Hi guys. Question - is it OK to flat tow a CVT mini for a few miles at moderate speeds? I picked up a cvt project car with a slipping trans that may have been towed this way about 10 miles the PO says. Also, is there a fuse somewhere I could pull to disable automatic locking? I find that feature annoying. Cheers, Ron

 

No clue about the CVT.

Auto-locking is a coding option in the BCM, but I believe there's a fuse for central locking.

 

Towing would be covered in the owners manual.

Of course a project car is unlikely to have an owners manual.

Absent some high confidence info that flat towing the car with the CVT is ok, my advice would be to err on the side of caution and arrange to flat bed the car from A to B.

(I would expect the CVT to be the same in this towing business as a standard automatic and a dual clutch automatic. The engine spinning the input shaft drives the transmission oil pump.)

 

Not sure about cvts in particular however with most automatics you can flat tow them with the engine running and in neutral so the oil pump in the trans is still circulating fluid.

 

That might work ok. But I would feel more comfortable with this if the specific car's owners manual ok'd this way of towing.

My standard response is better safe than sorry and to not risk auto/CVT damage towing the car with the drive wheels on the ground even if the transmission is in neutral.