Toyota Super CVT-i (K310 / K311)

Toyota's belt CVT — in the Corolla, Previa and much of the range before the launch-gear K120 replaced it.

It is the K120's predecessor and it does NOT have a physical first gear, which is the distinction that matters. The later transmission launches on a fixed ratio; this one pulls away on its belt, at the widest and most heavily loaded ratio it ever runs — so a shudder or hesitation from rest here is belt and pulley behaviour, where on a K120 it would be the launch clutch.

Advice about one therefore misdirects on the other, and both are sold as Toyota's CVT.

Its recurring complaint is a slip or a flare under acceleration — the engine rising and the car not — which is clamping force, and clamping force is hydraulic. Aged fluid loses it before it loses anything else, so a fluid service is a diagnostic step rather than only maintenance.

Toyota's CVT fluid is specific and the interval is real whatever the handbook implies; towing and sustained hills age it far faster than the odometer suggests, and these were fitted to cars that do neither well.

The 7-speed in a listing is simulated. A CVT has no gears to count; the control unit steps the ratio to feel like an automatic, and there is nothing mechanical to go wrong with those steps.