Tranmission Shifting

[rbpeters]

Since purchasing the Avalon in early June, I have been frustrated with how the car operates between 20 and 40 miles per hour. The car does not always know what gear it needs to shift into. It will frequently race 1000 rpm ahead without any change in speed. Then suddenly it will accelerate and the rpm’s will drop back to normal rpm.

It seems to happen most often in rush traffic when trying to change lanes. The hesitation in acceleration will cause me to lose most of my margin of safety in the process of changing lanes. In this regard, the car is not safe. There is no way to predict when the problem will occur, and therein, lies the safety hazard.

It would seem that the last effort by the service department to update my computer programming failed to achieve any level of improvement to my satisfaction with one exception. Since the last computer upgrade, I have not experienced the complete loss of gear at high speeds.

Is this a problem in all 2005 Avalons? Is Toyota aware of the problem and do they plan to resolve it?


Serviced on Friday, October 21. Toyota reset the computer learning back to factory default. Technical support in CA explained that there are no current plans to address the issue. Once the learning process develops a bad pattern, it must be reset back to factory default and the relearning started over.

[cecivic]

According to my service dept, it's not a "problem" . That's the way these new Avalons are designed--with a "drive-by-wire" throttle. The transmission computer is not fast enough for quick taps on the gas pedal. The service representative said I need to adjust my driving style to cope with this. Can you believe this?

Toyota thinks this "drive-by-wire" is better, but it's not. I'll be happy with an old-fashioned cable controlled throttle anytime.

[terrastrife]

get used to econo-comfort drive by wire.

learn tto drive it, i see no problems in changing your own driving style to suit the car.

if ya gonna floor it, floor it, it changes without a fuss. if ya gonna pussy foot on and off in millimiter differences, buy lighter shoes so you can feel the pedal.

[cecivic]

Originally Posted by terrastrife

if ya gonna floor it, floor it, it changes without a fuss. if ya gonna pussy foot on and off in millimiter differences, buy lighter shoes so you can feel the pedal.

Sometimes ya gotta "pussy foot" on the pedal, then suddenly floor the pedal (ie: to switch lanes) when you're in bumper to bumper traffic. That's when the drive-by-wire dissappoints me.