Hello
I just bought a 2006 Honda FIT. (I know it is too old but here in Mexico we are in crisis too!)

What I want to ask you guys, is this:

My car has a CVT Transmission. I have been driving in the D mode, but I want to ask you: In which situations would you recommend to drive in the S mode?

Thanks!

 

There are really no certain times that you should drive in S.

S mode just tells the car to allow the engine to rev higher, allowing for quicker acceleration.

So just use S when you want to drive a little faster!

 

Im always using S Mode and the manual buttons. only thing i will tell you is that D saves alot of petrol. S tends to guzzle it much quicker.

 

there is absolutely no reason to put it in s mode. its an auto. let it drive itself. your car knows itself and what it wants more than you.

 

S-mode basically lets you get more aggressive with the throttle and allows the CVT's brains to hold on to revs longer. If you got the manual 7-speed mode on your CVT, it's best paired with S-mode as well.

If you value your CVT's clutch packs, though, stay in D and drive off with a light foot on the throttle - it doesn't take all that much pressure on the loud pedal to get going from standstill on level ground.

 

So the 7-speed mode is just a trick to get you to ruin your transmission?? are the CVT transmissions significantly weaker?

 

I wouldn't put it that way, that's a tad too harsh 7-speed mode definitely has its upsides when trying to make the most acceleration out of a humble 8-valve L13A3 engine. As with all types of friction material (clutches, brakes, tires etc), the more force it has to withstand, the more it wears down.

Most people here in the Philippines made the mistake of treating the GD CVTs the same as a normal torque-converter automatic, when it's actually a (slightly) different beast in terms of technology and maintenance. The GD1/3 CVT is notoriously picky with transmission fluid, for example - people who've had trouble with theirs usually didn't stick with Honda's ATF-Z1 fluid and used something else.

Significantly weaker? Hmmm. It's certainly a barrier to making more power out of the engine. Boosted L13A3s mated with CVTs reportedly have trouble handling anything more than 120 WHP because the clutch packs got fried - that's double the amount they were built for anyway.

Belt-type CVTs like those in the GDs are best suited not for power and acceleration anyway. The raison d'etre of fitting one to a GD is maximum refinement and fuel efficiency.

Just my observations so far...CMIIW

 

It's a shame, I'd just like to see a CVT designed to take some load. It seems like the idea would be great for performance since theoretically it's keeping the engine at maximum torque, right? I always wondered why Honda CVTs never caught on really in the US, it's apparently because they're big babies.

 

I hope not. I'm taking the car to the track sometimes, trying to catch most of it and unfortunately I also use a lot of engine brake sometimes. Anyone who got more info on the wear of the transmission?

By the way, which mode is the quickest one for racing? I tried D and S with 7 speed but I'm not sure since D seems to be not that fast and S seems to have a lot more engine brake.

 

I heard somewhere that Americans dislike CVTs because of what's called the "motorboat syndrome" of the early units.

When you floor the throttle in an early CVT-equipped car, you get a torrential amount of noise, RPMs held close to redline, but the acceleration just isn't there. The road speed is climbing, but at an underwhelming pace.

Why? The CVT's brain is unwinding and working out the most effective combination of ratios. Unfortunately most people have gotten used to kicking down to a lower gear and getting instant acceleration.

This "motorboat syndrome" is the reason why some carmakers with CVTs have opted to engineer pseudo-fixed "gears," such as Honda's 7-speed mode. Of course if you know what a CVT is, you know they're not real gears (CVTs are gearless - that's the whole point!), but they're effectively the same thing in practice.