My natural gas civic had a CVT and Honda had issues with them. Warrantied it around 75K miles and then the next generation went back to a regular transmission. On one of these threads before I learned that Prius's use a slightly different version, which is probably why they don't seem to have problems? I imagine your Camry uses the same setup? Below info copied from https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius/How_it_works Continuously variable transmission — the Prius does not use a typical CVT; Toyota calls it the Power Split Device. The electric motors and gas engine are connected to a planetary gear set which is always engaged, and there is no shifting.
Toyota's 'CVT' for Hybrids is a completely different animal that doesn't belong in this conversation. It's a direct electric drive that can modulate backtorque on a secondary electric motor to gate in torque from the ICE through a planetary gearset. There is no variable gear ratios in play, just a couple levels of planetary gear gating, and as noted using motor 2 to make up the diff between ICE RPM and the final drive ratio.
I had a Maxima with a CVT. 290 HP and sub 6 0-60. My son still loves to drive it. It would hold the revs in a high torque area while accelerating and then drop the revs as you started getting off the gas. Williams had a CVT F1 car in 93 that promptly got banned. Sounds crazy as it runs with the engine at max HP and adjusts the transmission for the speed. It sounds like the car is stuck in gear. There's video on the tubernets.
My parent's HRV had the CVT take a dump after about 10k miles. Replaced under warranty, of course, but damn !
The very fact that there is transmission control software makes my heart hurt. I am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to stuff like that.
Transmission builder here. Absolutely junk. And only way to do it is get a new one from dealership if they even offer it. The Guys who flash them are not able to get the soft ware to program a used one. I wont even waste my time trying to build one. Anyone I know who has tried hasn't been able to make them work so I stay away from them because there is no profit in trying to rebuild them. Best of luck if you own one. Steven
The torque converter group called our work FM as we did theirs. I still think we are right torque converters are the work of the devil!
Anyone have any experience with Kia CVTs? The Kia Souls that we seem to get frequently as rental cars have a CVT that seems smooth and almost unnoticeably quiet. I wouldn’t mind trading my Subaru Crosstrek for one … unless their CVTs are junk too! However, Kia has a ten year warranty, so there’s that….
I don't mind the one in my wife's Rio, no fake shift points unless you're really abusing the long skinny volume control. No idea on longevity, but it doesn't take much to be better than Nissan on that front.
Not CVT but I remember reading an article many years ago from one of the Vedder fuel mileage challenges. Someone built a streamlined type bike from a little econo Honda motorcycle perhaps and spent some time figuring out the torque curve/gearing/speed and only operated the engine at full throttle through what they concluded was the narrowest optimum RPM spread. Once they reached the maximum efficient RPM the engine was shut off until road speed slowed to the lowest efficient RPM then fired it back up, rinse and repeat. They won that year I think with something absurd like 400 odd miles to the gallon. I hope I'm remembering it somewhat correctly, be interesting to try and dig it up to read again.
That goes for the Ford FWD hybrids as well. Different unit than the Prius but same basic technology that is totally different than a CVT used with a conventional (non-HEV) unit. I think the new Nissan CVT's are also more complicated by having a high/low range & conventional clutch that provides more ratio than just the belt & pulleys. So you get a planetary auto & cvt all in one.
They also have a torque converter. Planetary gear sets Multiple multi-plate clutches Torque converter Variable ratio push belt Are they missing any transmission tech in that 5lb overstuffed bag of complexity?
Yeah, I am thinking engine charges batteries, electric motors do the driving would be the most reliable hybrids and would be pretty efficient as well because you should always be able to keep the engine in the most efficient rpm range. There are not many of those around so I am guessing packing the electric motors, the petrol engine, exhaust, emissions equipment, fuel tank and enough batteries is the issue. When batteries get smaller and lighter that might change.
My 2019 Forte has been OK after getting used to it ... 38mpg for commuting is nice. Not having enough power to get out of its own way is not LOL... but the Forte GT is supposed to fix that.
There are no software issues or unexplained failures with a Muncie M-22. Plus you get the added benefit of that extra pedal on the floor making the vechicle almost theft proof to a large percentage of current drivers.
