Well I finally have almost a thousand miles on my car which I think is a decent break in period and have begun to open her up a little. I was just curious if any other people were noticing any wheelspin and/or sideways axle tramp on a fast high rpm 1st to 2nd shift. I figured that the 8 with its multi link suspension and fairly low torque output would be fairly smooth through the gears which it is the rest of the way to 6th. Not sure if it's my driving style or if its a normal trait for the 8 when driven to the limit. I am coming from a high torque 5.0 Mustang so I might not be used to this type of power yet. If anyone has experienced this, have you been able to improve anything with tire/suspension mods?

 

hey... i'm also from the allentown area.

I got some some wheel-hop for the first time this afternoon on a 1-2 shift. I kinda caught me off gaurd, i was all ready for a good healthy chirp and instead I got some horrible wheel hop .

 

On my 1 to 2 chirps, I've only gotten wheelspin. No wheelhop, thank God.

 

I get a little wheelspin every so often and the TCS/DSC light will come on when I do. Nothing big really.

 

I don't think I would mind a little wheelspin on the shift it's the occasional wheelhop that can be a little disconcerting. I'm still hoping it's just a driving style adjustment or the fact that the roads around here a really terrible and might be compounding the problem. I'm very curious to see what happens when I take it to the strip when the weather warms up to see what it does with better conditions.

 

prober- It's good to see another 8 owner in the area, I hadn't see any other 8's on the roads around here yet.

P.S. You might want to change your name to RX8er now (Probe-Sold)

 

If you are seeing the DSC/TC warning you should check and see if it is the DSC kicking in. Try the run after holding down the DSC button until it flashes the car slipping warning symbol (should take about 7 seconds). The DSC will be completely shut down at this point. There is a possibility that what you are experiencing is the ABS working with the DSC/TC making it feel jerky. I have yet to feel anything more than wheelspin while this is off and I have over 8k miles on the car. Please try it and let us know if that is the issue. I have heard the complaint before and this is all I can think of for an explanation.

 

Isn't wheelhop pretty common in many Mazda cars? Do a search, there was a thread on this not too long ago where others discussed the same problem.

 

well i want to change my name, but I don't think I can get it changed without looking like a newbie again :o


we will have to get together sometime.....

 

I haven't tried a run yet with the DSC completely shut down yet so that very well might be what I am feeling on the hard shifts. Hopefully that will solve the problem, well I guess I'll go try some runs with the DSC disabled and see what happens.

 

I think with DSC off the wheelhop might get worse...

 

can wheel hop be indicative of slightly off-balanced tires?

 

Yes, this happens to me. First time it happened, it freaked me out.

That was with the snowtires on (a dry day). Am anxious to see if it happens now that I've switched the 18" stock tires back on.

 

Not to freak you guys out, but it is pretty common and you have to be careful.

I haven't experienced it in the RX8 yet, but my old MX-6 did it frequently when I got on it while making a turn. It's terrible for the car.

How do I know? Well, because I obliterated the steering rack with only a mild one in my MX-6 and had to replace the whole thing.