Daihatsu CB
1.0 L · inline-3 · naturally aspirated · petrol · 1985–present
Also known as: cb10, cb24, cb20, cb23, cb-series
Daihatsu's one-litre three-cylinder CB, in the Charade and the small cars around it.
It is the engine that made the three-cylinder respectable. Before it, three cylinders meant a Kei car; the CB put one in a car sold worldwide and it worked — which is a large part of why almost every small car now has three.
It is bigger than the Kei engines Daihatsu is better known for and shares nothing with the EF or KF, which have their own page here. Confusing the two is the commonest parts mistake.
A three-cylinder is inherently unbalanced, and the CB handles it with a balance shaft on some versions and not on others — so a vibration complaint needs the version established before it is investigated.
It is belt-driven. Its known items are age rather than design: perished vacuum lines, a carburettor on the earlier ones, and the belt.
Cars fitted with this engine
1 generation, across 1 make. From the authored catalogue — an absent car means the catalogue has not reached it, not that the engine was never fitted.
Daihatsu
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
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What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
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