Professor

Except for a few times (and at cruising speed), I haven't even clocked 4500 or 5000 rpms since I purchased the car in April.

Today coming out of a parking lot, I pulled out a little close to the car coming down the road, and I punch it to about 5000 rpms from a stop. During the turn, the outside front wheel broke loose and spun the tire. The left side was solid. I actually thought I might over correct into the opposing lane.

Is the power going to the right-side front wheel only?

Megatron

First question is why are you posting this in the 2nd Gen RL forum when it's about a TSX???

But in any event, what you are describing is the effect of an open differential. Read about how differentials work and you will understand what I mean. But to just explain it simply, with normal, open differentials, power goes to the wheel with LEAST traction, so if you have one wheel that is spinning, all the gas you step on will just make that tire spin faster... it will not increase power to the tire with grip. It's not designed like that on purpose... it's just a side effect of how differentials work.

To avoid this problem, you need a Limited slip differential... which the TSX does not have. The VSA system might try applying the brake to the slipping wheel to force more power to the other wheel, but this is not good enough in most cases compared to a limited slip diff.

Hope this helps...

oo7spy

While I new mostly how differentials worked, I did not know it that well. Is there such a thing as a locking differential? I want to say my dad's 2000 Cummins turbo diesel has one.

Professor

So I fawk up. We going to close that f'ker down.

Megatron

Most trucks and 4WD (note: 4WD not AWD) vehicles have some way to lock the differential so that you won't have the open differential problem if one tire spins. HOWEVER, you can only use it when you are going slow and straight because the result of a locked differential is that both tires MUST rotate at the same rate. If you are turning, the outer wheel needs to turn faster than the inner one... so with a locked diff, you will force one or the other wheel to spin at the same rate as the other, causing stress on the drivetrain AND dragging of the tire on the road (like towing wth your brakes on!). Not good... This is why differentials were created... to avoid this problem with "differential" rotation speeds required in a turn.

A locking differential would not have helped the OP because he experienced his wheel slip in a turn, you would not have (or wanted to) have the differential locked before going into a turn anyways.

This is why limited slip differentials were created... it allows a "limited" amount of slip to satisfy the speed difference requirements in a turn, but once it senses (either mechanically, hydraulically, or electronically) that one wheel is slipping way more than would be caused by a normal turn, it limits the slip so that more power can go to the other wheel, which theoretically would have more grip.

Hopes this clears things up a bit more...

FYI... with Honda, it's usually the "sport"-minded cars that have limited slip diff... the Civic SI and S2000 are the two that come to mind right away. Luxury and family cars rarely have limited slip. Just an observation...

oo7spy

Man, if you have this depth of information, why do you average 33 posts/year?!? This is good stuff.

I guess you never stumbled into Ramblings.

Megatron

Thanks for your compliments. I guess I never have run into a post where someone asked this before. You're right though, I don't go into Ramblings much, but I am in the 2G RL forum a lot. Guess it was just luck that someone MIS-posted about the TSX in the 2G RL forum because probably wouldn't have gotten this question about the RL since it has SH-AWD.

By the way, the only reason I know all this stuff about differentials is because I was once stuck in snow/ice about 20 years ago and I was like WHY THE HECK is the tire on the ice the only one that is moving when I gas it!!! That drove me to investigate and understand how drivetrains work!

Feel free to let me know if I can clear anything else up!

oo7spy

Stumbling into Ramblings can turn into a serious issue, so be careful if you do venture there. Probably half of my posts go there, and 90% of those are useless. One good thing to come out of it is that it has saved me from completely trolling this forum.

neuronbob

Leaving open as it provides valuable info despite OP's error.