My wife drives a Honda Jazz.
When you stop and start again (e.g. at a traffic light) it judders for a couple of seconds as you accelerate.
After speaking to a Honda Mechanic I know (along with some googling), it turns out this is a common problem! Some people have suggested trying to get this done by Honda as it was a known issue and Honda extended their warranty on it. The only problem with this is that Honda will charge you to diagnose, and if (BIG if) they find it’s due to the CVT factory fault, they will fix and refund for your diagnosis cost. I decided not to go down this route as I don’t trust dealerships as a rule.
From my research, the first course of action to fix this yourself is a ‘proper’ CVT Fluid Flush. (CVT stands for continuously variable transmission, something which Jazz’s have, so beware when changing/topping us your transmission fluid – it’s not your normal atf fluid!)
So back to the CVT Flush. The honda mechanic mate advised me once is not enough and you need to drain the fluid, fill and then drive and ‘burn’ the clutch; not to death but enough to get those crappy particles out. How you burn the clutch on this automatic jazz i am not so sure, but i think it’s a case of hitting brake and accelerator together at around 20-30mph.
After you’ve done the first change, do it again. then drain, and then fill the fluid.
I’ve not had my mechanic do this yet, so will keep posted and I’ll let you know how it went!
UPDATE: My mechanic changed the fluid twice and tried the above but it did not cure the problem. So, I took it to my local Honda dealership in Nottingham…
Honda were great. They initially gave me a price of £200 but I managed to haggle it to £150. They picked my car up from my work, and picked me up when it was ready and best of all?
It fixed the Juddering problem. So my advice if you have a juddering Honda Jazz? Bite the bullet and get Honda to fix it. (not often I say this, but sometimes it’s better to go with the dealer)