Why CVTs Are Actually Good

PWD4R

PWD4R

New member
Ok so I know the old school folk (and even many moderners (I think I made that up because it's showing misspelled)) like manual transmission and the traditional shifting automatic (like myself)

We all love to feel the transmission working and not hear the dreaded CVT drone. I love shifting gears (I don't like it off road but I love it on road) and I like to know the tranny is working whether auto or manual. I do have a Corolla with the CVT that Toyota installed "shift points" in (basically mimicking a traditional auto but it doesn't shift it just drops RPM to make it seem like it) and the engine drone is still annoying. It doesn't do shift points under hard or moderate acceleration, only under light acceleration.

But this video demonstrates how a CVT can be and IS more beneficial for economy and even speed. Sure, it's shitty to watch a CVT be all around "better" than the beloved manual, but technology moves forward. Enjoy

https://youtu.be/cb6rIZfCuHI


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Unfortunately the reliability, effectiveness, and durability of the CVTs is not quite there yet. The Nissan units seem to become extremely noisy at about 80k and start slipping. The Prius units seem to do much better than their Nissan counterparts, but again they seem not to be as good as they appear on paper.

I think eventually we'll see them be strong enough and tough enough to be used in more and more applications, but right now they're more of a FWD commuter car thing than anything worthwhile.
 
The CVT in our Nissan Rogue overheated so often that we ended up getting rid of the car because of it. It was a common issue but Nissan refused to fix it.

My moms freestyle uses a toroidal style CVT and it's still going strong with many years and miles on it. It also gets 25 mpg, pretty good for a 10 year old full size AWD station wagon. I think ford abandoned the design though for reliability reasons.

Now scooters on the other hand, those I would trust. They've had a few decades to work out the kinks on those.
 
We rented an Altima when we were in Hawaii. It was a little strange at first but not as bad as I expected. Long term though I'm not so sure.

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VS
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The CVT idea is nice on paper, but in the real world not so much. I am not sure I'd ever want to tow anything with a CVT tranny in it.

The girffriend's sister has one in her Accord, it seems to have done OK for the first 10,000 miles but then again she treats the gas pedal like she is touching glass. My neighbor has one in her Altima, it whines beginning about 65 mph.
 
My mom has a CVT in a Nissan Rogue. I love it. For general driving, commuting, long-distance driving, etc., CVT's are the future. They blow everything else away with regards to efficiency, and the math shows it's better at acceleration (not sure I'd want one in a sports care... gotta have a manual there just because).

But my understanding is that they lack the longevity and power for activities like heavy towing. All power is transmitted through a belt.
 
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T5RUNNER said:
My moms freestyle uses a toroidal style CVT and it's still going strong with many years and miles on it. It also gets 25 mpg, pretty good for a 10 year old full size AWD station wagon. I think ford abandoned the design though for reliability reasons.
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How many miles on it??

Usually what we've seen here at work is after about 100k, you're on borrowed time.. Doesn't mean they can't go longer or shorter but they all seem to go at around that mileage..

And a reman unit from Ford as of today is
$5214.00 + 1200.00 core
 
cfranck1 said:
:laugh::laugh:

I like the snow more then I like golf!! :happy:
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I kid, of course. The first time I ever went over 100mph on a "thing" I was driving was on my Grandfather's 1984 Polaris Indy Trail. And where I grew up, it sometimes took the county a week to plow our road after a significant snow... perfect excuse to ride the sled to school!
 
My daily is a 2012 Nissan Sentra SR. I bought it with 4k miles. I've owned it for just over 3 years and I now have 75k miles. Honestly all I've done to it is change tires and replace oil. I am actually buying the NS-2 CVT fluid to do a drain/fill soon. Here's my thoughts.

It seems like I got the good year. Many people with older cars or newer cars (of my Make/model) have CVT problems and my car is perfectly fine....

I get great gas mileage. Usually I get 29mpg and I get 300 miles in my 12 gallon tank. I just drove from San Diego to Las Vegas and got 34 mpg while having the a/c blasting cause it was 113 degrees.....

The CVT itself HATES going uphill. It whines like a *****. I say it sounds like a dying cow. I'm used to it now, but it still gets annoying sometimes... haha! If I drive on surface streets, it doesn't whine (no matter the speed.) If I accelerate quickly (someone pisses me off and I need to pass them) it won't whine, it will actually sound like a normal car.... but it if does whine, it will begin at 3000rpm.

Sometimes I get too used to the "non-shifting" aspect. When I drive my mom's car or my boyfriend's truck and it shifts, it throws me off. But that's my personal problem lmao.


I like it.... and I don't. It depends on the day. I'm satisfied with my Nissan, and I plan on keeping it until she actually dies. Like I said I haven't replaced the trans fluid and I have 75k miles (sue me.)

The ONLY problem I've found (and I'm not entirely sure what it is, or if it's CVT related, I've taken it to Nissan and they can't re-create it.. usual...) sometimes when i drive it cold it will make a "knock" sound under me. It doesn't do anything to the car, it's just the noise. It will only do it the once and wont do it again until the next day or something. Since it hasn't bothered my car in the 3 years i've owned it, I've just accepted it.


:)
 
Nissan is well aware of the design flaws in their previous gen CVTs. It could be fixed by installing a trans cooler in the cars, there was already a class action lawsuit over it and they settled by doubling the warranty. Adding your own cooler would void that warranty so we were locked into the overheating problem. We dumped our Rogue, I refused to buy an Xterra, and that is the story of how I came to own a 4Runner :)

Back to the point, CVTs are the best solution for some things and not others. They have limits on torque capacity and overall ratio, and can't produce the best highway mpg. Most manufacturers are removing them from larger vehicles.

missyroar said:
My daily is a 2012 Nissan Sentra SR. I bought it with 4k miles. I've owned it for just over 3 years and I now have 75k miles. Honestly all I've done to it is change tires and replace oil. I am actually buying the NS-2 CVT fluid to do a drain/fill soon.
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I do all my own maintenance but this is one thing I did not do. if the change is not done at the dealer and on schedule it voids the extended transmission warranty. It doesn't cost much extra, most of the cost is in the special fluid.
 
Wife's car is a '13 Accord Coupe, 4-banger with CVT. I was skeptical because of Nissan's bad reputation. But, "it's a Honda", in which I have confidence, having owned many .... and it's the one she wanted. :)

It's strictly her DD, 95% city, now at ~20k. Performance is outstanding, city and highway, reliability so far is 100%. I am impressed (so far). City mileage not so impressive @ mid 20s.

It is "odd" to drive (to me), but that's me, not the car. It's actually a great package. We'll likely never find out its long-term reliability.
 
My 08 prius has almost 170k and runs great. No issues. Goes 70 up a 6 percent grade.

Funny I've never noticed a whine but the cars noise insulation is just poor in general.
 
JBurt said:
My 08 prius has almost 170k and runs great. No issues. Goes 70 up a 6 percent grade.

Funny I've never noticed a whine but the cars noise insulation is just poor in general.
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Something to keep in mind about the Prius CVTs is that they operate a bit differently than any other CVT due to the hybrid systems. It's one of the few places where I see CVTs holding up well.
 
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