As we have now come to understand, vehicle manufacturers don’t always get things right. One of the worst offenders is the Toyota Land Cruiser 200 series. Out of the box, the transmission performs “reasonably” well (but not great) from first gear all the way through to fourth, then it all falls apart.
The torque converter locks in too late and certainly won’t stay locked going over any hills or even slight acceleration. The gears have a long gap between first to second, it holds fifth gear from around 70 km/h to around 115 to 120 km/h, before finally lugging over into sixth. If you’ve got larger tyres, you’ll rarely use sixth gear at all. The transmission is just not tuned for Australian driving conditions.
This is where transmission remapping/ transmission tuning comes into play.
With our hi-tech state-of-the-art tuning equipment, we can read the factory calibration in the transmission computer, transfer the files to our tuning software, make the changes that are required, and transfer the files back.
With our tuning software we can modify the files that control the transmission, which in turn changes the transmission’s behavior. The most common adjustments are shift points, to even out each gear change, transmission line pressure, and to reduce the flaring between gears which gives it a slightly more positive change. Also changing fifth and sixth gear so you can use the full range of ratios through normal driving. We program sixth gear to engage at 105km/h on standard tyres.
Another major improvement is the controlling of the torque convertor. This has been one of the most challenging parts of the transmission to be able to control correctly. Other companies/people are remapping transmissions, but I don’t believe many, if any, have been able to control the torque convertor “lock-up” like we can. We activate the torque convertor lock-up in 5th gear at 80 km/h in drive, and engage sixth gear with “lock-up” at 105 km/h. This is the perfect speed for “lock-up” and will hold the torque convertor “locked” in either fifth or sixth gear depending on speed. The benefits of locking the torque convertor this way will give you a better driving experience with-out the gears and tacho constantly changing, this returns better fuel economy as you spend more time in sixth gear, rather than fifth on the highway. We have also programmed the torque convertor to “unlock” when slowing down, rather than staying locked for too long, as this also helps to improve fuel economy and stops torque convertor shudder when it stays locked at too low of speeds. (This is the problem that torque convertor lock-up “kits” have)
More and more late model 4WD automatic transmissions are starting to suffer the same issues as the Land Cruiser 200 series, our team is constantly working on transmission remapping for other vehicles and can now also offer these upgrades for some of the Toyota Hilux and Prado models, with other makes and models like the Isuzu and Ford Ranger are in the pipeline.
Feel free to contact us on 07 5527 7207 for any more information on remapping your transmission.
