[NA]Pedal Commander[NA]

It just scales the pedal input. It doesn't actually change anything, "fix" any lag, etc. It just takes your throttle input and increases (or decreases, depending on mode) the percentage sent to the ECU.

Save your money and push on the gas harder, if that's what you're trying to accomplish
 
Made me look.

They want to sell me one for my Sentra. It already has 'normal', 'eco' and 'sport' modes.
 
That’s hilarious.
I already have a lead foot at stop signs!
Marketing at its finest.
 
I’ve never understood why people buy these. Push the pedal harder. If you floor it and it doesn’t do as much as you want it to, you need a something that actually increases horsepower.

For some reason the pedal commanders are really popular in the diesel community.
 
Only complaint I’ve ever had about my Toyota’s is that if you need to get up and go quick, you can’t do it smoothly. It piddles around and goes nowhere unless you smash the pedal all the way down and then it jerks and shakes with a crap downshift and rpms go to the moon and then it almost immediately up shifts hard and bucks you again, rinse and repeat. I always blamed the automatic transmission though, not the pedal.
 
Salty said:
Only complaint I’ve ever had about my Toyota’s is that if you need to get up and go quick, you can’t do it smoothly. It piddles around and goes nowhere unless you smash the pedal all the way down and then it jerks and shakes with a crap downshift and rpms go to the moon and then it almost immediately up shifts hard and bucks you again, rinse and repeat. I always blamed the automatic transmission though, not the pedal.
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After driving my wife's Highlander for a while, I concluded that it's caused by Toyota's decision to omit the badly needed turbocharger from the engine. The silly thing can barely get out of its own way. It's no wonder 3/4 of the vehicles dawdling along at 5-10 under the speed limit are wearing Toyota badges.
 
Salty said:
Only complaint I’ve ever had about my Toyota’s is that if you need to get up and go quick, you can’t do it smoothly. It piddles around and goes nowhere unless you smash the pedal all the way down and then it jerks and shakes with a crap downshift and rpms go to the moon and then it almost immediately up shifts hard and bucks you again, rinse and repeat. I always blamed the automatic transmission though, not the pedal.
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DaleB said:
After driving my wife's Highlander for a while, I concluded that it's caused by Toyota's decision to omit the badly needed turbocharger from the engine. The silly thing can barely get out of its own way. It's no wonder 3/4 of the vehicles dawdling along at 5-10 under the speed limit are wearing Toyota badges.
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That’s more transmission programming than anything. Automatics these days are programmed around emissions and fuel economy standards over performance/driver experience. You can manually select the gear you want and that can get you better than the complete lack of power up to high revving noisy and not smooth.

I have always hated driving Toyotas, and consider hours I’ve spent driving them as time stolen from my life that I’ll never get back. They make reliable cars, but I dislike all aspects of the driving experience.
 
One of the things to realize is that any OEM drive by wire ECU I’ve dealt with does not work the way most people expect. You use the accelerator pedal to request a torque value, then the ECU works to determine how to give you the torque requested. This backwards approach is often what gives the “numb” pedal feeling, coupled with an often non-linear torque vs. pedal position table.

Any box that works to manipulate signals going into the ECU should be binned and a proper fix in the software incorporated. That’s easier to do on some vehicles than others. It’s probably best to accept the vehicle for what it is, unless you want to learn how to work on your own ECUs.
 
Ted said:
For some reason the pedal commanders are really popular in the diesel community.
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Partially because of the ''no smoke out of diesel at anytime'' folks. So as you well know the tuning slowly adds fuel even if the driver floors it so no smoke comes out of the pipe. Which, also as you well know, makes for a sluggish start off the line.

I am interested in the 6 cylinder Duramax (in a couple years), and the folks I have talked to that own one all say it needs a pedal commander. And all recommend using from Banks only.

Let'sgoflying! said:
https://pedalcommander.com/
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Seems like the feedback I have received on the Pedal Commander brand units is that it it does not have a fail safe. Apparently the unit draws power from the vehicles computer and if it looses even a Milli amp of power it will shut down and then there is no throttle response except for idle. Plus it seems to set off the Check Engine light for some folks, luck of the draw there. Banks Engineering units have a separate power hookup that does not draw power from the OBD II computer so if it loses power the vehicle will fail safe to the stock application and can be driven home.

I am not compensated by Banks Engineering in any way, I just trust and use their products heartily.
 
Zeldman said:
Partially because of the ''no smoke out of diesel at anytime'' folks. So as you well know the tuning slowly adds fuel even if the driver floors it so no smoke comes out of the pipe. Which, also as you well know, makes for a sluggish start off the line.

I am interested in the 6 cylinder Duramax (in a couple years), and the folks I have talked to that own one all say it needs a pedal commander. And all recommend using from Banks only.
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I get that it can make the diesel feel more responsive. But what it’s really doing is meaning that 100% throttle comes in sooner, so same foot travel = more throttle, but you still max out at 100%.

Because it feels more peppy, people think it works. But if you train yourself to just push the throttle harder you get the same results for free. If you do a sudden full throttle acceleration stock and it still doesn’t produce smoke or get up like you want it to, a pedal commander won’t do squat.
 
Zeldman said:
Partially because of the ''no smoke out of diesel at anytime'' folks. So as you well know the tuning slowly adds fuel even if the driver floors it so no smoke comes out of the pipe. Which, also as you well know, makes for a sluggish start off the line.
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See what I wrote above about how the pedal works. This will not add fuel; you can have the same result by pushing on the pedal harder.

No matter how a diesel is set up it will always feel “weak” since you’re throttling fuel and running lean. It’s a balancing act - adding too much fuel before you have adequate air will not make it accelerate any faster, smoke or no smoke. New turbo developments and common rail injection make the modern diesels run pretty good but it is still obvious to me that they run and drive like a diesel, not a gas powered truck.
 
Ted said:
For some reason the pedal commanders are really popular in the diesel community.
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I feel like that might have to do with the average iq in the diesel community.

Ted said:
I have always hated driving Toyotas, and consider hours I’ve spent driving them as time stolen from my life that I’ll never get back. They make reliable cars, but I dislike all aspects of the driving experience.
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:yeahthat: Soulless.
 
Salty said:
Only complaint I’ve ever had about my Toyota’s is that if you need to get up and go quick, you can’t do it smoothly. It piddles around and goes nowhere unless you smash the pedal all the way down and then it jerks and shakes with a crap downshift and rpms go to the moon and then it almost immediately up shifts hard and bucks you again, rinse and repeat. I always blamed the automatic transmission though, not the pedal.
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That's the whole thing. My Sentra has three modes on it, and all three seem to primarily affect the transmission shift points. Or in my case, with the CVT, the pseudo-shift points. "Normal" is the default startup mode and it's fine for normal driving. "Sport" turns it in to a different car, and makes freeway merges and hill climbs a lot more manageable. At least, as manageable as they are going to get with a 1.8L engine on a four door car. "Economy" is just a dog, and there is no difference in actual economy unless you just happen to be really heavy footed normally. I doubt that the throttle response is any different either way but I don't know for sure.
 
Zeldman said:
I am interested in the 6 cylinder Duramax (in a couple years), and the folks I have talked to that own one all say it needs a pedal commander. And all recommend using from Banks only.
Click to expand...

I have the 4 cylinder Duramax and I had no trouble adjusting coming from exclusively driving gas cars. I figured out how the turbo lag impacts my driving style and lead it appropriately and it does just fine. At first I thought the transmission turning was odd but once I got used to how much low end torque it has it's actually not done badly.
 
It is a couple of capacitors and resistors and maybe a buck converter to stabilize the output.

$8.00 max.
 
The pedal response in my wife's GX is miserable. Between the pedal response and the poor programing of the the tranny its one of those miserable toyota things you hate. You need to out think the computers to make it do what you want at any given time. My Niece has a 4 runner, its even worse. So he husband put in a pedal commander. No there isn't more performance. Just performance where and when you want it. So its just a better driving experience, Throttle wise. Worth the money? doubtful. But then you would expect drivers to know how to operate those pedals on the floor, and that isn't going to happening. Pushing those pedals as hard as you can all the time and every time usually isn't needed or appropriate. And a big waste of money, maybe fun though. Remember drivers don't get much in the way of training.
 
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