CVT High RPM going downhill ???

joecalta3

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Was just out for my weekly pandemic drive here on Long Island, NY to give the 2017 Sedan EX 2.0 some exercise. While descending long hill with my foot off the gas and in drive (D) the RPMs jumped up to 3K and stayed up there about 20 seconds until the car leveled out at the bottom of the hill. I did break a couple times during the way down to try and get the tachometer down, but that had no effect.

2 questions:

  1. Why did the car do that? I assume it was trying to engine break the car, but we were not going over 40 - 50 mph.
  2. Should I have shifted into another gear? L or S for example.

This is not the first time I've driven down a steep hill. But do not recall this ever happening before.
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KTunedtoStock

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Typically in my manual what you're describing does the same effect. Its like the car is trying to engine brake along with the force of going downhill causing the rpms stay the same. This was the same for my 2015 honda civic LX with a CVT. But you could wait on someone who is more experienced in this to reply. I dont think theres anything wrong. This is just my experience with going downhill in any car
 

syndragore

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Is your Civic tuned? I don't know enough to answer your questions exactly, but I can say that I noticed the same behavior with mine after flashing the TSP Stage 1 tune. I can't completely recall if it was present before the tune but I definitely became much more aware of it after at least.
 

marauderguy

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This is normal. Grade logic will engine brake the car going downhill. If steep enough, touching the brakes will make it rev even higher.

If your not trying to slow down, just touching the gas pedal will actually drop your rpm as it recognizes you're trying to maintain / increase speed.
 
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joecalta3

joecalta3

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Is your Civic tuned? I don't know enough to answer your questions exactly, but I can say that I noticed the same behavior with mine after flashing the TSP Stage 1 tune. I can't completely recall if it was present before the tune but I definitely became much more aware of it after at least.
101% stock here. No tuning... Thanks for the feedback!
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