Transmission problem in Honda Vezel 2014 Hybrid

                       

These days owners of the hybrid Honda Vezel in Sri Lanka are having a common issue with their transmission specially starting with 2014 models. A qoute from a troubled customer

" I purchased my honda vezel hybrid 2014 with close to 25k on the odo. At first, everything runs smoothly. But one thing that I noticed recently is that after running through heavy traffic the gear shifting become much less smoother. Especially the first gear shifting becomes rough and usually takes longer to shift. Sometimes the whole car becomes jerky."

The reason been is the DCT [ Dual Clutch System] is not designed for our road/ traffic conditions. As investigated and also by communicating with Japanese principles this system has been designed for highway and constant speed travelling and not for stop/ start traffic condition which our users travel most of the time. It stays and uses the 1st gear most of the time by which creating heavy wear & tear on the clutch pack. This also makes it to change the liquids much more early than required. Presently the advised mileage of changing the DCT oil is around every 15,000 kms. ATF oil also will have to be changed more earlier which can be advised upon visual inspection and testing of the oil.

Unfortunately if the problem persists even after the oil changes then replacement is the next remedy. It's been recommended that the whole set or complete transmission to be replaced which in Sri lanka will cost roughly around 350,000/-. So far the RS version has not seen this problem even though the specs are the same. Most probably the software which has been fine tuned is helping and the other being the drivers of RS are more hard footed.

The final advice is to stay away from these models [ specially if not been imported by agents ] if possible or else change the DCT fluid every 15,000 kms and ATF every 40,000 kms since at this moment precaution is better than breakdown. By the way this effects your fuel economy as well drastically... so the 1st symptom is the fuel economy figures going down.

Also please note that this model was specially made and to be tested for the japanese market and was not at all to be exported.