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Doeas anyone know if the 5 speed autos fitted to the latest Hondas are 'Jatco' units, as fitted to Rover 75's, Freelanders and X types?
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Unlikely I think. Honda have a long history of designing and building their own auto's. I think the 5-speed is their own and features their 'SSS' system.
Jatco are connected with Nissan somehow, so unlikely Honda would use them.
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JATCO - Japanese Automatic Transmission Company
I would agree with Aprilia above - the Autobox in the Rover 827 was a gem - only Honda could make such a wonderful bit of engineering.
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Not sure I totally agree on the 827, DL. There used to be a problem with the reverse servo not being designed quite right. On a cold morning the reverse gear dogs would let out an extended 'rattle' when moving out of 'R'. There was a fix, but it involved stripping the 'box to fit.
Honda auto's are/were generally similar in design to layshaft manual 'boxes, but with multiplate clutches fitted in place of synchro assemblies. I guess their extensive experience of motorbike gearboxes helped.
Jatco 'boxes are more 'conventional auto' in design (i.e. epicyclic geartrain with bands/clutches). Jatco are very good - the only problem I recall was the tendancy of the older boxes to shear off the splines on the input shaft - leaving the car without any drive!. The recent Jatco's are good and are, I believe, being used on VW's now.
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Thanks guys. The reason I ask, is I'm looking at a Honda Stream auto. In my travels I've seen many Jatco 5 speed auto failures on new Freelanders, X types, and Rover 75's, and didn't fancy going down that route. I know everything's covered by warranty, but it's still a load of hassle when stuff, especially stuff that leaves you stranded, goes wrong. Even more so if it happens outside the warranty period. The last freelander I saw with this failure was a couple of years old, but was an import, so they had to pay for it themselves. Only a cool £4k.
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Any idea of the nature of the failure on these 'boxes? Jatco's that I've come across generally last the distance, apart from the older design used in Nissan Bluebirds where the splines failed.
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They seem to be electrical/solenoid problems. Certainly not mechanical anyway. None of the specialists want to touch them, and the solenoids aren't accessable without partly stripping the box, which of course no-one is keen to do. When you see the number of wires dissapearing into the box, you can understand why.
Out of interest, the time to do a clutch change on a manual 4wd X type is 14 hours. So that's about £1200 just for labour.
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