc.

Bottom line is change is costly and the trade off needs to be worth it.

 

I will ask if the 10-speed was ever tested for the 2.5 gen Tundra, probably won’t get a reply, something very vague, or I don’t know. But doubt it was ever considered for the Tundra.

 

It doesn't hurt to ask but it wouldn't be public information. I am purely speculating if the same transmission has been around under the Lexus banner. Let us know what you find.

 

The other option to consider is the possibility that even if a Gen 2.75 was viable it would have likely cannibalized future sales of Gen 3 if the jump form Gen 2.75 to Gen 3 wasn't great enough.

If they racked and stacked (ranked and prioritized) desired features, MPGs would be at or near the top of the list. As-is, the MPG jump from Gen 2.5 to Gen 3 isn't that wide IMO. A smaller gap between the two generations would have meant owners would likely keep what they had vs buy new unless some other features were a greater draw to the new Gen.

 

I would think if Toyota were going to update the 6 speed at all during the long 2nd gen run, they would've used the 8 speed that went into the 200 series in 2016. I'm curious if they ever even considered it.

 

Fair point if it is the 8 speed not the 10 speed then. Looks like the 10 speed wasn't on LC/LS until 2018 if this article is true; it would have run a few years before running it on a Toyota product. Whatever transmission was under the Toyota Lexus banner at the time was likely tested on a Tundra if it was robust enough for truck duty. They would have plenty of data on it before hand. Testing the performance in the case wouldn't necessitate a production run but more of a "what if" investigatory configuration.

 

I don't think a 10 speed was ever paired with any 5.7 platform. The LC200/LX570 ran the 8 speed 2016 through 2021. Pretty sure, anyway

Maybe the TT 5.0v8 in the LS got the 10 speed...

 

The article I found said 18 (edit for the 8 speed) and Lexus configurations don't trickle down to Toyota's for a few years.

No you are correct. The message you quoted should have said 8 speed not 10 speed.

 

Of course it’s not public, would share privately with you unless it was ok otherwise. Same transmission as LS/H 500 and think the 350 also.

 

Ah ok.
I confused the 8 speed with the new 10 speed but it looks like Toyota had the 10 in 2018. Interesting enough the physical envelop of both are the same if its the same transmission.

 

Article written addressing the OP:
https://tundraheadquarters.com/toyota-tacoma-tundra-8-speed-transmission/

 

Good info all. I know it’s a moot point I was just curious. It just seemed like so many other manufacturers upgraded their transmissions without changing their engines. I do like the way the new one drives and it was one of the big things I noticed from my other trucks

 

It's fun to speculate but the answer to 99%
of questions is always.....

 

Curiosity is a great thing. Stay curious and grow in knowledge.

 

Ford and Chevy jointly-developed a 10-speed transmission a few years back, to use in pickups and SUV's.

From what I've heard, the jury is still out on the 10's. Seems like GM has had more issues, but Ford has seen some as well.

Driving impressions on those are mixed: while shifts are smooth, some say they hunt for a gears too much.

It will be interesting to see how the Toyota 10-speed holds-up. A lot more moving parts and things going on in there...

ToolCat

 

The 6-speed transmission in my 2018 2wd Tundra is without doubt the best transmission I've ever owned (and I've been driving since 1961). The 5-speed in my 2006 Tundra is a close second.

Honestly, in my opinion we never had it so good.

Dan