I'm in the same boat, my annual repairs cost the value of the car itself.
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The Elio Automatic Transmission
- Thread starter Floyd
- Start date
karl
Elio Addict
If you rally want to live large put a case of water bottled water in the trunk.
with that being the case, recently, the value of your car has taken a major hit ..
Jim
The CVT (continuously variable transmission) seems to be very simple and would be inexpensive to build. Why is it not used more? It has been used in some vehicles but not many. Is its life short? Does it not handle large power well? If so, the small power of the elio would be fine for it.
Why has it not been used more.
Why has it not been used more.
User acceptance of it mostly they make different noises and act differently even though they are tuned to feel like conventional A/T. In my experience they have been unreliable.
List of CvT cars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automobiles_with_continuously_variable_transmissions
The most interesting use of a CVT for me was the Williams FW15C F1 car that was banned before it ever raced.
RUCRAYZE
Elio Addict
thanks for the clip. I'm not sure, does all he do is push down or let up on the gas pedal?
Automotive CVT's have traditionally suffered from reliability problems. Due to the way they operate they do not handle higher power levels well and especially do not like sudden spikes in power input. This issue has been somewhat overcome in recent years thanks to the introduction of modern computer controlled power-trains which can control the engine and transmission to keep wear and tear to a minimum.
Another issue modern CVT's have is that they have not lived up to the promise of increased fuel economy which is a theoretical advantage of using a CVT as it should be able to keep the engine running in an efficient manner. There are two main reasons reasons for this. The first reason is that, unlike a conventional A/T, CVT's require a strong hydraulic pump to operate their mechanism and this pump ends up consuming much of the theoretical efficiency gained from the CVT. The second reason is that vehicle manufacturers have found that people do not like the ultra efficient optimum engine power band mode of operation. This mode of operation is resisted by many people as it sounds and feels too strange so instead manufacturers tune CVT equipped vehicles to feel as close as possible to a traditional A/T, at least close enough so that most people do not mind the differences, however this ends up being a less efficient way of using a CVT.
Personally I have not liked the CVT equipped vehicles I have driven over recent years. The reason is I do not like them is due to their very slow throttle response in many situations. My daily driver has almost always been a manual transmission vehicle so I am used to the instant throttle response of being able to shift and apply any amount of power output very quickly. However in modern CVT equipped vehicles the PCM will ensure that you do not overwhelm the transmission with too much power when you mash the gas pedal. The result of this is that when you want to pull out to pass someone on the interstate, or a two lane country road, you are stuck waiting for the PCM to reconfigure the transmission so instead of getting an instant power boost you wait as the power ramps up rather slowly.
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Edward
Elio Addict
My Cirrus has an ordinary automatic transmission, but it is horrible at acceleration like that. All stomping on the gas accomplishes is pushing the RPM's up. After about 5 seconds of revving, the transmission will shift and THEN I will start to accelerate... slowly. I accelerate faster by trying to accelerate more slowly!
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Thanks for this clip. As a long term Formula One race fan I was unaware of this. When I was stationed in Italy 87-90 I had a little Volvo with a CVT. Strange to get used to but it worked well.