lemmyb

Hie guys

I have just discovered this board and wished i had joined it earlier. I have owned 2 Hondas in the last 3 year. Had a Honda Vigor, and later owned a Honda Ascot Innova. They were good, trouble free cars.

Anyway, I have a friend who has an automatic Civic VTi that has been down for some time. He's had gearbox problems and has had 2 or 3 mechanics look at it. They've all walked away without fixing the problem. I have a couple of questions about this vehicle. Before i ask them, herewith are the vehicle details:

Chassis/VIN number: JHMEK36700S014383
Engine Number: D15-Z71000612
Engine Capacity: 1500cc
Transmission Barcode: M4VA..... (its faded and thats all we can see)
Year of Manufac: 1995
Origin: Asia (probably Singapore)

My questions are
1. I have just been told that this vehicle has a CVT transmission. Is this true? (I have never driven the vehicle, so i cannot say so myself) If it is true that it is a CVT, repairing it here might be a no-no as very few mechanics have ever heard of CVT in this part of the world.....

2. I have not driven the car myself, but i am told that there is no drive at all once the gear has been enganged. What could be the problem?

3. We have not been able to locate a replacement unit (its very very difficult here in Zimbabwe). Is it possible to replace it with another 'normal' automatic transmission or a manual 5spd transmission? Is there anyone who has done this before? What do i need to look out for? Where can i get more info?

Your help guys will be greatly appreciated

Regards
Lemmyb

PassportEX

1. I don't think CVT transmission existed back in the days (1995). CVT transmission just now started popping into the market not too long ago.

3.Yes, you can swap in another auto trans just make sure its for the d15. You can swap in a manual transmission but your gonna have to also change the ecu.

JoePoonani

Partially true...Civic's only came with the CVT transaxle in 96+ HXs in the USA(don't know the model in your part of the world).

It's a lot more than just the tranny and ECU, you need the pedal set, clutch fluid line, MC, slave cylinder etc. It won't be a practical swap if you aren't mechanically inclined.

You can probebly just look online for an automatic tranny for an OBD-1 D-series. Plenty of people on ebay might have some, even look on some websites that are JDM-based.

If you put the gear selector in "D" and the car doesn't move then I'd say the tranny is blown and needs to be replaced.

PassportEX

Thats interesting but how about his 95 Civic Vti?

JoePoonani

He probebly has our US-spec EX. He lives in Africa so they look different as well as have different trims, not like the boring ones that the US has.