twas raining in sunny melb on sunday night . . . .

i noticed that my awd tj2 understeers ALOT if you give it full throttle while turning at low speeds .. . . .

has anyone tried any/some of the following, and if so - what were the results:

inc castor - so that when front wheel is turned it gets a bit more negative on outside laden wheel......

soften front springs - to reduce lateral load transfer . .. .

inc rear roll stiffness (ie to induce o/steer)

any thoughts welcome!

regards

simon

Bigger rear sway bar and better tyres. Apart from going to better shocks/springs.

Agreed,

Sorry post again,
Agreed,
A Whiteline rear sway bat will make the biggest difference.

If by itself, the middle setting of the adjustable one is spot on.

I fitted the rear bar first, middle setting : this gives an enormous change to turn in understeer, then a strut brace, only a tiny bit of difference, then a front bar and camber bolts set at 1° negative.
When I put the front bar in I tried on the middle then the hard rear bar setting. Hard was best.

A couple of weeks later I changed the rims to 17x8" with Falken Azensis ST 115's 235/45/17.
Again a further amazing difference. Steering much lighter, turn in understeer almost completely gone. Also so much quieter than the Bridgestone GridII's fitted as standard

I reckon the next change will be to go to harder springs all round, lower the front a tad, as well as fit better shock absorbers.

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be much of a choice for a sporting shock absorber.

Anyone with feedback on the difference between the standard magan Sports shocks and the common alternatives i.e. Monroe Gas and KYB..

Don't know if it helps - but on my sports AWD I did a turn from a stop sign in the wet with full throttle and ended up in oversteer rather than understeer! I didn't think that I would ever see a Magna oversteer but it did!

Handbrake :P

Ahh yeah, especially in the wet. Oversteer is yours in spades. A lot of fun!

agreed - its possible to get an awd to o/steer, particualry at quite low speeds .. . . also possible at higher speeds - just back off quicklyand they can snap!

problem is in the wet - at low speedsa, a lot of throttle with steering lock makes the car push staright ahead ., . . ..

has anyone tried a lot of castor on the front end, or toe out (front) to change outside wheel camber as the wheels are turned . .. and/or decreasing slip angle with steer angle in the case of toe change . ..

agree - a stiffer rear bar will inc lateral load transfer at the rear (and front if roll axis . . .. . ) but this is actually downgrading rear grip rather than increasing front grip . . .. .

spud - have you noticed any difference in tyre waer with 1 deg -ve on the front (strut front ends normally need a lot of camber -ve to compendate fro roll indiced +ve camber . .. )

rgds

simon

unfortunately what you have described is a typical trait of any cars that have a significant amount of power driven through the front treads. Even WRX's and EVO's are known to do this. The only real way to cure it is for the manufacturer to take the approach of porsche for example, who has an AWD system where only 5% of power is put through the front wheels during normal driving, and when its slippy, it can transfer some power forwards then, but only a max of 40%. This makes the car have incredibly good traction, but still "feel" like a RWD car which give it better handling balance and less understeer. Subaru also now have a torque transfer system on their STi models where you can manually set the AWD system to send more power to the rear.

As far as i know, theres no way you can modify the existing AWD system in the magna unfortuantely, so there isnt alot that you can do to fully cure the problem. All you can really do is minimise it. Thicker sway bars and better tyres are your friend here!! If the car is still understeering more then you like, you can look at stiffer (not softer) springs and some quality shocks. Monroe GT gass shocks are good if your after a good ride/handling combo, however if your after some really good handling then i like koni's.. however they are a bit $$$

hope this helps.

I've been thinking about removing the cv's to get a rwd Magna. Wonder how that will upset the traction control fairy.....

I've been thinking about removing the cv's to get a rwd Magna. Wonder how that will upset the traction control fairy.....
http://mrtrally.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19306

I've been thinking about removing the cv's to get a rwd Magna. Wonder how that will upset the traction control fairy.....

i have heard of people doing this in japan with skyrines to turn them into drifters... and a GTR skyrine has much more advanced traction control and computers etc then our AWD's so i dunno why it couldnt be done...

Errr we dont have traction control. Not sure how it will work with the centre coupling though.