CVT gearbox: Why it puzzles motorists

The Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) gearbox was supposed to be an innovation for motorists to rejoice, however, it has come with responsibilities that have failed to reconcile with the local motoring culture.  

Joel Katongole had an experience with a client at his garage who owned a Toyota Noah with a CVT gearbox.

He didn’t use the right fluid and so spoilt the gearbox and had to replace it, spending sh900,000 on a new one and sh270,000 on four litres of CVT gearbox oil. 

“I didn’t even bother trying to fix it. I just told him to remove the gearbox and go buy a new one. The moment you put in the wrong fluid and it moves an inch, it is dead. Buy a new one,” he says. Just even topping up with a litre of the ordinary automatic transmission gearbox fluid ends its useful life immediately.

Katongole notes that not many motorists driving vehicles with CVT gearboxes are aware they have them. And that is the recipe for the first major problem. How? The CVT gearbox uses a specific fluid different from the ordinary automatic transmission fluid (ATF).

“Toyota for example has its own fluid and you can’t use that meant for Nissan. If you mix, the gearbox fails on the spot.

He then indicts mechanics too. He blames them, himself included for taking in jobs sometimes that they cannot handle, like fixing a CVT gearbox when they clearly lack the expertise.
That said, if handled well, the CVT gearbox delivers well for the purposes it was built – seamless shifting of gears, limited wear and tear and easy maintenance.

Katongole advises motorists to learn to read the literature/manuals that come with their vehicles.
Umar Kasujja, a mechanic, notes that what he learnt are two things: Motorists don’t replace their CVT oil on time and secondly, there is a section that uses the wrong oil because of ignorance.

Otherwise, he states that there would be any qualms if those two issues were taken seriously. He also stresses that as much as motor vehicle brands – Nissan, Toyota, Mazda and the like have their specific CVT fluids, there are universal ones that cut across. It is therefore on the motorist to know they have a CVT gearbox and feed it CVT fluid.