Wheel spin in 2nd
 

First I should say that I struggled about whether to post this under "General Discussion". But since it relates to engine/drivetrain, tires, LSD, and the joys of spirited driving, I decided this was the right place.

Recently I've encountered wheel spin in 2nd gear (I have the 6MT) when accelerating from about 20 miles an hour. Yesterday it happened twice in the span of about 3 seconds getting onto a busy on ramp where I had to move quickly to merge. I gave the Z a lot of throttle, but not WOT. The result: wheel spin interrupted by VDC followed by wheel spin interrupted by VDC. Very annoying :eekdance:and somewhat problematic given the urgent merge. It is possible that the road surface contributed to the issue, but it has happened at other times on very smooth, even pavement.

My question is, how might I prevent this (yes, I know I could drive like I was behind the wheel of a Buick and that would do the trick). I'm running stock Yokohama Advents, with almost 7k on them (rears are low but not down to wear bars yet). The temp yesterday was around 60 degrees. I do not have the LSD (Touring package only). My mods are F.I. CBE and K&N drop-ins.

Should I change tires? Get an LSD? Handling mods? Put a sign on the side that says "Student Driver" and accelerate no faster than 0-60 in 20 seconds?

Any advice would be appreciated!:tiphat:

Cold weather, it happens with a sports car and cold pavement. Especially one with this much torque.

um...what lol...this car doesnt have thattt much torque lol

Cold weather means less grip, so let the tires warm up and try to keep your foot out of it. :)

I think a tire change could help your little issue. I noticed a significant difference between my stock RE050s compared to the wider RE-11s I recently purchased. Unfortunately the cold weather is going to work against your tires.

It doesn't matter what size or brand of max or extreme performance tire you buy...in cold weather they are all hockey pucks. Your only solution in the cold is to get a set of Pilot Sport A/S tires. They'll maintain max performance in colder weather, but are not well suited to snow. If you plan to drive in snow, you'll need the winter tires but then performance is really out the window.

It's OBV to much for him to control. lol I mean I get wheel spin, but its controllable if you don't punch it out of second.

I have been considering a tire change for the colder months. I would have a pretty short driving season if I only drove when temps were in summer tire range. We can have early morning temps in the 30's into May, and then back again in October. I'm not interested in driving it in the snow (that's what the Dunlap Winter Sports on the Mazda are for), so perhaps a performance all season for the colder months.

Any thoughts about an LSD?

I do not consider 60*F to be very cold. If it is, then perhaps my LSD is the answer. I doubt it though. I have only had 2nd gear wheel spin with VDC off. I am totally stock. Good luck.

Oh, I'm not ruling out driver error here! My last 3 cars were: RX-8, MINI Cooper, Mazda3. The Z has LOTS more torque then those cars, and I am still getting used to it!:driving:

I'd switch off VDC and have some fun with it!

in these temps my slip light turns on when i punch the gas in 3rd from about 45 to get to expressway speeds. :D

i would get softer tires that work better in cold temps if you plan to do any real driving in the winter time (on a sunny dry day). :)

220rwtq. It's a beast. LOOKOUT! Lol

It's the cold weather and the summer tires.

Oddly enough I haven't ever experienced this trouble before. I used to run F1GSD3's on my last car and cold didn't seem to have much effect on them. Then, it only got down to around 30* or so while I had that car. Maybe the tires on the Z are more sensetive than others?

:shakes head:

import- you're lucky your G20 doesn't spin anything. :D

It spins a good deal in the rain, lol (1 tire fire). It freaked me out the first time I entered a corner a bit too fast in it. Normally I would just blip the throttle and bring the rear around. Blipping the throttle in this just made things worse. It's a fun little weed-whacker, but I miss my RWD V8's.

The G20 gets great traction--until it doesn't, then the front end just pushes and I guess you reach for the hand-brake. It's totally counter to what I learned to drive with. Real cars you just goose the throttle or roll into it, as situation dictates, and the rear-end snaps on around and you slide through the corner.

It does bore the heck out of me though. I have to have a sick reaction time off a light if I am going to grab a lane, rather than relying on brute force to get the lane whenever I want it. Driving this car sucks. It's starting to feel kinda peppy to me, and that's not good. It's even turning out to be a shitty daily. I should have bought a civic, but I wanted out of my WS6 ASAP and this was what I found and I didn't know about all of Nissan's QC/design issues with this model.

dude..i still can't believe you got rid of your ws6 for the g20..i love g20's, i feel they make a very nice DD..but damn man, ws6 was one of my dream cars growing up..LS1 for the win! haha...but hey, in all seriousness, do you miss it at all?

bottem line its cold.. slowly build upo your speed

Do a warm up lap before heading out and you'll be fine.... :):)

i can see it now vids of some crazy Z on youtube lol

yah, at sub-35F im not sure how much warmer the tires can get... i think best to get tires made for colder weather.

$$$

gotta pay if you want to play... :ugh2:

This guy knows how its done:

I would NOT park my white Z there!:shakes head:

Nonetheless, his tires did appear to warm up nicely.

There is no amount of street driving that you can do in 35F weather to get your tires 'warm' (meaning what you'd consider warm after a few laps at the track). Even if you did a burnout to smoke the tires before driving off, your front tires will still be cold and the rear tires will cool off quickly on the cold ground.

I hope you didn't think I was serious.

+1....VDC off....Mine is off all the time (as with my previous G35 6MT). I have no problem with it off and enjoy the car with it off. Keeps the VDC "bucking" away! :tup:

especially on my G35C i keep VDC off in these temps because the thing just overreacts (old software probably) and intrusive when i make a quick turn.

even with the VDC turned off it's still active for off-throttle drifts. it's werd. like it will automatically correct yaw if i purposely let off throttle during mid-turn to make the tail slip out. i guess it's a good thing for cold tires.

umm, not to be a dueche but maybe ease onto the throttle more ? VDC also comes on for me on random weird occasions when I really do not think the tires would of broken lose if it were off.. You just need to get used to the car and its cold weather habits and you will get used to and avoid these instances.

VLSD will not do anything significant as far as helping you not spin in your situation but I would suggest getting it for plenty of other reason... a true LSD is even better but not necessary.. Summer tires just dont like the cold weather , thats all.. 60 isnt really all that cold but still that wouldnt happen in 70+ degrees.

I think the dumbest people in the world are the ones watching this "show" behind those flimsy barriers. What, do they think they'll be able to jump out of the way in time if the driver of the doughnut car goes out of control?

The stupidity of people just continues to surprise me. I know I should be cynical by now and expect it, but man... :icon14:

60 is too cold to drive around in on summer tires? Come to Canada and we'll show you how how its done!

No.

I liked the car, but it kept breaking. Literally every 2 weeks. Not little stuff, but things like the rear-end, axles, fuel-pump shorting out (died randomly on the freeway in front of an 18-wheeler and almost got me ran over). ON AND ON AND ON!

I know why they killed that car. It was my dream car, too, until I actually had to put up with it.

When the A/C died, that was the last straw. I just got rid of it. I wanted to save money for something better and if I kept pumping $500 here, $1000 here, into that one, I never would.

When it really hit home was when I showed up for a job interview after I got stuck in a traffic jam. I had worn a dark green button-up and it was black on the back from sweat. It looked like crap. I still got the job, but I felt VERY awkward and self-conscious. It was then that I dropped the axe on my second dream car (My first is, and always will be a Viper, but I have never and will never own one).

I still wonder about the Z/its tires. I was riding in my friend's 370 and when he floored it in 2nd at about 4500rpm (I forget our speed), the low-trac light or whatever it says came on. The car had broken loose in 2nd on a punch (not a shift).

Are the Z's spring-rates VERY aggressive? Are the tires just not that sticky? I remember my WS6 being able to floor it in 1st at 4000rpm or whatever and it just hooking and going. It had the same width tires (275s) as a Z, and a much more archaic suspension and a ton more torque.

I am curious why Z's seem to be traction-limited in a straight line, I would think with the 275's out back and nearly 50/50 weight dist. they would just hook like crazy.

^Z tire spin is an issue when it's cold. When it's hot in the summer or during a track day, a straight line throttle 'punch' doesn't spin the tires nearly as readily. Also, any any track guru will tell you that 'punching' the throttle is not how throttle should be applied....because it'll spin the tires.

The Z is skittish over bumps and uneven pavement, which would lend to your spring rate theory.

Guys, I totally can own up to being too hard on the throttle. I'm just not used to the torque compared to what I've been driving for the last 10 years. But this was a knee jerk reaction - lots of traffic, not much room to merge, stopping on the on ramp could have been a disaster. So I punched it. Perhaps those of you who recommend VDC off are right. I would have eased off as soon as the wheels spun.

My understanding is 70 degrees is the lowest temp for optimal summer tire performance (I am no stranger to summer tires. I've had 2 sets of tires for every car I've owned for years). 50 degrees is the upper limit for winter tires (they wear away quickly above that). This was a sunny, 60 degree day, and I'd been driving for several miles. I was surprised at the aggressiveness of the VDC.

I think the advice to get some all seasons for the late fall - late spring months makes sense. I also plan to look into an LSD at some point. This was the only part of the sport package that really appealed to me.

Curious? Would lowering the PSI by a few help?

The Z just seemed very prone to low traction. It was 90* the night my friend and I broke his loose hitting it in 2nd. I just think it must have minimal weight transfer. I have long wondered how the 370Z is pulling the same as a corvette on the skidpad even though they weigh the same and the 'vette has much wider tires. I think the Z just has seriously aggressive spring-rates.

"Hitting" it in my WS6 never broke the tires loose. It hooked. In the rain I had to roll onto it though, then it would stick until about 5500rpm.

It would increase the size of the contact patch, but with radials you will get "cupping" if you lower it much at all. Cold weather will drop the psi by 3-6 anyway (unless you have nitrogen, which I think is awesome. Used to think it was a gimmick, but I measured psi on hot days on different sides of the car before and after I went to it, and I would highly recommend nitrogen fills), and that's as low as I would take it on a radial below the regular.

lowing tire pressure doesn't do much for extra contact patch with a 35 series side wall. It you were in a pick up with 75 series tires than it can make a good differance. The side walls are so ridged I don't think you get much more tire on the ground.