Wheel hop / vibration problem at launch. Porsche deny it so please log here.

Ive had enough! If you have had the dreaded wheel hop problem or have noticed an extreme vibration on launch or when powering down, please post here. Problem: On a hard launch , or in other situations like a wet road in second gear with power down, I can get what appears to be a wheel hoping vibration or a vibration where there is a loud banging sound. I wrote an offical letter to Porsche about this and the reply was they " we have not had any other complaints about it " WTH?? :crazy: Is no one complaining to Porsche about this or is it just a few of us that that put up with it and dont say anything to our dealer or is the dealer not passing this on?? [admitally I did not complain about my last CS doing this] No ones complains so it must not exist!?? WTH? Bad case of denial going on here . Well something I observed when watching a HD recording of an episode of Top Gear on TV today may shed a bit of light on the problem. If you watch the Stig launch the Boxster Spyder around the Top Gear track you can see what appears to be this problem . Its interesting to note that the wheels do not actually hop but that the exhaust tip vibrate up and down a huge amount. This I figure must be due to the engine vibrating on the mounts and the longish exhaust pipes moving a larger amount owing to the axis of moment (leverage effect). As the exhaust is super stiff, I very much doubt it is actually just the exhaust pipes flexing and resonating. In any case I note that an '06 with stock and Milltek exhausts and current '10 with stock and Capristo also does it. With this thought I will recontact the offical channels and tell them to watch the video (need a HD clip). Other thoughts, feedback, theories etc, please comment. :helpme:

I think what you have experience was PSM kicking on.

can you make wheel hop go away on IRS ? no ! but some can lessen it by different tires ,psi and temp.... next are things that can help with wheel hop BUT make the car unlikeable to drive....fully adjustable coil overs ,solid mounts: engine/trans,suspension,alignment,ride height...to make matters worse you can have 2 cars alike...one will hop one wont

Everybody knows I have a wheel hop but my case won't help your case! My 2 cents: 1) Take it to the dealer and show him the wheel hop for him to back you up. 2) Check with Porsche club in your city for other members who are having the smae problem.

The only time I ever launched at full power, I had such severe wheel hop that I had to shut down. The combination of the motor and wheel movement caused my passenger side half-axle to scrape against the Fabspeed head pipe on that side and leaving both scratched up. The pipes shouldn't have ever touched the axle, but the Fabspeed fitment on that side is too close for my particular Cayman . I've heard that harder motor mounts help reduce hop but they also cause a lot more motor vibration to be felt. I'm sure that an LSD or a TBD would also help reduce ping-pong hop.

is it only in manuals? PDK in LC never gave me wheel hops launching at 6.5/7k RPM.

With PSM off it still does it. Other members have it. The dealer does trys to fob it off. I dont know about LC but I did see a brand new CS PDK do it, just not as bad.

I thought this was quite common knowledge - maybe it isn't? I've read about it in the car mags, and experienced wheel hop many times in both my CS and Boxster . Porsche even offers an adjustable engine mount option on the GT3 to minimize this. Given that 911 's and 987's carry a lot of weight on the back, have relatively high rear spring rates, and quite sticky tires , something is going to give if it either doesn't hook up immediately or get quite a lot of wheel spin. I can see Porsche saying no one has 'complained' but I would be surprised if they don't know about it - the factory sure does. IRS isn't known as the hot set up for drag launches. :cheers:

I have experienced it numerous times, especially at motorkhana's with aggressive take off's. I saw the same episode with the Stig and it didn't look or sound to good on the take off. An Aussie car mag has also reported it with both Cayman and boxster models. Interestingly, I was taking a friend for a drive just yesterday for the first time, showing him the merits of the car. I did a launch at around 5K rpm, no wheel hop, just a bit of smoke and a lot of fun.:drivingskid: The only difference was the car was facing slightly up hill and 2 people in the car, so more weight on the back of the car preventing the wheel hop. Try the old bag of cement in the rear boot, see if that helps.:crazy:

Check out this video at 41 seconds and at 2 minutes 28 seconds. 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport vs 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder Comparison - Motor Trend Video

my 2 cents - had this problem with my box, took it to the dealer, nothing. jacked it up in my garage and found a broken motor mount. Not easy to see but it does all the things you are talking about. you almost have to remove the mount to see the damage. good luck

Good idea, something I would not have expected to be possible.

I get that when I launch hard with my manual or if the roads are slick. I always thought it was because my 2006 doesn't have LSD .

I'm pretty (99%) sure its you motor mount, it definately was in my case, I always launch hard and then one day I started getting the hop, which got worse over a short period of time, but like I said I always launch hard, why, cause it's fun! when I took it to the dealer (warranty) he claimed not to be able to see any problem with the mount, so I took matters into my own hands and jacked it up, pried here and there then spotted where the mount was moving excessively, unfortunately I should have checked around and found these competition mounts but I was in a hurry and got the OEM locally, good luck with yours . BTW you can change out your own if you can handle a wrench, the only trick is to support the front of the engine and be able to lower it just a little to get the mount out.

I agree, you can lessen it. Stiffer shocks and bushings often help. I know someone with adjustable shocks on a Cayman that swears uneven rebound adjustment on the rears lessen hop. On Corvettes GM uses asymmetric axle shaft diameters to dull it, and in some 911s Porsche offers dynamic motor mounts, which they claim eliminates hop. The real solution is probably a torque arm, but there's no room to mount such a thing on the Cayman I can see, except underneath the engine and transaxle. I thought the more sophisticated 911 rear suspension would hop less than the trailing arms in the 987s, but 911s actually seem to hop just as much or more. My advice to people wanting to get perfect launches is to get a C4 Corvette and stick a 600hp engine in it. Due to the C4 suspension design they launch better than any car I've owned without a full-custom suspension. By modern standards the car itself isn't very good, but at least you'll have great launches. For whatever reason the BMW Z3 M Coupes also launch very nicely. I think I'll stick with the Cayman , thanks.

I encourage all owners to complain about this problem to their dealer and specifically request this gets passed to Porsche HQ, as it seems the dealers' "filter" such complaints.

4by4, I was having the same issues as you and found out that I had a broken front engine mount, I installed a semi-rigid one and really like the new feel. First the vibration was somehow noticeable, but never too aggressive (@ idle and at certain rpm) but the mount settled within a couple of weeks and now I don't even feel it anymore, you should give it a try I think you will like it.. .

Here is another option from stock. Pedro makes one for the road(better than stock) and one for racing. I know this guy, he is an engineer gone enthusiast, his stuff is good TechnoMount

My Wheel Hop went away with a fresh set of rear tyres.

What kind, size and pressure on the new tires ??

Stock Tyres ( Michelin Pilot Sport )on Recommended pressure of 2.5bar. My wheel hop propably started after excessive wheel spin from hard launches as my tyres were getting worn out. I am assuming uneven wear caused from that and then become permanet effect every time the wheels were spinning.

We'll I think my motor mounts are done too. Yesterday my car started making a loud exhaust sound. I jacked it up and noticed that both of my headers at the 2nd O2 sensor had cracked. Looking further, my exhaust mount for the catback had broken, causing the exhaust to sag, and then that put the stress on the headers . The only way to get that much movement in the system is to have a bad mount! I've kind of been suspicious of the mounts lately as the motor seems to rock a bit with on/off gas and sometimes it even feels like it would pull to a side. My car will also pogo with a hard launch . Sometimes even a little hard to get into gear. Which mount is prone to fail? What direction does the motor turn? Honestly I haven't searched yet, but are there any good articles on mount replacement? I have the factory manual, but honestly, I didn't see a whole lot of info in that yet either. I'm planning on doing the front mount and the two tranny mounts.

How do you know it wasn't just a bad exhaust mounting bracket that cracked? What exhaust do you have? I had a bracket crack on my Milltek original catback after a few months, but it was just a bad weld job. My motor mounts are fine...

Well, I'm not 100% sure of that yet, I plan on doing a little more investigation tonight. Car is out of commission until I figure out what is wrong. Tough as that is my only car! But the way the car was behaving recently suggests to me that the mounts are worn/broken. I was getting a fair amount of engine rock and last night when I was having my wife rev the car in the garage I could see the exhaust move a good 1/4" under rev. The car has also "pulled a bit" under hard accelleration. I bought the car new so these are changes I've noticed over time. The weld on the Milltek was OK--the metal actually tore and broke the bracket. Good thing I have a great welder working for me!! He's already done 3 or 4 unrelated repair jobs on my catback. I would have thrown that piece of **** away long ago if I didn't have a good welder and it didn't make so much power....

Re: Wheel hop / vibration problem at launch. Possible solution? This may be my imagination, but my Cayman's rear end stability on a rapid starts seems to have improved since I installed a stiffer H&R rear sway bar using non-compliant Tarett drop links. Besides killing the stock under steer, I'm simply not getting the hopping or looseness I was having before the upgrade. Added sway bar stiffness will increase the resonant frequency of counter or ping-pong rear wheel motion due to unstable tire traction. Any comments on this strange idea?

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Wheel hop happens; you figure out how your car likes to be launched and you avoid it. I've gotten some wheel hop in every sports car I've owned, including my torqueless (but wonderful) Honda S2000 . As somebody else pointed out, the weighting/spring characteristics of our cars may make it more prevalent than some vehicles. There are changes/compromises you can make to minimize it if it's really a problem for you, but to me it's like learning the clutch engagement of your car; the clutch isn't flawed because you can stall it by using it wrong.

The front engine mount looks more difficult to replace than the back 2 tranny mounts. But, we'll see. I did see that warning about a 100 times in the Porsche manual about not undoing the center nut on the back tranny mounts! Even with all of the info on that, I really didn't see too much detailed info on how to replace the mounts while the motor is in the car. Only when it is out or by taking out the tranny.

Regarding the OT and "wheel hop"... "Wheel hop" is generally accepted to refer to violent shaking during the transition between losing/ gaining traction. I found this to be interesting. mc²racing The things that make our cars great around corners makes them less great at smoky, smooth, straight-line burnouts from any RPM. IMO this is not a design flaw. There are cars that are great at this. Rental cars. LOL.

:hilarious:

Plot thickens. Ok So I send the dealer this video of the Boxster Spyder with the wheel hop problem which apparently does not exist. ???? ? Porsche 987 Boxster Spyder - Top Gear / VBOX7 Look at the exhaust tips on the video at the 22 to 24 second mark for evidence of the vibration problem. So now the reply is its normal and to reduce the problem, reduce the power to the driveline!!! WTF!!! Grrrrr :crazy:

My question to you, is what do you really expect him to do for you if he is selling cars that hop from the factory? He can just report your complain to Porsche Germany... what else do you expect? Trade in with a GT2, it doesn't seem to hop to me

I expect they suggest an authorized modification for the car that I can do myself. I also expect they should understand this problem exists and not allow it to happen on future models (esp if I am to consider Cayman -R). Better to have a voice and say something than to put up and shut up. GT2? nah the balance is all wrong in that car.

I could be the only one in this forum who is madly in love with the GT2 while everybody else favors the GT3... that's sad!

I find it irritating too. I don't drive THAT hard. I get 100000 mile out of a clutch and 25000+ miles out of a set of Pilot Sports or Conti DWs but. IN THE RAIN I HAVE TO BE CAREFUL IN FIRST GEAR TO AVOID WHEEL HOP. :-/