So that’s that stupid noise? I thought the automatic transmission was grinding my gears or something.

Useless.

My (former) '17 Taco MT had the hill hold and it was worthless. It held just long enough to get your foot onto the gas and start to let up on the clutch pedal. It would disengage about 1/4 second before you could actually get the truck moving forward and as a result there'd be this "hold... hold... hold... roll backwards instantly" sensation that was quite aggravating. It was more difficult to start on a steep hill than it would have been without the "feature".

I find this to be true of most of the electronic nannies. Hill Start, DAC, Crawl Control, Multi Terrain...etc... they all are a poor substitute for just knowing how to drive.

And my Hill Start works, but only barely, and doesn't stop the truck; just modulates the brakes as others have described. Takes a few feet to kick in.

Pity there is no electronic parking brake hold feature that's common in other modern vehicles. My wife's Mazda has one and its nice that you don't have to leave your foot on the brake after coming to a complete stop. Though with that said, we've turned it off in the Mazda as we don't want to be in my 4Runner and out of habit, think it too has the same feature and we roll into the car in front/behind. All these fancy doodads are making me a lazy and sometimes bad driver :-).

[Except for ATRAC. That has worked very well for me in some hairy offroad situations].

after reading this thread I tested my 2018 TRD OR and the hill hold assist works fine. I didnt even know I had that on the 4runner

It's not nearly as good as what was on my 08 Tacoma TRD Sport. That one wouldn't let you roll back at all past a certain point. It seemed like it was something in the transmission vs the brakes/traction control. No weird noise etc.

I think I ran into this the other day, but didn't know what it was so it freaked me out. I was going slow in 2wd on wet gravel and approached a steep uphill, 90 degree corner. I turned to power up it and slipped badly enough that I was just going to dig in. I stood on the brake, shifted to 4wd, then reverse for a few feet (so I could engage the 4wd), then back to drive. I then went to quickly transitioned from brake to gas and I got the slippage light and ABS clicks like crazy, then it suddenly got traction and lurched forward. I thought I had tromped on the gas BEFORE it was done engaging 4wd (exactly what I was trying to avoid by reversing until it was engaged...), but Hill Assist makes more sense.

It works fine, but there really should be a separate indicator... actually I'd rather engage it manually.

Thanks for all the replies. My personal conclusion is that it's a pretty useless feature. I have no problem driving the car without it, and if I had the option to not get the vehicle equipped with it (knowing how it actually worked), I would have have chosen not to get it. They should have named it something other than Hill Start Assist as it really only assists you from rolling backwards uncontrollably. Either way, the documentation of the feature is poor and it seems like service reps are confused about it as well.

Found this thread after searching for what I'm doing wrong with my '18. Sounds like it's just a weak "feature." My past Jeeps had an AWESOME system--essentially, when on a hill, the brakes would hold until the accelerator was pressed. The 4Runner doesn't have enough idle strength to hold it without rolling back, so it would be a cool feature to have work well.

I know we'll never see it because of emissions regulations, but I wish the 4Runner had a high-idle switch like many diesel vehicles do.

Not to sound like a total arse (to late), but all 5th gens have the automatic transmission? I could understand rolling back with a gearbox and clutch, but with an auto?

Take your foot off the brake while facing up a steep hill in D, and the car will roll back quite a ways, despite the drivetrain resistance.

I got it, its a driver issue.

Good thread from the people contributing. Thanks for the insight. It was odd that on smaller uphills it would hold the 4R. Then on steep hills, it did not do much and the pig wanted to roll back.. so a not so subtle throttle application lead to unpleasant action.

I was curious to see this “feature” in action after bringing mine home for the first time since I have a super steep driveway.

Long story short, it sucks and is useless. My Jeep would just sit there nose down on a 30 degree grade waiting for you to hit the gas. I’ll have to change habits of course, but disappointing for sure.

When I owned a Jeep it was too old for that sort of fancy stuff, but a system that keeps your vehicle from moving on a decline without you touching the accelerator sounds stupid for a vehicle designed to be off-road. I’ll put it in park if I don’t want it moving in my driveway.