Best driving practice for driving up hill

[theesotericone]

"I was talking about the condition of long mountains and OD."

They are not designed to be held at 80mph up mountains with an automatic transmission in OD. Unless you want to super heat your transmission fluid thus warping the fins in your TC and damaging your transmission. Then by all means go up the mountain at 100mph.

If you want to rering your engine every 100 to 200k then by all means hold it at redline all day long as it's not my engine nor my rig.

However, if you want your engine to last a very long time without having to rebuild it. You can keep the rpms lower thus keeping the heat down as I believe that is what the OP was asking. Or maybe I misunderstood the question.






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I'd agree you don't want to bounce off the rev limiter all day every day. lol

Turning OD off, which you should do on hills, increases the RPM's. That's what I was inferring. It's OK to let the motor go into it's power band when needed. Everyone has different driving styles and comfort ranges.

I've got 2 rigs with 5vz-fe motors. One has 349000 and one has 250000. I bring them both up to 4500 RPM's fairly often. When snow wheeling I'm constantly bouncing off the rev limiter trying to break trail. That's me. I wouldn't expect others to be comfortable doing that but the motor will take it.

 

[wrpsuite]

At 75 in the mountains of PA the hills make trans downshift and engine race I don’t like it at all so I turn cruise off. For me its too much strain on a motor with almost 200k. This is also the case when towing boat at 65 i just refuse to use cruise.


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[tvpierce]

Thanks for posting this Tim.

I know you've posted this many times before but I never paid much attention to the threads because I don't do much towing, off-roading, or mountian driving, so transmission temp is not something I worry much about. In any event, I somehow missed the most important nugget of information: that the TC unlocks when the transmission automatically downshifts. I assumed that when the TC locked (at 43mph or whatever that number is) that it remained locked -- regardless of gear -- while above that speed. Not so.

Whew, it's not even 9am on a Saturday and I already learned something. This learning is hard work... I'm exhausted... I'm going back to bed!

 

[jgue467]

...I don't do much towing, off-roading, or mountian driving, so transmission temp is not something I worry much about. ...

Might still worry.

I've monitored trans temps live over a 1 hour drive around town, they get up there even in cool ambient temps.

you'll be surprised how hot it can get in normal stop/go, just saying it doesn't take a hill or mountain or towing to get to the upper limits of trans temps.

luck....

 

[brillo_76]

I'd agree you don't want to bounce off the rev limiter all day every day. lol



Turning OD off, which you should do on hills, increases the RPM's. That's what I was inferring. It's OK to let the motor go into it's power band when needed. Everyone has different driving styles and comfort ranges.



I've got 2 rigs with 5vz-fe motors. One has 349000 and one has 250000. I bring them both up to 4500 RPM's fairly often. When snow wheeling I'm constantly bouncing off the rev limiter trying to break trail. That's me. I wouldn't expect others to be comfortable doing that but the motor will take it.

Whatever works for you. The pwr option may help you as that changes the shift puts alot higher on the RPM scale. Probably would help climbing mountains too. Up a decent grade the cruise control should be off as well.

I never took a 4 runner to the rev limiter as its just not my thing.

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[Satter]

Might still worry.

I've monitored trans temps live over a 1 hour drive around town, they get up there even in cool ambient temps.

you'll be surprised how hot it can get in normal stop/go, just saying it doesn't take a hill or mountain or towing to get to the upper limits of trans temps.

luck....

I have 169,000 miles on my truck. It might not seem a lot for a 22 year old vehicle. The thing is that 90% of those miles are from start and stop driving in Houston grid lock traffic. After I moved to a small town I don’t do much driving. The driving I do do is still stop and go driving. That’s why I like to take it out on the highway on Sundays. I know doing the old “Italian tuneup” doesn’t apply to vehicles with fuel injection and electronic starters. But opening it up now and again shouldn’t hurt it?

 

[Ryan and Jerri]

Ok, so how about hitting the O/D off while descending hills to keep a more constant speed without using the brakes as much? How much excessive wear is this causing?
I may need to stop doing this.

 

[brillo_76]

Ok, so how about hitting the O/D off while descending hills to keep a more constant speed without using the brakes as much? How much excessive wear is this causing?
I may need to stop doing this.

I run around in O/D all the time. I never shut if off. Nor to a use the ECT PWR much. As the hills are scattered about and not long climbs like mountains are.

Stop and go would be harder on the transmission. However, if you keep your fluid clean and your filter clean along with the magnets. Exchange ths Fluid in regular intervals your transmission will thank you.

The hardest thing on the transmissions is plugged screen filters and old fluid.

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[Ryan and Jerri]

I run around in O/D all the time. I never shut if off. Nor to a use the ECT PWR much. As the hills are scattered about and not long climbs like mountains are.

Stop and go would be harder on the transmission. However, if you keep your fluid clean and your filter clean along with the magnets. Exchange ths Fluid in regular intervals your transmission will thank you.

The hardest thing on the transmissions is plugged screen filters and old fluid.

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Yeah I live in a mountainous area so I usually hit the O/D off before the climb, depending on grade, at 100 km/h or under. Usually coming down the hill/mountain I'll kick the O/D off when I slow down to around 80 km/h to save the brake rotors/pads. But brakes are cheaper than trannys are so maybe I'll have to just the down shifting and engine braking to the big rigs. And flushing the ATF often is a good idea and I will be doing that when I change the oil and all the other fluids come springtime.

I don't find any difference hitting the ECT button either way. Placebo button in my opinion. [emoji41]

 

[brillo_76]

Yeah I live in a mountainous area so I usually hit the O/D off before the climb, depending on grade, at 100 km/h or under. Usually coming down the hill/mountain I'll kick the O/D off when I slow down to around 80 km/h to save the brake rotors/pads. But brakes are cheaper than trannys are so maybe I'll have to just the down shifting and engine braking to the big rigs. And flushing the ATF often is a good idea and I will be doing that when I change the oil and all the other fluids come springtime.

I don't find any difference hitting the ECT button either way. Placebo button in my opinion. [emoji41]

I noticed it changes the shift points but that's all I noticed. I would just do what works best for your situation In my area I really dont have to do anything. However, I dont live in the mountains either..Only foot hills so that a major difference then your area. Everyone areas are different so that makes it extremely hard to make suggestions. I definitely can see folks using the OD off coming down long mountain hills to have the engine hold the rig back. As that is what we do in standards.


If the 3rd gen is 99 and newer you can get the transmission fluid temperature off of any smart phone / tablet and a bluetooth Reader. Before 99 we only have an idiot light if the fluid gets too hot.

We never found the voltage / resistance in the ECU for the transmission fluid temp.

My solution to this will be a separate temperature gauge as well as leaving the original in place too. But this is slightly off topic.







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[Dieselchessy]

The ECT power button in my 99 moves the shift points up 250 rpm or so as I recall.

Dropping out of OD to use the engine for braking shouldn’t cause issue. It’s much less load than accelerating would be. I did it in mine for 230,000 miles and it still works fine.


Where is the rev limiter on these 3rd gens? I’ve run mine up past 5k a few times and it was still pulling. I’ve never had one cut cylinders.

 

[theesotericone]

Where is the rev limiter on these 3rd gens? I’ve run mine up past 5k a few times and it was still pulling. I’ve never had one cut cylinders.

Rev limit is about 5600 RPM. It's hard to tell exactly because as soon as you hit it the RPM's jump all over from the ECU cutting power then giving it back.

 

[brillo_76]

Rev limit is about 5600 RPM. It's hard to tell exactly because as soon as you hit it the RPM's jump all over from the ECU cutting power then giving it back.

So the rev limiter is actually over redline. That sorta makes sense as I never hit it as I never go over redline. I dont even take my 5 speed up to redline as it rarely sees 5k rpm either.. I just subscribe to the theory that if we keep the rpms on the lower side we extend bearing life and keep engine wear lower. However, the new synthetic oils really have cut engine wear significantly vs the conventional oils. So I am sure that would be debatable today.

I didn't even know we had a rev limiter so thank you for that information.

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[Outrider]

Sorry for adding to the side-track, but I just can't help it. :evil:

Hitting rev limiters can be rather unsettling. Hearing your engine singing a beautiful tune, then all power momentarily disappearing, along with the sound, tends to make one believe that one has blown the engine. I have done that a few times (though not on a T4R, but on a vehicle that did sing a beautiful song at high rev's). I have also unintentionally gone far beyond the redline on an engine without a rev limiter ('77 Fiat 124 Spyder hit about 10k revs during a missed shift). That is rather unsettling, too.

Sorry again for the Amtrak. Back to the original topic now. :bounce:

 

[Ryan and Jerri]

If the 3rd gen is 99 and newer you can get the transmission fluid temperature off of any smart phone / tablet and a bluetooth Reader. Before 99 we only have an idiot light if the fluid gets too hot.

Does this go through the OBD2 port? I wonder if it's work with the JDM version. I suppose I would have to get one first and cross my fingers.

 

[brillo_76]

Does this go through the OBD2 port? I wonder if it's work with the JDM version. I suppose I would have to get one first and cross my fingers.

Yes you can read it through the OBD2 port. with an application like torque pro or something similar.

I would think so as the ports should be universal across the globe. I cant see it only bring a USA Canada only.

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