Should you baby a CVT or drive it hard?

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I would think that abusing anything wouldn't be good for it.The Dukes of Hazzard went thru plenty of trannies pulling the stunts they did.
 
Well, I don't think it will lug. My guess, drive normally. If it has fake gears, there many be some value to preventing "upshifts" around town. But I suspect even at constant vehicle speed it has some variance for wear reasons, making sure no grooves get cut.
 
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
I would think that abusing anything wouldn't be good for it.The Dukes of Hazzard went thru plenty of trannies pulling the stunts they did.


My recollection was a car per jump.
 
The standing start is the hardest on a cvt.
In most cars the electronic controls will limit the power goimg to the cvt from a standing start.
You can floor the gas pedal but that will be over ruled the the engine controls.

Oh and they build 249 General Lees for the show.
 
Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
Is it healthier to drive a CVT hard, or to lug it around like a old Grandma?


You should always stomp every car right to the floor....gaurantees 400k miles....lol
 
lol funny... I break in my new cars easy for the first 150 miles then from 25 to 60 wot then drive normally with a few wot drives and none of my new cars ever burned oil.. It has been said many times that brand new engines are started and then slowly brought up to red line 2 or 3 times during testing . I heard this from a 2 toyota and a ford rep.
 
Pressing the "resume" speed control button is the best way to get back up to speed on the highway. That is as long as I haven't slowed to more than 7-8 mph slower than the set speed. Using this method everything feels hooked up. The belts don't feel like they're slipping.

One member says a CVT is like a centrificle clutch on a snowmobile. belt slippage is normal(IDK).
 
I would say depending on the motor to a degree. If you have a 3.5 or bigger motor then you can push it a bit aka 3k to 4k rpm and get plenty of power out of it. I notice the way my car runs in lower speeds the car likes to get up and go a bit. Nothing crazy like red lining it but getting moving a good pace
smile.gif

Otherwise I notice a bit of that droning noise and feel to the car. So a little extra pep 3k-4k rpm seems to negate this phenomenon quite well. Cruising speed it does really good though and I he droning noise is not there at highway speed.
 
Originally Posted By: crazyoildude
lol funny... I break in my new cars easy for the first 150 miles then from 25 to 60 wot then drive normally with a few wot drives and none of my new cars ever burned oil.. It has been said many times that brand new engines are started and then slowly brought up to red line 2 or 3 times during testing . I heard this from a 2 toyota and a ford rep.


But the purpose of bringing a brand new engine to red line is to find if it is capable of that and to look for vibrations etc. It's NOT necesarily to break it in.
 
That's the nice thing about CVTs. If for some reason you decide to stomp the go pedal to the floor, it's seamless and stepless with little/no feel of shock transfer to the drive-train and occupants. My experience with them however is only with late model Subaru and Nissan vehicles. I did drive a new CVT Saturn Vue back in 2002-03. That was a pile of mush all the time. I'm sure there's greater forces and stresses internal to the CVT if you beat on it, but as far as tearing up the overall vehicle, I would guess there's less chance of that with a CVT over a conventional AT or MT.

With everything being E-throttle now, throttle is typically taken away if neutral drop type shenanigans are attempted.
 
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I'm a new member of the CVT club with a new Impreza. I'm reading this thread very closely.
 
I wouldn't be worried about shortening the life of a Subaru, Toyota or Honda CVT.

A JATCO CVT I would be.

There should be some sort of controls to make sure you don't destroy the car by driving it hard. In my experience (have only driven JATCO) they seemed to respond quicker and better with smaller throttle inputs; mashing the gas pedal to the floor seemed to confused it.
 
Well, how often does the average, non enthausist driver really ever smash the pedal down and floor it??? Practically never! If you drive like a normal, sane person, the CVT will last just as long as a traditional transmission.
 
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Originally Posted By: Miller88
I wouldn't be worried about shortening the life of a Subaru, Toyota or Honda CVT.

A JATCO CVT I would be.

There should be some sort of controls to make sure you don't destroy the car by driving it hard. In my experience (have only driven JATCO) they seemed to respond quicker and better with smaller throttle inputs; mashing the gas pedal to the floor seemed to confused it.


Why? They have more CVT's out there than anyone. The one in my moms Altima has been perfect. Car has 128k on it. Showing no signs of weakness.
 
Originally Posted By: philipp10
But the purpose of bringing a brand new engine to red line is to find if it is capable of that and to look for vibrations etc. It's NOT necesarily to break it in.


This is based on what evidence?

High RPM is needed for heat and friction to get the rings to set.

I have re-broken in cars that were granny driven and there is a significant difference.
 
^^^You may be confusing load with rpm.

High LOAD helps to seat rings with cylinder pressures used through passages to push the ring in to the cylinder wall.

Wildly platform specific, but in general working the engine a bit is good for break in....
 
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