gmoran1469

Time has come to upgrade. The feeling on hard shifts with the stock CA's and when I first get out on the road on a cold morning is really starting to annoy me.

Looking for suggestions. Wheel hop is what they call it? I dunno the tech term, I'll give it gas and the rear end lurches down which throws me back, takes my foot off the gas, throws me forward, makes me step on the gas more, vicious cycle, and it's not easy to avoid either, no matter how lightly I press the throttle, and I've been driving manuals since I first got my license. The rear end just has a much looser feeling to it than it did when I first lowered it.

I've got Koni STR.T's, Steeda Sports, Steeda HD camber mounts, UMI 1055 panhard.

Hoping Sam can chime in.

gmoran1469

Bumped

JAJ

Cold surge is my name for it. All high HP engines I've ever driven with a manual transmission have done it - that's three different BMW's with 400HP engines.

It's caused by the programming in the ECU that's struggling to keep the engine alive when it's stone cold, at the same time as it's trying to light off the catalytic converters and meet the other emission targets.

The only way to stop it is to get out of first gear as quick as you can. No magic, it's just "what they do when they're cold". It has nothing to do with your suspension.

baddog671

My car used to wheelhop violently, enough to actually have the dash vents broken when I bought it at 14k miles. First thing I did was install a set of BMR poly non-adjustable LCA's, completely stopped the hopping.

06mach1

This doesn't sound like wheel hop. Wheel hop only happens under very hard acceleration upon take off. The rear of the vehicle shakes violently as the rear tires get traction. The shake is violent! Aftermarket control arms will resolve this issue. Not sure, but what you are describing sounds like just not shifting out of first gear fast enough? JAJ mentions this. As the car lurchs forward, shft into second.

Norm Peterson

Let it warm up a little before driving off, at least long enough for the idle to drop down off the fast idle speed. A little longer than that when it's cooler out and the car has fully cooled down.

It may help to go through the throttle reset procedure.


Norm

Norm Peterson

Just went back and read this.

When you lowered the car, did you loosen the rear LCA and UCA bolts, then lower the car so that all of the car's rear weight was on the wheels before re-torquing them? How much did you lower the car? How long ago?




What i'm thinking is that your OE rear control arm bushings aren't all they used to be, due to possible torsional tearing of the bushing material itself. Give them a really good close look, even if it means removing the lowers from the car (one at a time, with the car secured against rolling). It would probably be safe to assume that if one or more LCA bushings were bad that the UCA bushings would be suspect. But due to the difficulty in getting at the UCA I'd first try replacing any bad LCAs and seeing if that solved the problem. If it does, stop replacing parts and save the UCA for later.


My suggestion for LCAs would be somebody's combination unit - poly bushing on one end, UMI's Roto-joint, a Johnny joint, or a rod end at the other. Roughly in that order.


Norm

gmoran1469

It's been about a year, maybe a little more since I lowered it, and I don't recall loosening the rear LCA and UCA bolts when I lowered it, it wasn't a drastic drop, 1" in the front, 1.25" in the back (from what the steeda sport springs said at least).

The loose feeling occurs whenever I drive the car, especially around 3.5k+ rpm when I let the engine slow the car down. It really likes to lurch forward, and I have been noticing this much more lately. I had some trouble with a panhard, but that was the roto-joint end and I got that fixed, I thought that was all it was so I have been driving it and trying to get a feel for it but something still doesn't feel right.

What I was describing (the whole cold start thing), it's always been there, what I was trying to say was that it has become exaggerated as of late to the point where I can't control it at all.

Sam Strano

I agree that it's not any sort of LCA issue. It's a driveability issue, and that can be made much worse with aftermarket tunes. Ford actually tries to calibrate the cars to minimize the bucking. In fact that was one of the issues on my 5.0 car, if you rolled out and right back in the car wouldn't respond quickly enough because it was tuned too much for trying to keep that bucking down (for instance when you on on a bumpy road and your foot is bouncing around on the throttle).

I don't know if you have an aftermarket tune. I could just be your car is a little irritable in cold weather.

Wheelhop is very noticeable, and this isn't it. You get hop when you spin the rear tires (not something you are reporting as part of the issue). And when it happens you feel the rear jackhammering, and if you stay in it it'll continue eventually shaking the entire car violently and quite literally it's that boom-boom-boom sound and feel.

Norm Peterson

Start with the throttle reset, since it's easy enough to do and will cost you exactly $0.00. Nonlinear throttle response can't possibly be helping here. Some tunes tend to be overly responsive at low throttle openings, and this can also lead to your symptoms.

After that, it's probably rear control arm bushings, though I suppose your driver seat could be a little loose (which would also make it more difficult to make fine throttle movements smoothly but easy to make large jumpy ones).

Have you started wearing boots or stiff-soled shoes?


Norm