Pulling out onto a busy street yesterday, I gave it a decent amount of gas out of the turn and BOOM- I drove over a minor hole at high RPM while accelerating (6-spd auto)... The whole car jerked pretty bad once the right front wheel made traction out of the bump (felt like a much bigger hole than it was). I've had this happen before to a lesser degree but is this bad for the drivetrain?
Wicked wheel hop while accelerating over minor hole
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It seems ok so far on the freeway- I doubt it was hard enough to bend a rim.. I can't tell if the alignment was affected yet. What exactly can a wheel hop here and there going to do to the drivetrain? Hopefully the sensors would pick something up before I notice anything :wacko:
The chance for damage to the drivetrain is small. You should not damage the suspension as that is designed to absorb bumps. If the impact was uneven and from the side, you could certainly bend your suspension. Generally, your tires will be fine unless you hit a very sharp point. The greatest point of damage are the rims which can be dented or bent. If you have aftermarket rims, the risk of damage is greater since in general, they are lighter and not as strong.
Since my wheels feel ok that's why my attention went to other parts.. It can't be good for just one of the front wheels to essentially "hop" and slam back down especially while I was giving it a lot of gas and the transmission was busy shifting... it sure did give the car a jolt and that jolt could have went to the mounts as well as other things.. Gradual loss of power from things like this is my worst fear in a new car.
Your suspension is made to absorb things like this. Other than the rim, an up and down bump should not hurt the car. A side impact on the wheel is much more worrisome.
Bumps are no biggie it was just the combo of the high RPM's, accelerating hard at the time, and one single front wheel skipping violently that had me thinking of the drive train receiving a damaging jolt. If I would have been going the same speed however not in acceleration it wouldn't have been bad at all.
i don't think stock power is enough to cause damage from wheel hop but your alignment might be off now. upgraded shocks would reduce the hop as well as stiffer motor mounts. or getting a limited slip that wont spin the unloaded wheel so much under power. or just lift off throttle when coming to a pothole if accelerating at high rpm.
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If something that common could hurt the drivetrain, my car would be in the junkyard twice over by now. Your diff is the only component that really sees any strain in that motion. The rest of the car will shrug it off like any other pothole. As long as you don't start hearing clicking when you're cruising down the street/making turns, you're most likely fine.
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