Severe wheel tramping when accelerating

[MikeEH]

I've had my 2010 T27 1.8 petrol Avensis for just over 2 years and up to now have never made a rapid acceleration, always driving carefully in my usual way. However, today I was trying to get out onto a main road and there was a never ending line of cars going both ways. So I 'recklessly' decided to rapidly accelerate out into the herd of cars at the earliest and safest opportunity, which I did. And if I did! The front wheels started to tramp like nobody's business - the dull thumping from both front wheels startled me for a moment or two. When I came home - I live in a cul de sac with a turning area at the end of the road - I drove down to the turning area, the road being on an incline, and stopped, put it into reverse and reversed a little more rapidly than I've done before, only to experience the dull tramping sound again, and I only reversed about 15 feet. The car passed it's MOT two weeks ago with no advisories. Is this normal behaviour for the Avensis.

[MikeEH]

I don't know why the word was removed. It was the motoring term for bounce.

[Cyker]

Does your Avensis have traction control? It could be that kicking in?

I also have a vague recollection of someone posting something similar several months ago but damned if I can find the post...!

 

[yossarian247]

What sort of tyres does it have on it? It just sounds like the front wheels losing grip under hard acceleration? Usually a combination of a wet/slippery road and not very good tyres 

[Catlover]

I tend to agree with Nock above. I you have always driven like your elderly auntie and then you go for a gap out of frustration, something you dont normally do, you likely to wheel slippage and it can sound dramatic. SIde roads with loose chippings can be such a type of road, but it can happen on any road really, depending how severe on the throttle.

[flash22]

What make and model are the tires ? What is the date stamp on them ?, old, cold and hard tires will wheelspin, after 5-7 year the tires go off, cheaper tires tend to go rock hard, saying that cheap Chinese budget tires (aka ditch finders) are like this from new

[Konrad C]

I have the 1.8 2009 TR Tourer. The tyres are budget and the grip is fine in most situations. I don't have wheel tramping, but remember that can happen with cars with worn suspension - my brother had a Fiat Uno Turbo with that issue, so we changed the worn shock absorber to fixed the problem.

Back to my car, I recently had to do a standstill acceleration onto my local 50 mph dual carriageway. No drama and the car got up to speed quickly. Second gear was really strong. I found my car not bad. The suspension is firm and general handling okay. The only recent problem I had, was driving over diesel. That caused the ABS and traction control to cut in at very gentle speeds and application. After a short time and about a couple of miles, the tyres had cleaned up. My clutch was replaced 4 years ago and still strong. I knew it needed changing when I did the odd hard pull and the clutch slipped. Any other time, the clutch was fine. Since the replacement, the clutch has been fine.

I do tyre pressure and condition checks, plus any other general car checks from time to time. The MOT won't always pick up everything, plus the car could be fine at the time of the test, then have a fault after! 
 

[MikeEH]

The road was dry it was a sunny day. The car has done 61K miles and since purchase, due to covid, I'm only doing about 5K miles a year. The tyres are about a year old on the front, pressures are correct and are Korean NFera SU1. Copied from the wall of the tyre.......215/55R17 94V.......Dot UA8V.......Treadwear - 400........Traction - A .........Temperature - A. Don't know if that's good or bad. It seems that I have a VSC control but judging by other posts it doesn't seem to do much, and seemingly does not stop wheel spin.

[Roy124]

Intrigued. 

What word was like bou nced? 

Tram?d

[Parts-King]

Tram ping I think

[FROSTYBALLS]

Title and posts edited.

[TonyHSD]

On 12/9/2021 at 2:21 PM, MikeEH said:

The road was dry it was a sunny day. The car has done 61K miles and since purchase, due to covid, I'm only doing about 5K miles a year. The tyres are about a year old on the front, pressures are correct and are Korean NFera SU1. Copied from the wall of the tyre.......215/55R17 94V.......Dot UA8V.......Treadwear - 400........Traction - A .........Temperature - A. Don't know if that's good or bad. It seems that I have a VSC control but judging by other posts it doesn't seem to do much, and seemingly does not stop wheel spin.

This can be a sign of worn out shocks, springs or other suspension parts like bushes and joints track rod ends, or imbalanced tyres. You can start from all these parts checking thoroughly with vehicle off the ground and tyres on a ramp so no extra stress or load to the parts. Summer tyres also can easily loose grip at temperatures of 10C° and below and so this can be also the culprit for the lost of grip and the event you had. Mot test can not discover issues unless they are an eye soar and easy picks. Nexen are usually a good Korean brand tyres and one of the top rated middle range , they also come as oem for many car manufacturers including  vw. 👍

[MikeEH]

Tyres are still balanced as I get no vibration at any speed. I would have thought that worn bushes and other suspension parts would have been picked up on an MOT on that side to side plate machine that they use. Picked up worn ball joint on my daughter's Juke and worn front stabilizer link on my wife's Micra. Car's only done 61K miles, would that be enough to wear out the shock absorbers?