Honda Insight Forum banner

Has anyone seen a CVT flywheel assembly fail in this manner before?

10K views 18 replies 9 participants last post by  Dannn 
#1 ·
2001 CVT, 230,xxx miles.

No odd behavior observed leading up to this point. Exited the freeway one afternoon and on acceleration away from the off ramp heard a loud bang and then the engine/IMA freewheeling with no forward or reverse movement in any mode. No odd grinding or other noises heard, it was as if the trans was in neutral.

Pulled the transmission and pulled the flywheeel. Input shaft looks ok and turning it shows the final drive turning. Examined the flywheel and all of the flywheel splines were completely worn away. It looks like it was happening over time. :confused: (click for larger)




Also i've noted I am not able to manually rotate the flywheel (torque converter?) part attached the the flex plate. Is this normal behavior? Should I just replace this whole flywheel assembly, slap the tranny back in the car and cross my fingers?
 
See less See more
2
#4 ·
The band is still intact. If you grab and turn the shaft on the transmission, the final drive where the axle half shafts plug in is still propelled by the band. If you stick your finger into the hole of the flywheel, aside from some very thin teeth remnants near the surface, the inside is worn completely smooth and additionally it's not jagged metal from a sudden failure, it's very smooth and full of dark dust as if haven taken quite some time to reach this condition. It's very strange hence this thread asking if anyone has seen this condition before.
 
#6 · (Edited)
That spline area is supposed to have grease it it. Yours is totally dry. either it was forgotten or missed during original build or the transmission was removed and the Flywheel was removed and "cleaned" and reassembled without any grease.

As far as turning the flex plate on the engine, it is solidly attached to the crank, there is no torque converter on this system.

Unfortunately that is a main shaft in the transmission and removal without the correct tools will be challenging.
 
#7 ·
Thought I might provide an update and closure to this issue. We bought a used flywheel with the splines intact from Halo Select http://www.insightcentral.net/forum...kyard-introducing-halo-select-auto-parts.html at a very reasonable price. We packed the housing with the correct amount of grease per the shop manual and put everything back together and the car runs and drives with no issues whatsoever. We never cracked the CVT open, but my wife did have access to a digital bore scope so we snaked it into the fluid fill port below the air box and took a look around and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The CVT belt looks good so we shot the dice and buttoned it all up. So far it feels great.
 
#10 ·
I'm working on a Civic HCHI with the same problem, Panaflex. I think Hitech might have the right answer. Mine was dry and powdery too. I had a 2007 CVT trans and decided to compare the two flywheels. Though the Honda part numbers of the flywheels are different I couldn't find an external difference though I didn't weigh them. So I decided to use the '07 flywheel. When I went to reassemble, I noticed in the shop manual that they want you to replace a sealing ring on the input shaft. Well it wasn't there! That rubber ring would have held in the High temp Urea grease.

I can't say anything conclusive because I'm not even sure if it was the original transmission. The car was bought as a basket case with the tranny stuck back on with two bolts and driveshafts in the trunk. I couldn't get through the Pakastani-english accurately but I think that trans was a replacement. He reassembled it with the bad flywheel and of course it wouldn't work so he gave up.

So I guess the moral of the story is to make sure you have that rubber ring. I'm not sure but it could be part number 91311-P4V-004.

By the way, as I said the car was in pieces. I don't recognize this part (picture enclosed) It looks like stainless steel and just over an inch long. Symmetrical with two flats on the end. Apparently not the pin on the shift mechanism. Close though. Anybody? Thanks.

Rick Hall
Caledon, Ontario
 

Attachments

#11 ·
Hi sorry to bud into this thread, Im new and don't know how to start a new thread. I just replaced a bad flyweel on my 2001 cvt insight. The problem is I broke the connection for the top speed sensor the one by the hook to lift it. Would you guys know where the wires are supposed to connect back? Thanks in advance.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top