almost all front wheel drive cars suffer from torque steer, the mtx75 from the focus is no exception by any means. the car has a good deal of wheel hop as well as torque steer under hard acceleration (as well as a tendancy to slam the engine into the firewall on a really hard shift thanks to soft motor mount bushings.)

Nate

 

Thought I'd chime in here, my 2002 mtx ZX3 has tons of tourque steer.

Coming around a corner, hit the gas, nearly went off the road it pulled so hard.

 

The MTX 75 has equal lenght drive shafts and most torque steer felt is due to traction differences from one wheel to the other. Hence when cornering you'll get it because the traction from side to side to side is different. Hop in most FWD and do a burn out... one stripe. Do the same in a focus and you'll see two stripes. My old honda accord had torque steer that would nearly pull the steering wheel from your hands when going perfectly straight.

 

It's NOTHING like a car with unequal length shafts. A minor thing if noticeable at all. Should not be an issue, anyone who says it is hasn't driven a turbo car with unequal length shafts.

 

Yeah, I remember a Grand Prix GT I drove once. It had decent power, and when that thing downshifted hard, hold on to the steering wheel!

It could litterally rip it out of your hands.

The Focus is nothing like that. The only feedback you'll get is from the road surface giving different levels of grip side to side.

 

Originally posted by Cameroon:
The MTX 75 has equal lenght drive shafts and most torque steer felt is due to traction differences from one wheel to the other. Hence when cornering you'll get it because the traction from side to side to side is different. Hop in most FWD and do a burn out... one stripe. Do the same in a focus and you'll see two stripes. My old honda accord had torque steer that would nearly pull the steering wheel from your hands when going perfectly straight.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">so what your saying basically is a quaffie ATB LSD will solve this problem ? sportcompact car had alot of good things to say about that diff. btw , its cheap now too only 600 bucks , maybe one of the first mods i get

 

Originally posted by Bmorezx3:
almost all front wheel drive cars suffer from torque steer, the mtx75 from the focus is no exception by any means. the car has a good deal of wheel hop as well as torque steer under hard acceleration (as well as a tendancy to slam the engine into the firewall on a really hard shift thanks to soft motor mount bushings.)

Nate

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Well, actually the Mini Cooper S is the only front wheel drive vehicle with equal halfshafts so there is virtually no torque steer, just straight on acceleration!

 

Originally posted by Hot Nickles:
Well, actually the Mini Cooper S is the only front wheel drive vehicle with equal halfshafts

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Only? Besides the Focus, my 1986 Dodge Omni GLHT beat it to the equal length punch by about oh... 16 years? ...and it'll still rip the wheel out of your hands if you are caught napping... and it is REALLY equal length... left and right axles are interchangeable.

It's just part of FWD performance, and I've come to enjoy it.. part of "taming the beast". I'm sure if I drove a Mini S, I could find the torque steer.

[ 01-19-2003, 03:39 PM: Message edited by: OmniFocus ]

 

a bit off topic but the ser spec v has horrible torque steer that car is unruley

 

Any car that steers and propels with the same wheels will have torque steer under some circumstances. No wheel wants to pull in a curve. The Focus has less than many because the center line of the wheel is in line with the center of the steering rotation. That's the "zero scrub" thing that was mentioned. I autocross my ZX3 aggressively and have experienced very little torque steer. However, it's my work car also and I've experienced it on the street, especially when pulling onto a street when the surface is damp/wet.

 

The reason for torque steer on transverse engined fwd vehicles is because the crank wants to pull itself towards the front of the motor and intern pulls the block with it. I know this because my buddy had to install horizontal braces(motor to frame--front to rear)on his blown-alcohol car, so the engine wouldn't tare up the motor/trans plates.

 

ouch , makes me think twice about how much tq i want , ill definetely go NA as far as tunning goes

 

is the quaffie worth getting ? i dont want to buy a differential and go throuhg the work of installing it only to find out that it runis my cars handling attributes

 

Originally posted by BLOWNSTANG:
The reason for torque steer on transverse engined fwd vehicles is because the crank wants to pull itself towards the front of the motor and intern pulls the block with it.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I have my serious doubts about this.

Especially since torque steer can pull right AND left.

 

Originally posted by EludeR:
is the quaffie worth getting ? i dont want to buy a differential and go throuhg the work of installing it only to find out that it runis my cars handling attributes

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">A quaife will not ruin the vehicle's handling attributes... It will decrease lap/autocross times by measurable amounts... That is all that really needs to be said.

But.. back to the torque steer bit:

The only reason people complain about torque steer is because automotive journalists were too lazy to drive with two hands on the wheel... they were too busy drinking their Diet Pepsi while powering around an off camber corner at WOT.

If you are actually "driving" your car, and not being a driver seat passenger (like most of the world), then it isn't an issue. You've got two hands, so use them on the wheel! Torque steer isn't the evil is made out to be.

[ 01-19-2003, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: OmniFocus ]

 

Originally posted by OmniFocus:
I have my serious doubts about this.

Especially since torque steer can pull right AND left.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">You may be right. I'm just going by what the chassis builder recomended.

Side note on the cars that pulled left---Was the front of the motor on the passenger side? If so, then it might have to do with the shaft lengths.

 

Originally posted by EludeR:
is the quaffie worth getting ? i dont want to buy a differential and go throuhg the work of installing it only to find out that it runis my cars handling attributes

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">If you take your driving seriously at all you need a LSD. It is the very first mod I make to every car I buy, if it is not offered as a factory option. Why the manufacturers even offer open diffs is a mystery to me. What would it cost to make it standard equipment, maybe $200?

I put my Quaife in at 1,000 miles and have been very happy with it for almost 2 years now.

 

A Quaife will not eliminate torque steer. Even with one you will still exceede available traction frequently if you drive hard. Because power output alternates from side to side, IMHO the car torque steers at least as bad as with the open diff, probably worse.

Still though, the Focus does not have a big problem with torque steer. One common thing that will noticeably aggravate it is changing wheel offsets and losing "zero scrub".

 

sorry but i have to chime in on this one.

tq steer is fun, makes the car darty. Learn to control it, intagrate it, do some research on performance driving and have fun. its not like the thing is a tq monster and uncontrolable, use two hands. an open diff isnt ideal for hard driving anyway, lsd is where its at. the only complaints i have about a stock foucs are the overly soft power steering, spring rates, ride height, body roll, waaaay to long shifter, silly fuel system, little disk brakes, and 130 or so stock hp. Im so glad there is an aftermarket to fix these issues...

 

When I put in my Quaife in my SHO, I got more torque steer. I had a slight amount before that. But now when ever I take off hard, the front end shimmies side to side until it catches. That could be from my 200FWTQ.

[ 01-19-2003, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: cRaZySHO88 ]

 

While I don't think torque steer is a serious issue with the Focus, particularly on asphalt, I wouldn't consider it exactly fun either.

There are conditions I run into frequently where it is bad enough to be very distracting, as well as a speed limiter. The dirt and gravel roads here (coastal WA) are crowned for rain drainage. When you are both going fast, say appoximately 60 and above, and accelerating hard, torque steer does become a serious issue.

At 70 or 80 if the car darts just a little to one side of the crown on the loose or muddy surface, you may find yourself pulling a old growth hemlock out of the cabin.

[ 01-20-2003, 01:42 AM: Message edited by: Welding Rod ]

 

ive yet to experience any tourque steer incidents , but i do remmber how motor trend was talking about how FWD cars have come along way , and in particular they pointed out that the focus had 0 tourque steer "virtually no tourque steer" as they put it and i remmber seeing the 300 foot slalom times i think it was somewhere around 65mph (anybody know what it was exactly?) , i was amazed and i said to myself that i had to have this car

, i will go ahead and order a quaffie , and btw is the quaffie ATB and the Ford Racing T2 differntial the same thing/part ?

 

Chris - I agree with your first opinion to a point, and your second makes sense too.

Let my clarify my last post. Every performance mod we make is (presumably) with the intent of raising the max limits of the car. Under the conditions I described, the tendancy to dart under acceleration, regardless of the term used to describe this, becomes the limiting factor for the speed of the car.

Skillfull driving will certainly keep the car out of the woodline, upto a given speed when the limits of the car are exceeded.

When one of the car's limits is met and preventing an otherwise attainable higher speed, IMHO it is noteworthy and worth exploring from a mechanical standpoint.

I know this is the wrong forum, but one thing I wonder about is the role of front control arm bushing deflection in this scenario.

[ 01-20-2003, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: Welding Rod ]

 

Originally posted by Cameroon:
Hop in most FWD and do a burn out... one stripe. Do the same in a focus and you'll see two stripes.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Anyone car to explain this in more detail? I've noticed it but still don't understand why there is two stripes. My dad asked me this last weekend and I felt like a moron 'cause I had no answer. The only thing I could say is it does not have a LSD but for some reason it lays two black stripes. Is it simply the equal length shafts?

 

The turbo dodge proved a long time ago that with equal length shafts and equal weighting of the front wheels you leave two nice stripes. I haven't put my car on a set of scales but I suspect that the reason we lay two nice stripes is that the car is almost exactly equal in weight left to right. Anyone corner weight their car yet? The turbo dodge guys don't have equal weight from the factory but they can achieve it with a few tricks. People have been doing this whole high HP front wheel drive thing for a lot longer than most people on this board realize.