Rear axle wheel hop?
 

OK guys...time to school me. While I used to be a pretty good drag racer I must say I'm out of practice. I also rarely red light race since getting the Rx8. I guess I'm getting OLD!

OK, so I rev to 3K or so, release the clutch quickly and all through 1st gear the rear end is hopping. It didn't stop until I hit second. Needless to say the late-model Camaro with the LT1 engine beat me as I knew he would.

What's with the axle hop?
(6 spd, 2006)

pssst! quick, edit out the street racing refrence.

Traditionally, I would consider an axle to be a single bar that connects the two wheels. In that case, the RX8 doesn't have an axle but instead two independent sets of control arms for each wheel.

But to get to the point - what you're experiencing is wheel hop and is primarily the result of the suspension, namely the shocks, not providing enough dampening force. as a result, the wheels bounce and ocsillate.

The fix - improved dampening in the form of better shocks. My suggestion - a set of four Koni Sports. They're yellow and adjustable to suit your needs and highly recommended. About $550.

If you want you can couple that with a set of stiffer or lower springs for improved handeling - such as Racing Beat or Tein. Anywhere from $100 second hand up to about $300 or so - I could be off.

Of course there's also coilover setups but those are typically way more expensive.. as in like over $2000 for a decent setup expensive..

Different tires would help too, also I would back off when you get wheel hop. WHeel hop=new rear end

i dont mean to thread-jack, but i think i have a similar issue:

whenever i am cornering a decent amount and accelerating, or even at constant throttle, and i hit a bump or small pot-hole, my car's rear loses traction and whatever for longer than it should... and it just causes a huge jerkiness which doesnt seem normal... i guess it seems like my wheels just dont recover from small bumps while cornering as quick as they should?

does anyone else have this? am i crazy?

^^ could be related to the dampers (shocks) being too soft or worn out. Could be.. or could be something else.

But I know from experience that having good shocks makes a big difference. I put Koni Sports on my RX8 and the handeling.. over turns, over bumps, etc.. was much improved. I felt far more in control with less floating and bouncing.

ahh..... you need to ease out the clutch, can't drop it.

lower tire pressure. 5k rpm. feather the clutch..

this is not a drag car, but the above works.

beers :beer:

I guess you end of smelling the clutch a lot that way swoope, Right? Can't wait to try that at the next red light on ramp.

I guess these shocks and/or springs would make the ride significantly harsher?

also turn off the traction control....I guarantee thats your biggest problem ><

Yes! Wheel hop! My years with Land Cruisers have influenced my terms. Looks like mods for these cars are as bad as my big trucks.
Your response makes sense. Thanks!

Yes....coming from the 4-wheeling arena...the first thing I thought of when hopping was my rear ring and pinion/diff.

Yes....I thought of this too and I need more practice. I let that clutch go pretty quick and I think the car never caught up with the power.

Well it was off. I know thw VSC on/off power routine. This was contant power and hop hop hop. If I had VSC on it would have cut power ASAP and stopped the hop.

And by the way....Imediately AFTER Mazda did the new engine flash for the recall....I noticed that VSC kicks in much quicker and with more throttle cut.

Has anybody else experienced this? I'm guessing they also re-flashed the VSC programming when they did the engine flash. ???

i got 55k out of the stock clutch and i would say it would have gone another 20k miles.. it did show some signs of overheating...

did all my testing in a very rural area... the shocks and springs dont change a thing if you have the shocks set to soft.. i thing it rides better, with the new stuff. but my old shocks were gone..

beers :beer:

I've had problems with wheel hop also. Is this a common problem? My tires will not sqeel at all, just hop. This happens when I start off hard with Traction Control off through 1st gear and when I shift into second gear. It will also do i some with traction control on.

Is this common for the RX-8 or is there something wrong with mine?

My rx-8 wheel hops aswell, im assuming its a common problem from the way the stock rear susp is set up. My 03 Cobra with its 530hp would wheel hop like no other... spend over 2k tryin to get rid of it, nothing would.

There's a fine line between easing the clutch out (a little slippage) and dropping the clutch...find it and you won't hop. One way to know if your're slipping too much is by the clutch smell, so practice away!

My buddy has a boxster and we have yet to find a launch that doesn't hop.

Anyways, if you are dragging the 8 you don't want to launch at 3000rpm. 5500 is ideal for me, also thats peak torque for the renesis. If you want to gain another .031234 seconds the optimal launch is...7500rpm (peak hp).

I got rid of mine by putting a hard compound snow tire on, will burn the tires like no tomorrow now. Soon as I put my proxy4's back on tho right back to hoppin around. the issue has to do with traction and that a good set of performance tires will always try to grab as much as they can.

Yeah, its funny because the rx8s almost always wheel hop with stock shocks. I was talking about this with the guys from work last night. My friend with the GTO was complaining about coming to the track with us because he gets a lot of wheel hop and would lose to everybody (poor excuse to race me). and he went to show us.... Nothing, to wheel hop. I laughed at him and I said.... "You wanna see Wheel hop?!? i'll make my car hop like a rabbit!"

and I lined up.... Launched.... nothing but rubber!!
no wheel hop at all.... and yes, im still at stock suspension.

Maybe it was the ground? Maybe Trying to make it wheel hop causes it NOT to do it? who knows, lol.

/food for the brain.

So it seems that the wheel hop is mainly due to the suspension. I am not replacing the suspension.

Has anyone tried just switching tires, and seeing if it still hops? If not I might try that this weekend, weather permiting. I don't know if I can find rims that fit around the rear discs though. I do plan on taking it to the track sometime, and if it can be quickly remedied with a tire and rim switch, I'll have to do that. I'm just thinking about how embarrassing it would be to line up for a burnout and just have it hop around.

I don't know about RWD cars, but in a FWD application, changing the motor mounts will also make a difference.

Seeing as to how there is the good 'ol drive shaft between the diff and the engine, it probably has less to do with the mounts than squishy suspension.

I find that in my short experience with RX-8. If you hold the DSC button and turn off that and the traction control, it seems like there less wheel hop. (i dont notice it bouncing off the walls) I think when the car wheel hops the DSC intervenes, thinking the car slipping/sliding....and the TC would also kick in too. Both cut the power. Seems like when you have them both off, the car becomes more controllable in terms of launching it. I've only tried it once or twice.......dont want to screw up my clutch early on haha. Otherwise i would tend to agree with some stating that it could also be due to suspension, shocks worn out, etc.

aftermarket suspension with adjustable damping doesnt help, at least not for me. i went from the re040s to the dunlop sports and both make it hop like a bunny. its weird, id roast em in the staging lanes but when it came to the tree......hopped all thru 1st till i let off, waited for traction....then hit the gas.....that explains my 15.3

i gave up on drag b4 i started. i own the backroads now.......no cops

just searching around cuz wheelhop sucks and is really embarassing....
i think with tc/dsc taken out of the equation that it really comes down to the clutch and the 8's lack of torque? (i don't know anything further than my own experience)

i've had one launch where the tires squeeled and i launched like a pro, i've had many where i'm trying to show off and i nearly shake the back end off the chassis. i think it's a sweet spot in the rpm launch, i know this is an older thread but i was wondering if anyone's discovered anything new.

side note: everyone i've asked in general about wheel hop said that it was a suspension issue, but im not going to buy coilovers just to have a better launch at a stoplight :/