Got an answer on this from the experts:
Inferno asked 182 wheel hop?
Under hard acceleration that culmanates in the front wheels loosing traction in wet conditions (electronic aids on or off) it has been noticed by a number of owners that there is significant driven wheel vibration - possibly wheel hop. This is not a problem that I have experienced on any other modern fwd car, is the suspension design on these cars significantly different to other fwd cars and is there anything that could or has been done to reduce the effect?
Allen Collen responds:
The suspension design is classical FWD. The simplest solution is to ease the power on in accordance with the conditions, the ESP strategy will allow a degree of slip, but when it breaks traction completely the reaction vs. the physical is very difficult to control. Sure the further up the technological scale we proceed we can find a solution, but for this car / application / market the systems that are supplied are the most durable / suitable and cost effective.
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Looking at 'wheel hop' more on the net... not liking what I'm reading...
"The number one reason people end up getting a Quaife differential in a FWD Eclipse. Wheel hop kills the stock diff. Once a piece of the stock little spider gears breaks off, the spinning diff housing droop kicks right through the bell housing and into the clutch. Ouch.
If you are making good power in a FWD Eclipse, you can get a Quaife before or after you make this mess."
"Wheel Hop
The other major culprit is wheel hop. Folks, do NOT ever allow wheel hop to occur. If you feel it beginning, lift off the throttle...NOW. Wheel hop is a smaller version of the phenomenon described above, but in a way, it's even worse...with every 'hop', the over-torque occurs. If there's ten 'hops' before it stops hopping, which can take but a couple seconds, that's ten death-blows to the driveline.
Slicks tend to eliminate wheel hop due to the 'resonance' of the floppier slick tire as compared to a stiff street tire. Taken another way, the slick acts as a shock absorber, stopping the wind-up and release of suspension that causes wheel-hop."
This appears to be a subject that is talked about by many fast fwd car owners, particularly ones using their cars on the quarter mile, the main points I can see from other threads is that there are 3 main areas that need looking at when trying to reduce wheel hop:
1. Tyre choice
2. Suspension set up (many say stiffer to reduce wheel hop)
3. differential choice (Quaife ATB appears popular)
Traction bars were used to great effect on my Capri and wheel hop was eliminated, now I realise that the driven wheels on this car had a completely different suspension set up of leaf springs and a live rear axel, but is there no scope in fwd suspension set ups to use traction bars of some kind?
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on the clios the TC system closes the throttle by varing degrees to limit power.
its able to do this as its Drive by wire,
the knocking is axle stamp (or whatever its called - I can never remember)
oddly enough the more power you have the less this happens as the wheels just break traction without jumping...
Andy
GDI
