Can the CVT do engine braking ?

[grouchysmurf]

Hi guys,

n00b here, I signed up after finding these forums while searching the web about an issue I have with my new Civic 10th gen. This is a brand new car, I have about 1000 km on it.

So, here's the thing. Took it for a drive out of the city with the family, we went camping, nice weekend. We climbed a mountain, about 500 m (1600 ft) uphill and then downhill, up to 18% gradient. I used to have gears 3,2 and 1 on my previous car, and I used to climb this mountain in gear 2 and then go downhill in gear 1 to get some engine braking and not overheat my brakes. This time, as indicated in the manual I climbed the mountain in gear L, and then tried to go downhill also in that gear.

I assumed I would get some engine braking, but I felt absolutely no assistance from the engine, I had to step on the brakes at regular intervals almost the entire way downhill, getting at the bottom of the mountain with a nice, heated plastic smell coming from my wheels. I even let the car go from 30 to 70 kph (20 to 45 mph) on its own just to see if I'd get engine braking at some point, but I didn't feel any compression from the engine, the car just accelerated freely. I just hope I didn't damage my brakes, but they seemed to work fine after a 15 minute stop on the side of the road after the mountain.

So, can the CVT actually do engine braking ? Or do I just have to hope my brakes can though it out ?

Thanks for the help !

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[Billy4202]

Huh...I've gone down significantly smaller mountains of 500-1000 feet and the CVT "reads" the elevation correctly, and quickly, and shoots up to ~3k RPM to assist with engine braking. Some braking still needs to be done, but not nearly enough as with most automatics...

Could be more of an issue of grade percentage vs. total elevation change though. A lot of mountains and hills where I am are fairly quick elevation changes.

 

[DarkLight]

I would think that in L there would be a good bit of higher rpm engine braking since it's so rev happy in that mode. Did you try it in D and S as well?

I have the 6MT, so the only advice I can give is that when put cruise control on, it will automatically engine brake to maintain its speed on a downhill. So perhaps put it in L and then work the cruise control down to a lower speed? That's all I can think of.

 

[16extsense]

The manual says to use either S or L for going up/down hills. Either will increase engine braking.

 

[Ghostinnc]

Hi guys,

n00b here, I signed up after finding these forums while searching the web about an issue I have with my new Civic 10th gen. This is a brand new car, I have about 1000 km on it.

So, here's the thing. Took it for a drive out of the city with the family, we went camping, nice weekend. We climbed a mountain, about 500 m (1600 ft) uphill and then downhill, up to 18% gradient. I used to have gears 3,2 and 1 on my previous car, and I used to climb this mountain in gear 2 and then go downhill in gear 1 to get some engine braking and not overheat my brakes. This time, as indicated in the manual I climbed the mountain in gear L, and then tried to go downhill also in that gear.

I assumed I would get some engine braking, but I felt absolutely no assistance from the engine, I had to step on the brakes at regular intervals almost the entire way downhill, getting at the bottom of the mountain with a nice, heated plastic smell coming from my wheels. I even let the car go from 30 to 70 kph (20 to 45 mph) on its own just to see if I'd get engine braking at some point, but I didn't feel any compression from the engine, the car just accelerated freely. I just hope I didn't damage my brakes, but they seemed to work fine after a 15 minute stop on the side of the road after the mountain.

So, can the CVT actually do engine braking ? Or do I just have to hope my brakes can though it out ?

Thanks for the help !

In my opinion and experience engine braking is really not worth it, cheaper to replace brakes than a tranny, cvt or not, and not to mention unneeded stresses on the motor...Just my 2 cents

 

[grouchysmurf]

I would think that in L there would be a good bit of higher rpm engine braking since it's so rev happy in that mode. Did you try it in D and S as well?

I have the 6MT, so the only advice I can give is that when put cruise control on, it will automatically engine brake to maintain its speed on a downhill. So perhaps put it in L and then work the cruise control down to a lower speed? That's all I can think of.

I wanted to try to shift to S or D, but I figured that if I was getting some compression that I didn't feel, going in those modes would make my car accelerate, and I didn't want that on the downhill road of the mountain...

But thanks for the responses, I guess maybe the road wasn't steep enough to trigger the compression.

Lucky for me I don't drive on mountains a lot !

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