Ok, so I just pushed over 2000 miles and got the oil changed and was doing some extra spirited driving yesterday and noticed something very strange.

I was trying to peel out in a parking lot with the VDC off to test my launching abilities, etc.

Well I'd rev the car to like 3k and drop the clutch and when the tires started to spin there was this loud *thump* *thump* *thump* from the rear axle area. I'm assuming this is the slip differential kicking in so that I wouldn't lose traction.

Is this normal? I did a little rev and dump on a little gravel and the tires spun like crazy and I didn't hear the thumping. If I have the VDC on and I'm at a light and just take off, I don't hear the thumping noise but then again the VDC is making sure I don't lose traction and cutting throttle.

Anyways, I just wanted to know if this is normal. What I never tried yet was to come to a complete stop and then turn off VDC and try to burn the tires.

Any thoughts?

 

I believe what you are hearing is wheel hop. next time u drop ur clutch, try to feather it a tiny bit. a straight drop will cause massive trauma to the drivetrain, causing wheel hop. if u can kinda "ease" into it a lil bit more, it should go away.

 

Crap. I've only done it a couple times...maybe 3 times total. Do you think I did something bad to the drivetrain?

 

Dude you don't drop the clutch on our cars. Feather it. The clutch in these cars is awesome so don't worry about Feathering it. And yeah bad wheel hop too often can result in a control arm problem. But just be careful and if your tires seems to be sinking in one side more than another than take it to the dealer. Don't say you were launching it just say you might have hit a bump and it'll be warrantied. I doubt you did any harm so don't worry...but it happened to me already at 28K Miles. But I hit the track almost every week. And I sucked at launching. I've had better results launching at 2500 or so.