Acceleration Hesitation from a Complete Stop

I brought my truck in for this issue about 6 weeks after I got. I experienced it about 3 times in those 6 weeks. They were unable to replicate the hesitation and were unable to do any TSB because of my newer build date.

So I walked away assuming this is just something to live with and adjust to. I have not had it occur again (now 3 months later) and have put lots of miles on it during that time. As others have noted, I think it might be because I’ve adjusted my driving style and “feel” the transmission more attentively than I have with any other automatic I’ve ever driven. I do come to full stops now. I do tend to ease into the throttle until I feel power, then I give’r.

One interesting thing I read above that makes total sense - it seems like the engine was designed with the hybrid motor’s influence on low gear performance. So us with gas motors just have to live with these issues… I doubt there will ever be a full TSB fix.

I’ll also note that other than a few minutes in Eco and Sport modes when I first got it, I’m exclusively in Normal mode. I use tow/haul for my boat and tow+ for my TT. Great performance with all gears when towing.

 

I thought that the solution to this major annoying throttle delay issue would be to upgrade to a hybrid...
And now I just saw someone in the past week with a hybrid complaining about this same issue.

I think that enjoyment of driving a truck very heavily depends on how you feel when pressing the gas pedal, and Toyota really screwed up this driving experience for many of us.

My trucks throttle feel is so annoying for me that I keep thinking about trading in the truck, but it would be too much of financial loss for me. So I keep trying to ignore it and bitch about it here on the forum...

 

I know it’s another investment, and Toyota should make it right, but how about those 3rd party throttle response programmers? Pedal Commander?

 

I saw another forum post that one of these pedal commanders malfunction and almost caused a huge accident.

So I would be very hesitant to try it knowing that it can apply gas by itself without me doing anything

 

Do you know if the clunk TSB is also the fix for the lag? Or are they separate fixes?

 

You try to merge or across busy street after either complete stop or slow roll and you hit gas and nothing and then power goes "WRAAAGH LET'S GO!!" My 2008 Camry had it and my 2010 tundra had it. I learned to live with it.

Funny though, after my secondary air erection recall was performed, I never had this issue anymore. It's been at least 7 years since recall was done.

Perhaps it's something to do with traction control retarding throttle to prevent wheel spin?

 

Keep bitching! I think we all need to. Dropped my truck off for round two of warranty items of which the lag is a big topic. While there I drove a new sr5 gas and it drives exactly like it should. There’s no reason my 23 Limited shouldn’t drive the same, but it doesn’t.

The second observation in helping explain this issue came from this forum. It feels like when you’re driving a manual and you start in 2nd so everything bogs down. Eventually the rpm’s get high enough and the truck starts to move.

My final observation is the structure of these dealers. It’s a big game of telephone that ends with “cannot duplicate the issue”, but they never truly understood the issue. They’re not set up to truly hear, diagnose and fix the problem. The service advisor doesn’t care to get into the weeds, their goal is process cars in and out. Second in line is the mechanic who gets limited info from the service advisor and has his if x than y book/instructions from Toyota. I saw some really cool graphs and charts the perfectly demonstrated the problems, especially for us data driven, visual folks. Unless they magically made it to an engineer at Toyota no one will ever truly understand the issues we’re facing.

So, anyone here have any connections to the “doers” at Toyota? The people that make things work and fixes things?

 

I had the TSB done for the clunk and for the hesitation from stop done early on after my purchase. Clunk is fixed and has not returned, however the hesitation from stop or rolling stop has returned is very annoying. So much so that I too have considered trading in but just don’t think it’s worth it financially with so few miles on mine and the current prices for trucks.

I have experienced the complete lack of power 2x since owning the truck (9500 miles). Both times were from a stopped position at a light and when the light turned green, absolutely no power for a good 2-3 seconds and then it just took off. Scared my wife and she gave me look like “what the hell was that”. Luckily it hasn’t happened when trying to merge into traffic or cross a busy intersection. I let the dealer know at my last appointment and they said they couldn’t find anything obviously wrong and said if it happens that rarely it shouldn’t be anything to worry about LOL. I’ve always heard good things about Toyota customer service, but it seems like they’re waiting for a serious accident to occur before they start taking both of those issues seriously.

 

My 4 week old 23 Platinum has 1,000 miles and does this as well. I wouldn't call it a hesitation as much it is rather a 2 second delay. I was thinking about ordering a pedal commander to see if that would fix it. It did on my 2015 C7 Corvette.

 

Thank you!

 

My 2023 Platinum does this as well. Easy to reproduce, come to dead stop, make left hand turn up slight incline road, push gas peddle and wait then apply more pressure and the truck pops up the road. It almost feels like your driving a stick shift and dropping the clutch a little bit. It happens on other occasion but definitely not all the time. I can feel it about to occur and have started to try to find the pedal sweet spot but I'm not sure its there. Wish there was a fix.

 

I wonder if the transmission is helping to make this a bigger issue. I have noticed that when stopped, the trans will automatically drop into 3rd and taking off from a stop it sort of chuggs along until the RPM gets up there. I will try shifting into 2nd or 1st and make a quick left and see if mine does the hesitation while in manual shift mode as well as leaving it in "D" and try to create the same issue. I will make sure there are no oncoming vehicles at the time. I think the programming would protect the transmission from high rpm engagement so perhaps the transmission is shifting down at the time that the accelerator is pressed?

 

I just had a 45 minute ride a long with a Toyota master tech and current Service manager from a large dealership here in Seattle. He drove, I drove and I explained exactly what we all feel and he says that every current gen Tundra (gas) drives like this. He agreed the sloppy feeling at low speeds is off putting for those of us who came from a snappy 5.7 prior gen. As others have said, sport mode helps normalize the driving experience a little better.

As for the dead pedal we couldn’t recreate it.

I left the dealership with no resolution other than thinking I’m crazy. Maybe I do just need to accept it for what it is, drive it till the lease is up and then walk away.

I honestly am convinced that one of 3 parties are really dumb:
- Toyota for thinking that releasing a truck that drives like this is acceptable.
- The service manager who is thinks it’s normal.
Or
- Us for thinking it’s abnormal.
We’ll never really know. What I do know is I’m tired of thinking about it and they have officially worn me down. Maybe I’ll have a burst of energy next week and decide to go another round with them.

 

Maybe it takes off in third, same as drivers of semi tractor trucks. They have like 18 gears, so it's normal for them to take off on like 5th when empty. Tundra engineers thought it's also normal, having 10 speeds? After all, your not towing anything. And if you were, you'd be extra careful anyways, always having plenty of space before merging..

 

I don't think the issue is dead don't give up @PBNB.

I should mention I don't drive the truck a ton and its pretty evident after I start it and drive out to the end of my hood (approx 1/4 mile). Stop look left, look right, start up the hill. And again it happens on other occasions but not all the time. I haven't tried Sport mode but will now. The minimal gas mileage is worth it if it works.

 

I'm getting ready to buy in the next few months. I don't think I want a Tundra is this is an issue. Get it figured out toyota.

 

Blitz79, I recognize my message sounded defeatist but in 100% honesty I really do like the truck. Plenty of power at the pedal and in reserve should you need it. We did a 3,000 mile road trip of 80% @ 75-85 and the other 20% on gravel roads at around 30. The truck did magnificent. It’s just the lower speeds that we’re either having a problem with or just aren’t used to. There are a few other gripes too but none that would prevent me from buying the truck again. We complain that the quality just isn’t there but honestly there isn’t a lot of quality in anything anymore. I ran through this exercise with my wife recently and as we glanced around the house there are so many things that are just made a lot more cheaply. Or it’s a case of you get what you pay for. Hoses, faucets, tools, appliances, electronics (except for Sonos, thats made so well). It’s just where we’re at unfortunately.

keep the truck in your consideration set. Maybe look at the hybrid, or something higher than a limited, perhaps they've addressed some stuff with 24 models.

Don’t let us turn you against Toyota. I’m 1.75 thumbs up (yes just a partial thumb).

 

First off, just know that we're thankful to you for going through the trouble and posting about it. I know it takes a lot of time and energy to get dealership to listen to you

1. It's possible that Toyota messed up here and released a truck with shitty throttle response. However, they don't really care all that much about it because there's zero consequence for them. Nothing is broken, no long term losses or damages, just a bunch of people who think that their conservative Toyota trucks are supposed to respond from start like a race car.

Even if Toyota want to fix this, it may not be as simple because by adjusting the throttle response, maybe, they will also decrease their MPG? I'm guessing here.

2. Job of the service manager is to make more money for the dealership and get rid of annoying crazy customers who think that their trucks are too slow from the start. What's in it for them to work their ass for free to do testing that Toyota won't reimburse them for... To chase ghosts and feelings. And dealership will depend on Toyota to release a fix anyway..

3. Are we crazy? Well... Maybe.. Maybe our expectations are not correct for this truck. Some cars do respond slower, other cars... Like a BMW responds very fast, and my 2022 tundra responds like my wife's old Mazda 3 from the start. So at this point, it's fair to say that current Gen Tundra was designed (or messed up) to respond slowly from the start.

Question for you, how does lease work? Isn't should be easy for you to switch to new 2024 with not loosing much money? What would that cost you in a lease?

Personally... I own my own 2022, and if I were to sell and get 2024 hybrid (which I want), I'd be out $12-15k on lost value and taxes... So it would be stupid move for me, but I may do it to treat myself to driving something I actually want...

I test drove a 2023 hybrid for a day (courtesy of car max) and loved the throttle response which was much faster and stronger than non hybrid. Hybrid is really the way to go if driving in the city, which I do 90% of the time. I got 17-19mpg city with hybrid vs 12mpg my non hybrid...

 

It really looks like a bug or glitch in the engine/transmission code somewhere, obviously something was major broken in the first case to release the first TSB. I'm guessing the first tsb was a partial fix or perhaps there are several conditions that cause a similar issue. I do think there might be 2 different conditions one where the throttle/power responds slowly and one where it doesn't respond at all.

There's a couple of things working against us. Because of all the laws and regulations on this stuff nobody in Toyota can speak publicly about it so we have no idea if they are working on it or not.

The process to update the calibrations is not public, so I have no idea how long from the time they fix/tweak something to the release an updated calibration. I do believe they have to internally test it out fully and also may have to re-certify it with emissions so it may take a while.

Based on some cal ID dumps and some testing on the 2024 it seems at least some software was changed. They may wait to get feedback on 2024's before pushing changes down the line.

Dealers aren't software/automotive engineers so unless Toyota gives them processes and info, anything not purely mechanical is hard to fix at the local level even though that were we're put as the front desk persay.

We are still in the 2 year "window" i see calibrations get released, however probably after July/Aug 2024 if no updates are released they've probably declared it ok.

 

Even though I've been reading this thread, today I did a legal uturn and the pedal just did nothing despite me pumping even, almost got smashed. I was able to recreate it by going back to the same u-turn this time with nobody approaching, died again. I tried it again in manual 1st gear and it spun the tires. It's a wrong gear thing I would say. Since this u-turn is right by my house and I have to use it several times a day, I'll be in manual shift from now on

 

So what, if we're about to make a dangerous move, we have to shift to manual to make sure dead pedal event won't occur?

 

Beats the alternative

 

you could also rev up a little to get the juices flowing. Fast and furious style!

 

I own 2 toyotas. You are not turning me against toyota. This acceleration issue sounds dangerous though. I'm hoping they figure it out soon, I can wait some, my taco seems like it will run forever but I can't. I need a little more room. If they don't I will at other option

 

I would say the u turn thing is similar but might also be interacting with the turn, the ECU/TRAC does do some different things when applying power while turning as wheel speed sensors will be reporting different speed values, power is limited while turning from what I know but how exactly I'm not sure.

I have a feeling that the ones that are really bad lasting over 1-2 seconds are an interaction of a few things but the initial seed condition of the transmission downshifting was probably the start of the condition.

 

Hey Tundra owners. This is my first time as a Tundra owner. I noticed the hesitation when hitting the gas pedal and turning around 1500 miles. It happens regularly in the right conditions. I thought it was just my imagination. After reading this forum and finding the TSB listed here, https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2022/MC-10230373-9999.pdf

I also took my Tundra in for service and told the service writer, and he said there was nothing wrong with the truck and that I needed to get used to the way it is made. I did not accept that and told him for 65K it needs a fix. I also sent in a message on Toyota's website about the issue and a nice man called me back. He said he was a case manager and that he was unaware of this issue and that he and Toyota had not heard about it before. I told him "Really?".

Love or hate Toyota, I don't think denial is the right course of action for them. Class action lawsuits have started with a lot less information than this issue.

 

So far in my testing I found that as you slow down to near stop, there is a downshift from 3rd to 1st gear, or 2nd to 1st gear and when that downshift happens there is a window of about 1.4 seconds and if you apply accelerator in that window its kind of ignored.

Unfortunately you can only really see this with the dealer scan tool both the. It may be helpful if they offer to do a drive along you ask for them to bring a techstream device and watch when its downshifting.

There are Bluetooth devices and apps that can also show the shift status pid, but I'm not sure if they update quick enough to catch this. Techstream and its VIM can read data ever 125ms, and most Bluetooth devices only report at 1 second intervals.

I can replicate some delay with that method now, although most of the time it results in a very brief delay, but I have caught a much longer delay that lasts over 1/2 second so there may be a 2nd factor in that that is more rare.

 

FYI, this issue isn't present on all non-hybrid Tundras. My June 2023 build has no acceleration hesitation at all. In Normal drive mode, it pulls away from a stop faster than my 2015 5.7 ever did. In Sport drive mode it's difficult not to spin the tires.

I do have other minor complaints about my Gen 3, but throttle response and acceleration aren't among them.

Matt

 

2024 Tundra TRD Pro. (with red interior ) Just got it yesterday. Had 4 miles on it. At 40 miles in something changed. Unfortunately I think I'm seeing the same issue. All of the sudden the truck is boggy and laggy as heck. As people mentioned above, acts like it's not getting enough gas, or air, or like it's in too high of a gear (accompanied by a sudden whistle) Dreading trying to bring this up to my dealer. I'm sure they will say since it's a 2024 it doesn't need or can't get the TSB updates...

 

I'm not sure the hybrids run a different logic, however since all power goes though the transmission I feel that if there is a shift related issue that both powertrains could be subject to the same delays. Try doing a few 0-60 runs safely and see if that helps wake it back up.