Underwhelmed by Hill Assist feature

[pipspeak]

I decided to try out my Hill Start Assist on an empty San Francisco street yesterday and was rather underwhelmed.

The hill was perhaps a 5% or less incline (far from the steepest in the city). Put the car in drive, took my foot off the brake, and the hill assist took about a second to engage, by which time I'd lurched back a couple feet, and once it was doing its grinding and clicking thing the car was still rolling back slowly, which surprised me on such a shallow incline.

The tranny alone on my old Jeep was strong enough to hold the car stationary on that same hill without any fancy electronic system.

Is Hill Assist supposed to stop rolling backwards entirely if the slope is fairly shallow? If so, mine failed miserabley. Or is it simply supposed to control/slow slipping, whatever the incline? And can I trust it to work on a steeper slope?

 

[cdoyle]

I really don't get the whole hill assist thing myself.

Mine will do this on the same hill every morning.

I take my foot off the brake, and it starts to roll backwards. Then when I put my foot on the gas, it will start the beeping and the noise. Isn't a little late if I've already put my foot on the gas?

 

[Thai]

I don't think that the HAC has matured yet to really do what it's meant to do.

 

[Thai]

Here are a few links to past discussions:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11326&highlight=hill+assist

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8666&highlight=hill+assist

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6266&highlight=hill+assist

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5237&highlight=hill+assist

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2292&highlight=hill+assist

And lastly,

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=310&highlight=hill+assist

This last one was posted early in this forum's infancy.

 

[Atomic 4Runner]

I take my foot off the brake, and it starts to roll backwards. Then when I put my foot on the gas, it will start the beeping and the noise.

Is there a way to disable the beep from the Hill Assist? If it doesn't work any better than that, maybe we can just disable the Hill Assist?

When you're from East Tennessee, you learn how to start and stop on hills when you're riding your first tricycle.

 

[pipspeak]

Here are a few links to past discussions:

Thanks... forgot to do a search:bash:

Seems a lot of people are underwhelmed. I just wish my street experience had not also shattered my trust in the system for off-roading. It's the time lag that worries me... lurching backwards unexpectedly is not the greatest feeling.

I also must admit that I hoped it would be more useful in San Francisco but, alas, I still have no magic way to make the hills here any more bearable. Shame the tranny is so feeble at holding, too.

 

[srpage]

I don't think that the HAC has matured yet to really do what it's meant to do.

X2

 

[Falls]

I tried mine on a steep incline and it personally worked like shit.......it would'nt hold and I lft it alone to do it's thing and after slipping down hill quite away's the truck died !!!!!

VERY disappointing feature IMO.

 

[00328]

I don't know that I understand it either.
I had a '95 Jeep GC and when I let my foot off the brake on an incline, it did not roll back at all.

 

[Thai]

When off-roading, it is still prudent to use the "two-feet" method...one foot on brake, while the other foot on gas pedal...then slowly let go of the brake and press on the gas slowly.

 

[Falls]

When off-roading, it is still prudent to use the "two-feet" method...one foot on brake, while the other foot on gas pedal...then slowly let go of the brake and press on the gas slowly.

That's what I usually do , but just wanted to try out this feature to see what there was to it.

 

[biglatka]

When off-roading, it is still prudent to use the "two-feet" method...one foot on brake, while the other foot on gas pedal...then slowly let go of the brake and press on the gas slowly.

And also when drivng a taxi cab in New York City. Sometimes you use both simultaneously.

 

[Koz]

The one thing you have to remember is that if the wheels were to lock on snow and ice the vehicle would slide out of control. This is why the system pulses and does not completely stop the vehicle from rolling back.

Koz