In Australia I've replaced over 300 of these Jatco Transmissions and one of the reasons the belt fails is not so much from load on the input and output of the transmission creating stress on the belt, but because the pulleys don't align correctly causing the belt to become too tight and scoring into the cones, along with the result of over tension of the belt. The reason the cones can miss align is because the cones move relative to the shafts they sit on, and what stops them from free spinning on the shaft are small ball bearings that sit inside smooth grooves in the shaft and the inside of each cone, that locks the cones radial position. What happens is when the shaft is turning against the cone while the cone is being moved along the shaft to set a input output ratio, the stress on the ball bearings creates intense forces on the metals and the weaker metal generally suffers (the shaft grooves get chewed out). and then eventually the ball bearings can become chewed up them selves, which when enough input torque is applied or engine breaking from the output is applied, the cones can partially turn relative to the shaft, and they seize. The PSI between the cones is much greater then the input and output torque, so when the ratios attempt to be set, the belt suddenly becomes the weakest point in the power train, given one or both cones are seized, and then the belt breaks apart. The duration of the failure can be instantaneous with no prier symptoms towards failure and without any prier ECU fault codes. This is because the pulley's shafts can become damaged and chewed out but still operate with no problems, and in this part of the pulley system, no mechanical parts could possibly present issues to sensors indicating wear. With one pulley seizing immediately, the very next moment the opposite pulley compresses inwards to change the gear ratio, the input output speed sensors reporting to the ECU would instantly report a mismatch code, but the belt would break at the same time as soon as the CVT fluid in the pulley cones was to much. The duration of the failure could also begin with prier symptoms, where the pulley cones move relative to the shaft all the time despite the ball bearings tearing apart grooves in the shaft that they sit are in, and then when the 2 pulleys are moving relative to each through the transfer of CVT fluid from one pulley to the other, The pulley that sits on the damaged shaft will move inwards and outwards but with resistance given the ball bearings are not aligned correctly. The forces that act on the cone that allow it to move inwards and outwards are created by the Oil pressures that occur inside the pulley's cone, so if the other pulley insigates the ratio change given it has the mechanism for setting the ratio the other pulley will hit back at the first pulley with an opposing force where additional oil pressure is required to assist the completion of the aligning of the the cones relative to set a input output ratio. The weakest link in this situation becomes the belt where, when both pulleys are momentarily not correctly aligned relative to each other, the CVT belt's tension on the cones becomes loose, and the belt begins to slip, grazing the inside surfaces of the cones. The problem continues as the ball bearings continue to chew the damaged shaft, and eventually the failure occurs the same as my scenario mentioned above. The key note with this, is that, the amount of oil pressure used in the Mechanism that keeps the CVT pulleys aligned accurately and relative to each other is required to be so great to ensure that there is always correct tension on the CVT belt between the pulleys, even when a ratio is being set. The initial setting of the input output ratio is done through one pulley. That pulley has a spring located around the shaft inside the sealed oil chamber of the cone piece, which pushes forces on the cone piece so that it's in it's outwards position. When the cone piece is require to move inwards the oil pressure is increased in this other system applying forces to the cone piece, against the spring, and the cone slides inwards. This part of the system is generally not responsible for the common CVT failure. Regards Chris - (Chris's toilet cleaning surfaces)
@@JohnS-il1dr Honda makes the best CVT transmissions! We have no idea of the history of this one. Was it serviced properly as far as transmission fluid changes? What about the driver - did he abuse the vehicle??? Any CVT transmission will fail if it is not treated properly and abused!
@@michaeltrager4381 true, and often I've noticed people simply DONT change their fluid. On my Honda 2019 Civic coupe EX-t it says to do it at 30k. I did it at 24k. I'm at 27k now. Just a simply drain and fill. I was able to drain out exactly 4 qrts. I am going to switch over to amsoil though, as I plan on driving this car basically forever. I know eventually the belt will go no matter what I try, but I would like to atleast go 250k miles before that happens. I just plan on doing drain and fills with amsoil every 10-15k miles. Or once or twice a year maybe.
Great explanation, I have a 2015 Honda crv and I like to keep it for a long time and my question to you is do you know if Honda makes another automatic transmission for this car that isn't CVT?
My transmission failed at 127,000 miles on my 2016 Honda civic. I noticed a few drops of fluid leaking and discovers the transmission fill cap had come off and sprayed .5 quarts of trani fluid. Topped it off at first. It seemed to run ok. But started slipping again. So now I found a Honda Service bulletin that says the fill cap will "pop out due to pressure building in the transmission. The "solution" is to clean the filler cap with compressed air and top off the fluid." But my trani got cooked while I was driving it only a half quart low. I think this is a defect. Because you may not notice a slow leak unless you take the air filter box off and look underneath it. I see lots of people have this same problem on the Honda forums.
I would check to see if it’s still under warranty first , last I heard there might be a recall on some of them I would check with your local dealer first
@@DanielPangito I traded mine in after paying the dealer $179.00 to tell me they could not find anything wrong with it. My experience is when a trani starts slipping like that it's about to go out. So I called dealer and asked if they had any Honda civics with a manual transmission for sale? They had one. turbocharged 2018 Civic with 39,000 miles on it and a 6 Speed manual transmission. I got it yesterday and it's a really cool car. This car will go 100 mph in 3rd gear.
@@Mechaniclyfe I did not find any info about a recall for this car. The dealer said they could not find anything wrong with the transmission. So I traded mine in for a 2018 turbocharged civic with a 6 Speed transmission. I'm very happy with this one.
@@DanielPangito my 14 accord coupe lx cvt was 4500 used cvt with 51k. Nobody rebuilds these hinda cvt junks so it's impossible to find a remanufactured unit. One sourced from the dealer would have been 8200.00. They should have stuck with the traditional geared trans. The 8th gen 2011-2013 auto was considered the most reliable
@@JohnS-il1dr The CVT tranny just went out on my 2015 Civic. Honda gave me a quote of $8100 to replace it. Stupid price! I don't know what to do, I don't wanna spend that much money and I can't find one online or at any local shops to try and replace it myself.
Nothing wrong with a cvt. Its just the use who thing to need full trottle. Just set it on 2500rpm and let it go. You will see that it go faster to its speed than go full trottle. In my country we use a lot cvt . And drive easy 200k and more. (Km) And only use the oil from the dealer it self. Do not use a other brand. You need to change on 2years the oil or 40k on km If the oil is old and thick it can not go between the links of the belt and burn it.
@@Mechaniclyfe humm. Germany you can easy drive 200klm and higher if you whant and no problems with the cops. Its legal to do so. And a lot of cars are cvt , automatic or even manuel . Than we have mountens whare we can drive up and down. I thing you forget how big and just how small Europa is. A car here go to junk just over 500k klm. Only we do change oil a lot. Around 10 to 15k and some cars on 30k Fual is ron 95 , 98 ,101. We have e5 and e10 fual And we use bio diesel fual for cars. And if somting broke we replace it not wait for the broke down. Than our cars have to 1 year for check up and registered. If you do not you lose teh registered papers. And you will pull out by the cops and your car go from the road. So you do not see cars with ducktape stick to repair it.
There's no reason to use Honda's OEM fluid over aftermarket fluids. Honda's CVT fluid is made of conventional oil while Amsoil, Castrol and Valvoline sell full synthetic fluids that are compatible with Honda's CVT transmissions. I personally use Amsoil and believe it to be way superior to the OEM fluid.
CVTs are good for city driving with small cars like a Civic or Fit. For bigger cars like CRV or for long trips in highways is not the best option and they wear our faster
So the red line only 2500rpm to protect the cvt and It's suck for high speed and uphills. So that's why the VTEC never kick in lol what's the point to buy a CVT cars, my next car will be Mazda or any 4x4.
I won’t buy a car with CVT transmission never even if the car is 50% off CVT is trash I work on cars and I can’t tell you how many people brig me the car with transmission problems and 80% of them are CVT
I was a little lazy when buying my 20 Civic 5 door since it was already a pain for me to find the 5 door sport non-touring in blue. Manual here in Chicago? Good luck. So I got the CVT. I literally regret it to this day and I know that sooner or later, I'll be making one of these videos too. I drive my car HARD with the help of horrible inner city Chicago driving. I'm talking stop and go, full throttle stomps, jerking around at slow speeds, etc. On a 6 speed I'd eat the clutch but in 20 years the MT will be on the road, the CVT won't.
My daughter has a 2014 Honda Civic with a CVT that I service for her. I am also in the Chicago area. She is a bit of a lead foot. I drained and filled the CVT fluid 6 months ago. I also changed the CVT fluid filter (all Honda parts). That was at 79k miles. I checked the color recently (5k miles later) and replaced about half a quart (that is how much new fluid I had from the previous change). I realize that when you drain and fill you only change maybe 40-50% of the total fluid volume, but the color was really dark brown. I am considering changing the CVT fluid again before the winter season. You just can't be careful enough with these transmissions. I noticed that it was a bit jerky at low speeds and in cold weather. After the second change all the jerkiness went away - I think I ended up filling just a tad more than the point at which the overfill bolt opening starts leaking. I suggest you look at your fluid level and color, check the fill plug on top (for not having popped out) and the breather rubber plug on top (for not being clogged), and if changing the fluid consider changing the filter too. Good luck to us all.
Well it happened today at a red light. Light turned green. I put the pedal down and boom. The tranny blew. The cvt belt snapped. 2013 Honda Accord CVT LX, 336,000 miles. Rest of the car is in great condition. My last Accord was a 1997 automatic that I junked after 355,000 miles was still in OK running condition. My next Honda might be a manual transmission, not sure yet.
That’s mostly highway miles?…I do a lot of city driving and some highway with a 2013 accord lx and at 161k..bought new..I was wondering how much life this cvt had…debating if I should sell the car or keep it or sell it…Hoping I can get over 200k..but over 300k is great…I do every 30k change the fluid to keep it going…after reading your comment, it gives me a clearer picture of this cvt mileage potential…how did you get your cvt to go over that mileage?..
it's baffling that after 50 years honda would destroy the civic with the cvt. that's why I drive civics because you can get 300000 out of them. that time is gone but the price doesn't reflect that sadly.
Great postmortem! The belt just said see ya! Each one of those links are what the belt is made of WOW!....theres a channel called WeberAuto he does a complete teardown of a CVT transmission it's like a college course level great stuff....you will not buy a CVT after watching that..... Most car makers consider anything over 100,000 miles Done.
Yes I have seen his video! He breaks it down really well! Really good videos on transmissions and ev stuff, the over all idea of cvts is good but the execution wasn’t , the cvt belt is basically its Achilles heal of these transmissions.
I have a 4-speed automatic gearbox designed by Kia and after my gearbox will fail I will buy a manual transmission car. CVTs are not good at all Honda or Toyota I can see those lasting more than 100k even with proper maintenance. Even if you change the CVT transmission fluid every 25k I still don't believe they will last more than 100k. The SUVs and now equipped with CVTs and those will never last with all the abuse of a heavier vehicle. SK was saying the car manufacturers invested shit loads of money in CVTs because of emissions and better fuel consumption and less reliability.
Oh man, I'm sorry that you had to experience that. The overall numbers show that these CVTs in the Civic are holding up pretty well. There are some people on the Civic forums with 100k or even 200k miles and the CVT works fine. A lot of those cars are even tuned. What did you do with the car, did you found someone who did a rebuild?
Overall good but the civics are much lighter , common fails for accord and crv probably cuz they are heavier,. I’m assuming . I was able to find a used cvt transmission with low miles and installed it myself
Hi what can cause a grind when shifting from park to reverse and drive on a 2012 civic lx sedan with 190k miles maintaince done regularly because it's my daily
Please tell me you made a video on taking the thing apart! Is there a way to take out both pully on the pully side without having to take out the whole transmission?
I recorded but never posted , there’s no way to just change the belt on them with out removing the whole thing and tearing it down . Then once you get to the variators it takes special pullers to remove them to be able to change the belt. Honda doesn’t sell the belts nor the variators seperate so a complete reman or used transmission is required
Oh my Goodness, Now Honda is the same as Nissan with the Jatco Tranny - I hate to say this but {We the public} need to get the auto industry attention and get them to STOP!!! using CVT's all together, and go back to the old automatic. These trannys have been nothing but a complete failure all together as these so called push belts keep breaking and making a bloody mess - where a automatic tranny can at least be rebuilt - we need to get the regular automatic transmissions restored into manufacturing in cars. Honda just lost my admiration to all new cars with this design. I Wonder !! who's going to be next...
Once the transmission belt breaks, can the engine still start and run like normal with AC? This is what the dealership told me was that the belt broke and need engine replacement. I am able to start the engine and run the AC but the car cannot go anywhere when putting it into gear. When in Drive or any gear, it just revs like it is in Neutral.
@@Mechaniclyfe did it skip at certain speeds? My 2019 accord seems to jerk at 15mph. Changed the fluid and now feels like it slips more than jerk. I don't notice any slipping at any other speeds.
If they even sell a chain now which at the time it was a complete replacement of the transmission if the chain broke, it is recommended to replace the variators if there is damage or wear on them
I have a 2014 Honda Accord sport my transmission just went out felt like I was driving on a rocky rd then I heard a pop then it was done do you think I need to just get a new tranny or pay Honda for a diagnostic to see if it’s a minor issue? Only reason I ask because I didn’t receive any warning no slippage no alerts just went out 🤷🏾♂️
A diagnosis is always a good option if you are unsure of the severity of the issue or the issue itself. You can always take it to independent shop to have a look at it
A diagnosis is always a good option if you are unsure of the severity of the issue or the issue itself. You can always take it to independent shop to have a look at it
