How much should I worry about the CVT?

[NotSerious]

Since the 10th gen Civic has only been out for a couple of years, we can only speculate how durable the CVT will be.

Things to remember :
- The turbo Civic has a more robust CVT than the NA Civic does. The turbo has more torque and horsepower and probably needs a more robust CVT.
- The NA Civic CVT comes directly from the 9th gen which had less power and torque. This may or may not be a problem down the road.
- Honda has released automatic transmissions that wore out with normal usage well before 200,000 miles in the past (ie. 2001 Civic). There is no guarantee that "Because it is a Honda it will last forever.". Honda isn't going to care if your CVT wears out at 150k miles. They will happily sell you a new one for $7,000.

If you are planning to keep your car for more than 100k miles (160k kilometers), I recommend :
- You don't "tune" a CVT Civic.
- You make sure that you change the Transmission fluid at the recommended intervals and you use the Honda-approved fluids and Techs that know what they are doing. Unlike traditional automatics, each manufacturer's CVT is made differently and needs a specific fluid.
- You don't abuse the car (ie. Hold down the brake and gas it for quick takeoffs, drag race it, throw it into drive while still moving backwards,...).
- You don't tow anything heavy.

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[CVT_Squad]

Since the 10th gen Civic has only been out for a couple of years, we can only speculate how durable the CVT will be.

Things to remember :
- The turbo Civic has a more robust CVT than the NA Civic does. The turbo has more torque and horsepower and probably needs a more robust CVT.
- The NA Civic CVT comes directly from the 9th gen which had less power and torque. This may or may not be a problem down the road.
- Honda has released automatic transmissions that wore out with normal usage well before 200,000 miles in the past (ie. 2001 Civic). There is no guarantee that "Because it is a Honda it will last forever.". Honda isn't going to care if your CVT wears out at 150k miles. They will happily sell you a new one for $7,000.

If you are planning to keep your car for more than 100k miles (160k kilometers), I recommend :
- You don't "tune" a CVT Civic.
- You make sure that you change the Transmission fluid at the recommended intervals and you use the Honda-approved fluids and Techs that know what they are doing. Unlike traditional automatics, each manufacturer's CVT is made differently and needs a specific fluid.
- You don't abuse the car (ie. Hold down the brake and gas it for quick takeoffs, drag race it, throw it into drive while still moving backwards,...).
- You don't tow anything heavy.

You could always throw in a new tranny if it goes out at 80k. What are they going to run, $500 for low mileage one on ebay? I saw one for $600 last night. But yeah if you have to categorize things in ways like (if you plan on keeping it past X amount of miles before pawning it of on some sucker don't tune) then yeah, just drive your car, turning is not for you...

A borked tranny at 20k not covered under warranty is not the end of my world, if it is in your world, then just enjoy the stock torque and drive it. You will drive your self nuts with senarios of warranties, dealers, OCD nightmares of a Honda dealer not doing the work and covering it and other things.

But then again, its been said over and over and over. The base 6psi over stock tunes are safe....

 

[Quicksipper]

I’ve been custom tuned for about half my civics life 71,000 miles so far no more tune still drives perfect.

 

[dick w]

use e-brake when parking

Why? What does that do to prolong CVT life? Doesn't the CVT have something like the traditional mechanical parking pawl to react the torque?

 

[rraayy3]

E brake / Park is just one less strain in the transmission ...

Pretty sure the manual mentions using it

 

[dick w]

E brake / Park is just one less strain in the transmission ...

Pretty sure the manual mentions using it

The manual probably does because the belt and suspenders lawyers wanted it to. Mechanical parking pawls have been around for decades--I'm thinking the strain on the transmission from the parking pawl is inconsequential compared to, say, dropping the accelerator pedal at the foot of a long, steep, hill.

 

[rraayy3]

Absolutely

I just park on an incline daily so I make sure to use it ... now I’m in the habit of using it whenever I park

Certainly not going to hurt

 

[IDriveACivic]

Wait... people don't put on the e-brake when parking?

 

[Quicksipper]

It was taught at universal technical institute to not put so much pressure on the parking paw always use the e-brake on inclines, of course ymmv on year make and model. But parking paws CAN break

 

[dick w]

It was taught at universal technical institute to not put so much pressure on the parking paw always use the e-brake on inclines, of course ymmv on year make and model. But parking paws CAN break

Sometimes I will use the parking brake if parking on a steep incline. I do not use it routinely. We got our first Honda with an automatic in 2000, and got rid of our last anything with a manual in 2009. Maybe we've been lucky but we've never failed a parking pawl. A quick Google suggest recalls for design/manufacturing problems with parking pawls and people talking about how you shouldn't trust them are much more common than actual failures.

 

[Browncoat3000]

I'm not old enough to answer this question, but did people have the same fear when "regular" AT came out and overtook MT?

You mean in the 1930's, or the 1950's?

In all seriousness, no they didn't. The early "hydromatic" cars were sold in part as being more reliable because they didn't have a clutch. Even through the 1960's many cars were being sold with 2 speed AT's that were so reliable they are still pulling heavy metal cars from that time on their original parts.

 

[CVT_Squad]

Wait... people don't put on the e-brake when parking?

I do when im on a hill. If im not on a hill, why bother?

 

[motoguy128]

Haven't heard of a lot of issues with Nissan CVT and they've had it all across their lineup for 12 years now. As a matter of fact, the Rogue drivetrain is virtually unchanged in the last 11 years...haha. Murano has been using it since I think 2003. I think their heavier minivan had some problems. Probably pushing the limit on it in that application. Honda has stuck with conventional automatics on their heavier vehicles and V6's. I suspect a 1.5L was selected for the CRV and Civic, because it was not only more than adeuqate for hte application, it also kept in part peak torque reasonable. I think current CVT technology scales up poorly over 220 ft lbs and economy suffers when you make it strong enough for durability. The Nissan V6's with CVT have mediocre to poor fuel economy compared to their 2.5L 4 cylinders.

 

[Daniel644]

Main ones that had issues we're early Fords, Nissans, and the few Audi adaptations. Other than that I haven't heard of any widespread major issues industry wide.

Very few issues with CVT Accords from the previous gen

Edit: I can't type with one hand.

It was fairly common for the CVT equipped Saturn Vue's to have transmission failures back in the early 2000's, thats the only one i've really heard about going bad consistently.

 

[alias Igme]

Why? What does that do to prolong CVT life? Doesn't the CVT have something like the traditional mechanical parking pawl to react the torque?

I think I have read somewhere in the forum that the parking pawl (the metal pin) is not really as strong as some of us think. With enough stress/force, it might break. A broken pawl can cause damage to the transmission, not to mention the car rolling down or into a traffic if nothing else is stopping it.

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