I have the 8 speed tranny in my 2020 RAV4. Anybody having any issues or has Toyota pretty much perfected it?
Also adding gearbox expert @Dan to the discussion
Toyota did a software fix because people said that they have problems with the transmission not shifting right. I wouldn't say that Toyota has perfected just right. We never know the reliability of the car until the next 5 years or so. So don't think Toyota is reliable yet until there is evidence it is. For me, I wouldn't buy a new car during the first and second year of the new generation.
Toyota’s 8-speed in newest RAV is not perfect. I, for one, hate it, … the way it shifts: too many gears, overzealous computer pretends to be a master on deciding when and how to shift your 8-speed transmission!
In a meantime,… the darn thing works as designed by Toyota, warts and all. No failures are being reported. Family’s RAV already logged ~50,000 km flawlessly, … for example.
Anyway, there were attempts to improve it, there were couple of software upgrades, … but those were not much help. Constrain is current EPA efficiency rating of the new RAV. I’m being told that it is not possible for Toyota to tune software for a better drivability without infringing negatively on the existing EPA rating!
And so, … you just have to love your RAV4 the way it is!
F.S.
Let us pray they don’t get smart and decide to eventually go to 10-speed for FWD applications.
Postscript: Whatever Toyota does to their sold vehicles - post sale TSB fixes - those have to be approved by EPA first and foremost.
On our RAV4, for example, after two transmission software updates, Toyota - each time, affixed a separate label, to the inside of the hood, stating that these fixes were done under such ‘n such approved revisions (codes are identified on the label), and that those changes are certified to be approved by EPA. Fwiw, …
F.S.
I agree @figmund-sreud .
Also this tranny was made in 3/4 (EAT8, F8F35, F8G45) main versions you can tell which one if you got the reliable well built version or the weaker one is to go to your manual and see if the ATF service interval is 80k km, 100k km or 120k km.
(And if your AFT quantity is ~6.5L or ~7.5)
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They serve 125k miles, 150k miles and 175k miles respectively.
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Generally it’s quite an old design, it’s based on a design from the early 2000s and this model has been around for about 8 years first being available on the Volvo XC60.
@DayWalker , I think you’ll find this interesting 👀
Well, I am pretty skeptical about this tranny. I have seen the most complaints with 2018 camrys and newer and some of them even had transmission failures (if u go on car complaints and NHTSA it's one of the biggest complaints). I also saw the issues in the Rav4 and other cars that use this transmission like the VW Tiguan, VW Jetta, BMW X1 (basically a Mini Countryman underneath it), and some Volvos. Overall it's a bit of a mixed bag and some are fine and some not so much. Idk if software updates will rlly fix it and only time will tell how they rlly hold up, but overall it's not as impressive as what I have seen from ZF and past stuff from Aisin.
But also, are people changing their transmission fluids and also using the OEM fluid only? It doesn’t help Toyota is telling them it’s lifetime fluid. If it were my vehicle, I would change religiously every 40,000 miles on those transmissions.
yeah, it could also depend on that, but I would wait and see how they hold up. I can just about guarantee that they won't last as long as the 6 speed Aisin trannies (at least the ones from 2015 and up where they fixed the torque converter issue), because of the extra complexity.