okay, i've noticed that the xA and the xB have pretty bad wheel hop if you try to take off from a start (i was trying to burnout with the demo at work ). anywho, is this because the car is light, maybe the 18 inch chrome wheels they put on the cars, or maybe the suspension setup. also when you try to accelerate in a sharp turn, the car kinda hops and almost loses control. i figure thats because it needs a limited slip. well, have at it guys, just wondering what you guys thought about those two things.

 

wheel hop if you drop the clutch at too high of an rpm, you need to find the sweet spot to launch from... i've been practicing just launching at stop signs around my area at 2k and 2.5k rpms and there is little wheel hop.
as for the car feeling like it's losing control on gunning through a turn, i haven't had this problem, i got the trd springs, trd 18" wheels and it grips around turns nice. are you burning out through the turns too or something? i just do more of a baby slide through turns if i jump on the gas, i can feel the wheels slipping but there's no wheel hop at all.

 

okay, but, what is the reason for the wheel hop? i understand the part about the launching, but the wheel hop i don't think is normal. oh, and when i'm turning, its kinda like torque steer, the car pulls really hard to straighten out. its kinda wierd, never felt anything like it while driving any other car.

 

have no clue why it has wheel hop, maybe cause it's too light and you're just dropping too much power from a stop?
never had that torque steer problem... this is my first FWD car, there's a difference in how it pulls out of turns definately, i think it does try to straighten out but haven't noticed anything weird about it. hopefully some of the techs will hop in on this. :D

better motor mounts maybe?

 

[quote="empleh"](i was trying to burnout with the demo at work )quote]

*** Just wanted to clarify that not all dealerships or their employees do this^^^ (yet another thing to give dealerships a bad rep ) ***

 

i think you're talking about torque steer and power surge, cause "wheel hop"

yes, the torque is a "little high" for 2400lbs car

the car really needs an LSD

i'm no expert, dont quote me

 

was trying not to reply, cause i don't want this to turn into a flame. but i just wanna clarify, that i'm in california. we've had our xB demo and xA demo 4 times as long as you've had yours. they have 6000 miles on them. they are beat up by customers all day long. that's what a demo is for. i wasn't doing this in a new car. anyways, as far as the torque steer thingee, maybe thats cause the car is light too. never felt anything like it, and i've only driven fwd cars. very wierd. i figure the car needs an lsd, but i doubt we'll see on for our cars any time soon.

 

on my xb, it only "hops" when the traction control is on, but when i turn it off, i can burn rubber!

 

unplug it then?

 

The wheel hop is not going to be due to a need for an LSD or anything like that. More than likely this is caused by a soft rear motor mount, which allows the engine to wind up/unwind under hard acceleration. 95% of the population out there love the soft rear motor mounts because it drastically reduces the vibration of this already buzzy little motor. This is not an uncommon issue with any FWD car.

 

curses, that means the only solution would be replacing the bushings right? and that means vibration galore too right? that sucks. oh well...thanks for the help guys

 

Yes, it would increase the vibrations, but you'll probably only really end up feeling it at idle. Otherwise, a stiffer rear motor mount will also help address some sloppy shifting feel among other things. Overall, I think upgrading the bushing would probably be WELL worth the increased vibrations.

Energy Suspension probably either has, or will be releasing a pressed-in bushing replacement. But I tend to prefer pre-pressed complete mounts as opposed to just replacing the stockers. Either will work though.

 

On rear wheel drive cars wheel hop is pretty much always atributed to a loose suspension. I don't think thats the case for FWDs but I'm not 100% sold on the Motor mount idea. I've driven some FWDs that had some helacious wheel hop and torque steer (Acura 2.2CL comes to mind) I'm going to put my money on a sweet spot for power vs. weight vs. tire height (profile) -- I have a feeling these cars don't have much weight over the front tires compared to the power they make ... and for example that acura had more weight but also made 160hp.

 

The reason the car has bad torque steer and wheel hop can partially be attributed to the fact these cars have unequal-length axles. Most performance oriented FWDs like the B-series Hondas have equal length axle shafts with an intermediate shaft. An intermediate shaft is basically an extension of the transmission to the other side of the car to link to the axle. Since on a FWD the transmission is on one side of the engine bay and the engine is on the other you either have one long axle and one short one or you have both the same but with an intermediate shaft.

Wheel hop can be lessened by also having a better suspension.

 

I don't have my physics minor yet but I'm fairly certain unequal length axles do not contribute torque steer. When you accelerate during a sharp turn the outside (of the turn) tire has a lot of weight on the outside edge -- the tire is also contributing more to moving the car forward (its pulling harder than the inside tire.) if the tire were pulling evenly it wouldn't matter; that force would still be balanced as far as point the steering pivots at is concerned. With the outside of the tire pulling hardest its also able to pull on the steering linkage: thus - torque steer.
...but I might be wrong.
As far as the wheel hop related to unequal length axles issue, I think you could end up with an oscillation between the two wheels as the two axles would be able to flex differently but I'm thinking that's not the case and that would not contribute to the wheel hop were talking about. and I'm too tired to continue what no one cares about anyway. sorry everyone.

 

Actually unequal legnth axles is on of the main contributors to torque steer. It happens due to the fact that the it takes less power for the motor to turn one axle causing the open differential to send even more power to this axle which causes the car to pull to one side. If a halfshaft and equal length axles are employed it take the amount of power to turn each wheel causing the car to accelerate evenly. If you need physics to back it up pm me and i will send a better explanation that includes the physics involved.