I have FWD traction issues!!!

[Renagade]

ok, first thought is... no shit!!

i own a FWD, not an AWD... so save it

ive read about all the LSD stuff, but wanna start whith suspension, what spring and stuff would give the best traction assistance.

I have really good tires... cuz i just roasted a set of Toyo T1-S (5 months)
but i just got a set of BFGoodrich, but plus sized them to 225-50-16. Ill get them on tonight, se how well that works.

But just wanna know my options

 

[FORMONTOYA]

set of coil-overs w/adjustable dampers, strut bars, poly bushings and moter mounts (f/wheel hop).


what side of town in houston do you live in?


jim

 

[Renagade]

very north

like what brands of springs and dampener... cuz im a moron when it comes to suspension

 

[NOMIEZVR4]

If you got money to spare i would do tein or koni yellows shocks but thats is alot of $ but worth it from what i hear. and also you got to look at how much you want to drop your car in order for me to tell you what spring to get. i think 1 1/4 drop is perfect. but that is just me. I have a fwd and for my traction issues i have started off with the bmt lsd insert it is under construction rite knw but i think thats the best bang for the buck man $200 shipped. i will let you knw how it goes if you'ld like. i will be done this weekend. hopefully. well hope everything works for ya man. good luck

 

[FORMONTOYA]

as stated...tien flex would be the way to go, but $$$$ (list f/$1300, spring/damper assembly) are required to get a set of them. my opinion is they are a lot of money for something you will probably will not get the full use out of as an occaisional weekend warrior. personally i am partial to ground control (uses eibach springs) rapped around a set of tokico illuminas ($399/gc + $425/ti). or you can go with a set of eibachs on a set of tokico hp (blues) at roughly $250/es + $200/thp (but no adjustability). all depends on how deep your pocket is and what you want to do with the car.

my opinion: ground control and tokico illuminas...been on my car for 6 years with excellent results. daily driver w/about 6 trips to the autocross track a year to play with the car. you can dial down the illuminas for a not so harsh a ride around town, then dial them up for the track. top mount adjustable.

suprisingly the cheapest thing to do for traction (on launch) would be a set of poly motor mount (reduce wheel hop), energy suspension makes inserts for the 2 torque mounts, or prothane for a full set of poly mounts. inserts being the cheapest cost wise (front is easy...back is a little more difficult).

then a set of strut bars f/r. then the poly bushings. then the lsd. my $.02

i am at 290 and beltway 8...i would say you could get a ride with the set up i have (check profile), but it will probably be around the end of feb. before the turbo and mods are done and pulled out of the garage.


http://www.ground-control.com/
http://www.tokicogasshocks.com/
http://www.tein.com/
http://www.eibach.com/cgi-bin/start.exe/eibach/index.html
http://www.energysuspension.com/
http://www.prothanesuspension.com/



jim

 

[rebuilt65]

I have adjustable springs and set the rear a bit higher than the front, about 1.75 inches higher. The springs are stiffer, and that helped eliminate some weight tranfer also. I will get koni yellows all around in about a month). I lower the rear again for regular driving.
Raise the rear, and stiffen the rear suspension as well as lowering the air pressur in your 225/50/16's to about 20 lbs. DO NOT lower the pressure on low profile tires as that only takes away from top end or trap speed.
The other things mentioned, motor mounts, strut bars, will help as well.
Oh, I'm assuming you are talking about a drag racing setup. For aoutocross, someone else will have to contribute.

 

[pickens]

I have a BM LSD insert, poly mount inserts, Potenza S0-3 tires, and the Tokico Illumina kit. Guess what....I still have traction issues in 2nd. If you are putting down 300ish hp or more then don't expect traction for the first two gears in any fwd unless you are on slicks or maybe street drags. In my car, second gear spin is managable but it will still light them up if I lay into hard around 4k rpm. However, I think the reason why we have traction issues is because of boost spikes. Look at any dyno chart on a 16g style turbo and you can see it will make gobs of torque when the boost hits (spikes) and then it'll settle down. That spike is just to much for a fwd to handle.

 

[Renagade]

thanks guys... plenty of info!!!

 

[Omega]

HA, don't we all!

LSD, RDSM sway bars, poly suspension bushings, Tein SS coilovers, window weld in front and half the rear engine mount... I still hop.

My last adventure will be the poly engine bushings. After that... fvck it, AWD conversion.

 

[1bad92awd]

I would do a Tein Suspension kit, sway bars and strut bars to help out in stiffening it up. A good set of tires and thats about as good as it will get for a front wheeler. My friend has a 99 gst that dynoed about 317 tire and he has traction problems out of a 40mph rollin 3rd gear just by laying on it.

 

[Omega]

My friend has a 99 gst that dynoed about 317 tire and he has traction problems out of a 40mph rollin 3rd gear just by laying on it.

Now you know of two people that have that problem.

 

[jtmcinder]

ive read about all the LSD stuff, but wanna start whith suspension, what spring and stuff would give the best traction assistance.

Two questions:

are your traction problems at launch or at corner exit?

why do you want to start with the suspension?

And before you get pissy about my second (semi-rhetorical) question not addressing yours, let me point out the the best suspension for a FWD with an open diff is not the same as that for a FWD with a good diff, so doing this in the order you are might force you to do the suspension twice, which will end up costing more.

- Jtoby

 

[1993eclipseGS]

Now you know of two people that have that problem.

3people

Look into a LSD

 

[Renagade]

Two questions:

are your traction problems at launch or at corner exit?

why do you want to start with the suspension?

And before you get pissy about my second (semi-rhetorical) question not addressing yours, let me point out the the best suspension for a FWD with an open diff is not the same as that for a FWD with a good diff, so doing this in the order you are might force you to do the suspension twice, which will end up costing more.

- Jtoby

honestly, i can lose traction worse in a turn

as for suspension, i figured that would be both cheaper, and more well rounded, since i dont feel that my car handles all that well either. Trust me, im not the kind that gets pissy, cuz i dont know, so its all good!!

 

[Gary 420A RS]

TRACTION***** please fix it.... thats one thing that gets me all the time.. misspelling.. sorry but it hurts my eyes... haha

 

[jtmcinder]

The easiest and cheapest solution to traction problems in a corner is to slow down. Learn to take what the car is offering. In the background, I'd still be thinking about the front diff as the core mod upon which all else depends.

Gary: some people get as worked up about punctuation as you claim to get worked up about spelling.

- Jtoby

 

[tsunari]

Well you've got me curious now JToby . . . how much of a difference would there be between a nice suspension setup for a FWD w/ open diff as opposed to a FWD with say . . . a KAAZ LSD? At present I'm running on GC coilovers w/ Koni yellow and was looking toward LSD next, so I'm kind of cuious as to what else I may need to tweak once that happens.

 

[Big28 2gFWD]

my set up: quaife lsd, tein super street coilovers, set to 13(16 is stiffest) up front 16 rear. 235/45/17 kdw's. come to terms that a powerful fwd will NEVER EVER have traction in 1st but hookin at before 5k in 2nd...nice......enough to be competetive on the line, and killer from a roll on....tired of everyone being on the awd bandwagon because thier experience with fwd's are based on cars with garbage tires, a set of drop springs, and having only 1 drive wheel. u want a fast fwd...u gotta spend the money on the traction before the power.

 

[T_Eclipse]

Did anyone ask what kind of tires did you get? If not, I'm asking. Just saying BF Goodrich tires doesn't necessarily cut it. They could be BF Goodrich Excentia GTH's which you get at Wal-Mart or they might be G-Force series which is what you get from a tire dealership. The point is that there is a considerable difference in performance that each tire gives even though they were made by the same company.

 

[dsmsucks]

You cant hook up with the little mods you have

 

[truwarrior]

Any slicks one can by that handle pretty good, fit stock 16" rims, and can be swapped out with stock 16" with street tires without having to realign everything?

sound like the best thing to do is just get slicks and swap them up with street tires when drving distance

 

[98eclipseRS]

Ah traction issues with a fwd, let me tell you it gets worse. I don't even hook from a 65mph roll in third let alone anything lower. Here is what you will need in this order to get decent traction from a fwd.

I know its really expensive but I would go with a true LSD first. Not the insert, I have a quiafe and the traction and handeling improvement I gained from it was exponentially greater than all of the other traction related mods I have done to the car. This mod is a must for drag racing or autox/road racing. Next I would go with a full set of prothane motor mounts. Front/back and sides. This will nearly eliminate wheel hop as long as you don't have a million pounds of air in your tires. Next I would worry about suspension.

If you want to go the cheaper route go with koni/tokico illuminas(what ever you do stay away from the blues, they are the shittiest shock you could ever buy) and ground control coil overs. Spring rates will greatly depend on what you plan on doing with the car. I have no experience with road racing but with drag racing you will want to run a super heavy spring in the rear and a lighter one up front. That will keep the car from lifting the front end when launching which pulls weight off the front tires and makes you spin the wheels. If you have a bit more cash go with a true coil over set up and experiment with the settings untill you get something that works. For drag racing you want the rear as high as it can go and the front as low as it can go. You will also want to stiffen the rear as much as possible and run the fronts close to the softest they can go.

However, the single greatest mod you can have for a fwd car is practice driving. Learn how to modulate the throttle so that you don't get wheel spin(once your making any form of decent power its quite hard in 1st and 2nd but it can be done).

 

[justin0469]

I have D2 coilovers and I love them. I havent even had Tein Flex's but thats what most ppl compare them to. Search on here to read what other people think about them. Another awesome thing about them is they are $900 compared to Flex's $1300 price tag.

 

[missouri_dsm]

Did anyone ask what kind of tires did you get? If not, I'm asking. Just saying BF Goodrich tires doesn't necessarily cut it. They could be BF Goodrich Excentia GTH's which you get at Wal-Mart or they might be G-Force series which is what you get from a tire dealership. The point is that there is a considerable difference in performance that each tire gives even though they were made by the same company.

I got my G-force drag radials at Wal-Mart. You just have to look in their book and have them order them which took like 2 days to get there and they were cheaper than the local tire shops too.