Also known as: super cvt-i, cvt-i, k310, k311, k313, toyota cvt
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.
Cars fitted with this gearbox
3 generations. Only where a source names the model and the generation together — a gearbox is documented as a product far more often than as a fitment, so this list is deliberately shorter than the truth.
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.
Community experience
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
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.
Sign in or create an account to add what you found about Super CVT-i (K310 / K311).