Wheel Hop in the Rain

[lcpljrm]

Does anyone have any clue why wet conditions seem to exasperate wheel hop. in the dry, i have no wheel hop whatsoever, but on wet pavement, i get ridiculous wheel hop. any ideas?

[gmckey]

open diff? I know I used to get bad hop on open in the rain trying to slide around...

[lcpljrm]

no, i've got a helical...

[RPS1392]

lol, you said exasperate! I so love big words.

[Bosrudorfer]

Same with me but I have a open diff... cant wait to do closed :)

[wootwoot]

Wheel hop is worse with the less traction you have.

.....to a point.

[lcpljrm]

i guess that no matter what my suspension set up, i will always have more hop in the rain, eh?

[Realchaos1]

ive had friends that had 2ways that wouldn't slip properly in the ran and they'd get a little bit of wheel hop.

My diff recently broke, so i switched to open and I never have the problem.

[wootwoot]

You arent saying nearly enough information for anyone really to be able diagnose it exactly. Whats your suspension like? Come on man, if you want answers provide information.

[lcpljrm]

it was just a general question, i'm not really trying to diagnose it. like i said, i have no, none, zero wheel hop issues in dry conditions, just wet. this would occur with my open diff and my helical. no suspension mods. Yokohama AVS ES100 and Falken GR-Beta whatchamacallit both exhibited(RPS1392!!) the same behavior.

[Phlip]

it was just a general question, i'm not really trying to diagnose it. like i said, i have no, none, zero wheel hop issues in dry conditions, just wet. this would occur with my open diff and my helical. no suspension mods. Yokohama AVS ES100 and Falken GR-Beta whatchamacallit both exhibited(RPS1392!!) the same behavior.
Problem has been prominently highlighted.
You will simply need to dial back on the right foot action until there ARE some suspension mods.

[R34SKYLINE]

Its most likely being induced by the sum of all the slop in your bushings, ball joints and shocks/struts if they are blown.....all of those items new or in great shape would usually not permit wheel hop even on a stock suspension equiped vehicle.....in the rain your more likely to get wheel hop becasue of the on and off again effect of traction especially with blown shock/struts whick allows hydroplaning alot more that a good damper will.

[wootwoot]

^^^^ I'm gonna agree with all that. A car is not suppose to wheel hop. Parts need to be replaced and when they arent the car will not perform properly. Is your car mostly stock? How could it get wheel hop in dry conditions when it cannot break traction from a lack of power?

[S14DB]

I'm going to say the shocks are blown first. Get some quality shocks all around and I think it will be a totally different car.

Then if that doesn't help the subframe bushings would be next and then the bushings in the knuckles.

[ranisron]

My suggestion is to get subframe bushings first - they are great help whether you have stock/aftermarket suspension setup.

Then, some AGX with quality springs or jump on to coilovers.

S14DB, could you enlighten me how does worn out knuckle bushings affect traction? I don't mean to thread jack, but I have some miseries to be solved with my car's unstable rear end over bumps.

[S14DB]

Has to do with the torsional rigidity. The knuckle ends allow the knuckle to torque a lot. Much more so that the rod end. Allowing the tire to change directions rapidly not staying flat on the ground and square with the suspension. Also, in the long run you'll swap out the rod ends with spherical links on new arms.

On your problem. What spring are you running? Maybe to stiff.

[ranisron]

^^^ Thanks for the answer.

I am running on AGX + Tein upper mount (F&R) + RS*R race springs, so it's around 5kg front and 4.5kg rear - which is a pretty streetable setup, IMHO. My AGX is set as 3 for the Front, and 5 (IIRC) for the rear. All shocks/struts are in good shape. Also, I am running aftermarket links: Toe links + RUCA - when I had the new links put on, I had an alignment done (last year).

My car is due for a new alignment since I ruined my BFgoodrich g-sport recently from the out of wack toe setting. I doubt my tire choice 205/50/16 has anything to do with my unstable rear end.

I compare my car's ride quality (crappy to be honest) to my friend's S14. He has megan coilover with factory damper setting, no subframe bushings, no aftermarket links. His car felt stiff, and solid, whereas mine felt like "crappy", may be it is due to the Hatch vs. coupe factor.

Anyway, any suggestions on how to check knuckle bushings (shameless laziness)? Or should I refer to the FSM :)?

[koukidough]

definitely bushings

[lcpljrm]

thank you R34Skyline. i guess i should have phrased my question better. i appreciate the suspension advice, but i just wanted to know why wet=wheel hop and dry=no wheel hop. thanks gents

[R34SKYLINE]

thank you R34Skyline. i guess i should have phrased my question better. i appreciate the suspension advice, but i just wanted to know why wet=wheel hop and dry=no wheel hop. thanks gents

Its a combanation of thing but mainly the wheel sticking to the floor (traction) then wanting to lift (no traction/hyrdoplane) then getting traction again etc etc usually when you have bad dampers its not strong enough to punch threw the water to make the tire contact the pavement good enough, if you ever driven a stock blown suspension equiped vehicle threw small puddles you will notice how easy it is to hydroplane if your drive vehicle equiped with coilovers with obviously stiffer spring rates and better dampening you can drive threw the same puddle and will not hydroplane, basically the stiffer dampers is putting more of the car weight to the ground as positive reinforcement whereas a blown damper will simply pull up and lift itself away from the road basically unloaded teh wheel from contact with the pavement.

[zads]

Subframe spacers.. best mod you'll do.

[Realchaos1]

I would laugh if he's complaining about a "wierd ratchet sound, kinda sounds like wheel hop?" lolz lsd

[lcpljrm]

lol, thanks, but its definetly wheel hop, i can look out the window and see it. its nasty violent.