Tuning the 1.5T with a CVT?

Hello fellow Honda owners.
I have been driving my Honda Civic Sedan since 2017, and I love it as much as I did on day 1.
I take great care of my car, changing oil twice as often as recommended, washing it weekly, etc.
The model I have is with the CVT transmission which I know is probably the weakest point in my setup. I have concidered switching to a manual, but I feel the benefit of daily commuting with an automatic outweights the super fun time I will have with a manual.

Recently I have been concidering taking my car to a tuning shop and increase the power output. Everything on the car is stock to keep the warranty (In my country, I can tune the car without losing the warranty, but I can't make modifications to intake, exhaust etc). The company I contacted claims Stage 1 tuning will increase the power output with 20 HP and 50 NM (~36ft-lb) without any modifications to the car.

What I am wondering is if the CVT will be able to handle the extra torque and power? I do plan to keep this car for at least 7 more years before concidering anything new, and I do hope my excessive maintainance will keep it trouble free for this period.
Can someone talk me out or into doing this upgrade on my car?

I don't know the availability of Ktuner or Hondata in Norway but I've used both (I have a CVT) and they are excellent. The higher boost base tunes will reduce 0-60 times by quite a bit and they have safe levels of torque. And this is with no other bolt on modifications. Highly recommended.

If you're car is completely stock, get a ktuner or hondata and use their tuning map. It's not worth getting your car pro-tune.

Secondly, changing your oil twice as often is wasting money. Follow Honda's recommended oil change interval and you're car will last.

Increasing your engine's power output will put more stress than what your car was originally engineered to handle. This means the chances of your transmission or engine going bye bye will increase.

You have pay to play.

Ktuner or Hondata is sadly not available in Norway (at least not through any official channels). I'm also a bit worried if an imported model of, for instance KTuner V2, will work with the ECUs they put in the Euro/Norwegian models. I bought a BlueDriver OBD2 tool some time ago and it gives minimum amounts of information on every car I've tried it on, despite the high praise the scanner gets online and on Youtube.

This is why I'm thinking about leaving it to a professional.

Also, I don't feel like I'm wasting money by changing oil and filters twice as often as recommended. The engine suffers from oil dillution like all 1.5 turbos, which I guess is not accounted for in the manual. In addition, I enjoy doing oil changes and oil is cheap anyways.

We could add support for your ECU if it's not covered. Send us the ECU number by email.

KTuner said:

We could add support for your ECU if it's not covered. Send us the ECU number by email.

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This is one of the main reasons KTuner is at the top of the food chain.

Valkyria90 said:

Also, I don't feel like I'm wasting money by changing oil and filters twice as often as recommended. The engine suffers from oil dillution like all 1.5 turbos, which I guess is not accounted for in the manual. In addition, I enjoy doing oil changes and oil is cheap anyways.

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I think you mean fuel dilution. Fuel dilution happens to all modern cars, not just the 1.5 turbos or turbo cars. Honda has factored in fuel dilution when recommending the oil change interval, otherwise, there would be a lot engine warranty claims.

Oil must be cheap in Norway because in Southern California, USA. Dealership charges $50+ for oil change.

Edit: I could do the oil change myself, but the dealership coupons brings the cost of material and labor to the cost of material if I would to purchase it myself.

KTuner said:

We could add support for your ECU if it's not covered. Send us the ECU number by email.

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Now this, is customer service. After checking my ECU number, i see you already have support for my ECU: 37820-5AW-G51 through G52 (mine is G52)
I will definatly look into a way of acquiring a KtunerFlash V2 should the transmission be able to handle the extra stress of a tune. Too bad there are no dealers in Norway T_T

typeaarrr said:

I think you mean fuel dilution. Fuel dilution happens to all modern cars, not just the 1.5 turbos or turbo cars. Honda has factored in fuel dilution when recommending the oil change interval, otherwise, there would be a lot engine warranty claims.

Oil must be cheap in Norway because in Southern California, USA. Dealership charges $50+ for oil change.

Edit: I could do the oil change myself, but the dealership coupons brings the cost of material and labor to the cost of material if I would to purchase it myself.

Click to expand...

Ironically, oil is super expensive in Norway (famous for its oil riches) I payed about $86 for the oil alone last time I bought Castrol Edge 0W-30 full syn. With a good filter its over $100 to change the oil yourself here.
I change the oil twice a year, once at the dealer in winter time when they do the service on the car, and once in summer when I do other maintainance stuff. I figure if you can afford a brand new car, you can afford to give it the love it deserves.
I mailed a few tuning companies near me to hear their opinion about tuning a CVT vehicle. Only one replied so far,saying they need to check up on the tolerance of the transmission before giving me any recommendations. I have however seen a lot of people on Youtube tune their CVT cars. Though I know it will not be good for the longevity
of the transmission, at least I will have some peace of mind knowing im not the only one doing it

Valkyria90 said:

Now this, is customer service. After checking my ECU number, i see you already have support for my ECU: 37820-5AW-G51 through G52 (mine is G52)
I will definatly look into a way of acquiring a KtunerFlash V2 should the transmission be able to handle the extra stress of a tune. Too bad there are no dealers in Norway T_T



Ironically, oil is super expensive in Norway (famous for its oil riches) I payed about $86 for the oil alone last time I bought Castrol Edge 0W-30 full syn. With a good filter its over $100 to change the oil yourself here.
I change the oil twice a year, once at the dealer in winter time when they do the service on the car, and once in summer when I do other maintainance stuff. I figure if you can afford a brand new car, you can afford to give it the love it deserves.
I mailed a few tuning companies near me to hear their opinion about tuning a CVT vehicle. Only one replied so far,saying they need to check up on the tolerance of the transmission before giving me any recommendations. I have however seen a lot of people on Youtube tune their CVT cars. Though I know it will not be good for the longevity
of the transmission, at least I will have some peace of mind knowing im not the only one doing it

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It's worth noting that all of the initial testing KTuner did for their basemaps was done on a CVT Civic. They've been beating the hell out of it ever since and it's still running strong. The product was literally designed to be safe to use on stock CVT Civics.

r.camlin said:

It's worth noting that all of the initial testing KTuner did for their basemaps was done on a CVT Civic. They've been beating the hell out of it ever since and it's still running strong. The product was literally designed to be safe to use on stock CVT Civics.

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Just to be accurate here, Ktuner (JR) no longer owns an EX-T and hasn't for quite some time. He currently has an Si and beats the hell out of that. But, yes, the CVT has held up exceedingly well with the base tunes and has users all over the world.

Yes, we did a lot of stress testing on the CVT for more than a year before finally trading it in for the Si. It was still performing beautifully when we let it go!

Valkyria90 said:

Now this, is customer service. After checking my ECU number, i see you already have support for my ECU: 37820-5AW-G51 through G52 (mine is G52)
I will definatly look into a way of acquiring a KtunerFlash V2 should the transmission be able to handle the extra stress of a tune. Too bad there are no dealers in Norway T_T



Ironically, oil is super expensive in Norway (famous for its oil riches) I payed about $86 for the oil alone last time I bought Castrol Edge 0W-30 full syn. With a good filter its over $100 to change the oil yourself here.
I change the oil twice a year, once at the dealer in winter time when they do the service on the car, and once in summer when I do other maintainance stuff. I figure if you can afford a brand new car, you can afford to give it the love it deserves.
I mailed a few tuning companies near me to hear their opinion about tuning a CVT vehicle. Only one replied so far,saying they need to check up on the tolerance of the transmission before giving me any recommendations. I have however seen a lot of people on Youtube tune their CVT cars. Though I know it will not be good for the longevity
of the transmission, at least I will have some peace of mind knowing im not the only one doing it

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The CVT should have no issues handling a bit of extra HP and torque -- given a reasonable amount.
If you are trying to push 250 WHP + 250 Torque ...the transmission won't last long.

I don't remember exactly, but the 21 PSI Tune from KTuner already adds +25 HP, +30/35 TQ ?
You can then also adjust the throttle response, turbo spool response/behavior, etc.

I've had my CVT on KTuner for ~5 months now (got a hold of a v1.2 near the end of 2018), and so far so good.
Played around with the settings more this week

I want to tune... I'm such a warranty wimp. Ill be getting a V2 when I hit the end of my "safe" time.

Ack Jr. ...

I get the warranty thing. I truly do. But, after giving tuning and warranty a ton of thought, I first tuned my car at the 10 month mark. The reason? I wasn't happy with my car's lag. But I felt confident that Hondata and Ktuner base tunes were safe.

Fifteen months later, I'm so glad I did. I originally had Hondata. It was good. Now I use Ktuner and it's even better. The lag is minimized and I have more passing power than you can imagine. All from just adding a tune.

Five years / 60,000 miles is a long time to wait to enjoy a better driving car. You must have a whole lot more patience than me.

gtman said:

Ack Jr. ...

I get the warranty thing. I truly do. But, after giving tuning and warranty a ton of thought, I first tuned my car at the 10 month mark. The reason? I wasn't happy with my car's lag. But I felt confident that Hondata and Ktuner base tunes were safe.

Fifteen months later, I'm so glad I did. I originally had Hondata. It was good. Now I use Ktuner and it's even better. The lag is minimized and I have more passing power than you can imagine. All from just adding a tune.

Five years / 60,000 miles is a long time to wait to enjoy a better driving car. You must have a whole lot more patience than me.

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You're talking to the guy that did PRL stage1 and is juuuuuuuust about ready for a Greddy SP. Put on a strut brace, getting the TypeR subframe brace.. If I lowered it's be and inch... I just want my Sport to LAST!!! I've blown out and dropped cars my whole life. These things all have effects on longevity. Nobody here can say they don't. If you do, you's a rookie. Every day though, I'm on here oogling everyones rides. Living vicariously. lol