Hondata R&D finds limit of Civic CVT

HondaPro

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Well yeah a manual I find myself accelerating faster and coasting a lot. I always get better mileage with a 6speed. I have been on the lookout for a manual sport hatch for months and still haven't found one. My dealer said there is one 4 states in pearl white. Blaaa no way.

'Murikanz love that CVT:

When you're busy devouring a caramel pecanbon, washing it down with a tasty big gulp, AND texting ... who's got time for a gear shift?

"At last count, just 3.9 percent of cars sold in U.S. were built with manual transmissions, but in the rest of the world, manual transmissions are still overwhelmingly the top choice. In Europe and Japan, for example, more than 80 percent of cars sold have manual transmissions."
https://www.thezebra.com/insurance-news/2805/manual-vs-automatic/


/oh, .. and I'd bet dollars to cinnibons that my manual gets sweeter mpg's than the CVT, regardless of what Honda's Monroney says
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Manual

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Well yeah a manual I find myself accelerating faster and coasting a lot. I always get better mileage with a 6speed. I have been on the lookout for a manual sport hatch for months and still haven't found one. My dealer said there is one 4 states in pearl white. Blaaa no way.
Hopefully, increased demand will turn into increased production at some point. I would love to find a 1.5/6mt project car (read slightly wrecked),... but I think that needle in a haystack's going to take a while. Glad I got on the list early for mine.

/add, on the mpg: It's not just the coasting aspect. The 6mt is returning better highway mpg despite the higher rpm's. There's still a fair amount of efficiency losses in Honda's "advanced" CVT.
 
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CombsCivicHatch

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When I got my sport, I test drove a Fit and almost bought it for the manual. I figure I can endure this cvt until my warranty is up, then swap transmissions and maybe a turbo upgrade or something. I tried asking my dealer if they had any manuals and they just kind of laughed and told me good luck. I tried looking on line and couldn't find one within 200 miles of me.
 

Draken187

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When I got my sport, I test drove a Fit and almost bought it for the manual. I figure I can endure this cvt until my warranty is up, then swap transmissions and maybe a turbo upgrade or something. I tried asking my dealer if they had any manuals and they just kind of laughed and told me good luck. I tried looking on line and couldn't find one within 200 miles of me.
That sucks.. I think honda also goes by regions.. New england and the tristate are have quite a few.. When they first landed i had like 20 choices within 100 miles.. Only 2 red ones tho.. I coulda gotten one within 10 min of were i was but it wasnt red
 

CombsCivicHatch

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I also live in pick up truck and soccer mom van/suv country. All my cars I've owned have been manuals and I've always had to do exhausting searches to find them.

Back on topic though. I see that people suggest a cvt cooler. Is heat the cause of stress on the belts in the transmission? Or does the extra torque cause excess heat on the transmission? In theory, with this cooler would you be able to up the torque more or is the ecu still throttling psi and all that jazz?
 


HondaPro

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All my 5 local dealers had quite a few manuals in December - February but now they are all gone but never a manual Hatch sport. That's super rare. I almost bought an Energy Green Ext 6speed coupe but I couldn't do it. I'm kinda stuck on a manual hatch now or nothing.

Hopefully, increased demand will turn into increased production at some point. I would love to find a 1.5/6mt project car (read slightly wrecked),... but I think that needle in a haystack's going to take a while. Glad I got on the list early for mine.

/add, on the mpg: It's not just the coasting aspect. The 6mt is returning better highway mpg despite the higher rpm's. There's still a fair amount of efficiency losses in Honda's "advanced" CVT.
 

andyboyd102

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WOW!!! Did Hondata's website CRASH??? Am i the only one that cant log in?? Would other flashpro user"s try and UNLOCK there Flashpro from there car and see what message they get??
 

cmwalton16

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WOW!!! Did Hondata's website CRASH??? Am i the only one that cant log in?? Would other flashpro user"s try and UNLOCK there Flashpro from there car and see what message they get??
What message are you getting?
 

dc2turbo

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WOW!!! Did Hondata's website CRASH??? Am i the only one that cant log in?? Would other flashpro user"s try and UNLOCK there Flashpro from there car and see what message they get??
click on help> send information to hondata support if you are having problems
 


IronFusion

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I also live in pick up truck and soccer mom van/suv country. All my cars I've owned have been manuals and I've always had to do exhausting searches to find them.

Back on topic though. I see that people suggest a cvt cooler. Is heat the cause of stress on the belts in the transmission? Or does the extra torque cause excess heat on the transmission? In theory, with this cooler would you be able to up the torque more or is the ecu still throttling psi and all that jazz?
There's not enough info out there to point to temperature being the predominate cause. Putting a cooler on until it's shown to overcome what we're seeing is like puting ultra premium gas in your car because you want it to go faster. It's probably the computer being too conservative, correctly conservative to spare the clutch, or too weak a pump to press the sheaves together. I don't know what radius of travel the belt would have from the center, but the scoring in the video looked rather central and close to center, like a sudden load was applied the system couldn't respond to, and the belt was stripped as the sheaves accelerated too quickly and slipped by the belt. If my speculation is way off on all this, I'd expect to see the belt 'snap' before the scoring took place, or asymmetric scoring with more of it being on the output side. In any case, a CVT model with a chain might be a better approach. Fact is, our transmission was engineered sufficiently for what is being sold. It's a crying shame the engine overshadows it by so much in untapped potential. It would be pretty sweet if the CVT were hearty enough that we were having conversations about fuel pumps and injectors being the main blockade to further gains.
 

andyboyd102

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what does the status of the flashpro say under licence. does it say locked to whatever vin
Yes it did , I finally got it to work, I think hondata was having problems with their server. You have to have internet service to unlock the flashpro from the VIN/ECU. It also kept saying "unable to connect to hondata website". Thanks for your help @dc2turbo
 

hfpdohc

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All my 5 local dealers had quite a few manuals in December - February but now they are all gone but never a manual Hatch sport. That's super rare. I almost bought an Energy Green Ext 6speed coupe but I couldn't do it. I'm kinda stuck on a manual hatch now or nothing.
manual ftw!
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