My wife an I have a 2009 XD that has the same problem as what is being described here. It started right around 90k miles. When the car needs to downshift to accelerate it jerks VERY hard into gear and makes an audible thud, the first time it happened we thought we had ran over something. Seems to happen more when we use cruise control, as it is more prone to accelerate uphill, but it doesn't happen exclusively on hills or in CC.

Took car to "the best mechanic in town" and spent $150 and had the computers reset and synced, new spark plugs, etc. but he was not able to identify an actual problem with the transmission (or the car forthat matter). Said the car runs great. We drove it home and as soon as I needed to accelerate around a guy doing 30 on the interstate the car jerked so hard I thought I broke it.

I wanted to post my 2 cents here simply to get it out that there is clearly a problem that Toyota needs to address with this vehicle. If anyone has any news regarding this issue, please post here.

 

I had the same problem with my 08. It wouldn't do it every time you accelerated up a hill or while on cruise, but when it did it scared the crap out of me- every time! Never did figure out the issue.


Definitely a transmission issue though- as if it when it meant to drop one gear to get the rpms up to pass or accelerate, it dropped two, resulting in the hard jarring feel.

 

I am another victim of the lurch/uphill problem...has anybody identified the problem?

Can anyone provide some pointers to remove/replace a 2010 xD A/T? Can this be done without removing the entire engine or front sub assy?

 

I don't know why, but I replaced the spark plugs and it stopped. It makes no sense but I'm telling you it worked for me. I would get stuck at 3k rpm then it would down shift and slam into an upshift. Happened on hills and getting on the highway. Let me know if this works for anyone else.

 

When I bought my XD it shifted hard, I had my mechanic change the filter and fluid and it drives much smoother.