Hi guys,

I think this might be a newbie question but I was looking around for a civic of that version and this odd thing struck me when I was having a look at one. I was looking at a stock 1995 EK (definitely the 6th gen) civic sedan import from Japan, the one with the big headlights and when i saw on the auto transmission inside the car the usual P, R and N but after that a D and just L which is odd and it had a switch for economy and sport mode. I've never seen that on a civic EK before.

I've always seen Honda Civics of this version that allows shifting from D4 to D3 to 2. I was previously driving a 1996 Honda Civic EK version when i was in another country that had the 4 gear auto shifts that allows you to shift down anywhere from D4 to 2.

My questions are that Is this car I mention above a 3 or 4 gear auto transmission?
Is there any difference between the 2 types? Which is better? can anybody with that setup let me know the ins and outs of that transmission?

Thanks for the help guys

 

Well, the best would be the one that goes up to 4th gear. The "L", im not sure, I think it just means a lower gear.

 

seems totally normal to me. the vrsion ou are talking about i think would be the better one of the 2 as the L means low gear. the good thing about it is that it gives you the economy and sport mode. economy is pretty much self explanitory (better fuel consumption). sports revises gearing for better take offs and acceleration, it also helps to prolong gears making beter top speed. making it better than having to guess which gear to be in. OR just buy a manual instead. hope that helps you and wasn't too confusing.

 

Just going through the specs sheet I just realised that its a CVT transmission. How do these things hold up? That car has done around 40000km. How long before i would need to worry about the transmission? Another odd thing is that its not a vtec. I thought honda only coupled its cvt transmission with vtec versions only.

 

i've heard that CVT is actually pretty good with wear as these types have no internal gears but are driven by metal belts and pullies which switch smoothly and has less clash than normal auto's. But if it were to have a major problem im sure it would be expensive to repair or replace because it is such a complex box. as for vtec, i have seen a few in australia that are non vtec, i think it was the d16 i saw with it. main reason is that this combo is very economical. but it could also depend on which country you are in.