Only left wheel rotates???

[89accordlxi]

OK, I had the front end of the car jacked up the other day because I was getting some scratching noise coming from the right front tire. I had this brilliant idea where I was going to put the car in gear and let it spin the wheels so I could go see what was making the scratching noise. To my surprise and disappointment, only the left tire was spinning but not the right. I was like
Is that normal or is something wrong with my car?

Thanks for any insight

Peace..

[87accordlx]

our cars don't have a limited slip differertial (LSD) so the power goes through the path of least resistance, this is normal, however when you are driving don't worry that only one wheel is turning, it's about 50/50 then

[jteuton]

hmmm.....well i thought the left wheel spins no matter what....in another words....the right will never pull unless you have an lsd. For instance if the left wheel gets stuck in mud and the right one is on dry pavement you are screwed unless you have limited slip.

[shepherd79]

here is how you can test it if your right tire spins. next time is raining, stop turn your whell to the right and smack the gas, you right tire will spin because it doesn't have grip.

[jteuton]

but it didn't have grip when he had it in the air the other day. so what gives? it should have rotated some in thin air is seems to me unless its just not even connected to a drive gear?????? I'm thinking that with the left tire up in the air and spinning, the differential should have spun the right wheel if that is correct however it only spun one so i think that is the only one that ever spins.....

[jteuton]

oh and to answer your orginal question.....thats perfectly normal and its called an open differential. Did you know that 4wd trucks only spin the left front when in 4 wheel drive mode?

[89accordlxi]

Good to hear that it is a normal thing. I was a bit concerned for a while there. I thought I had broken my axle or something. Too bad we don't have LSD on our cars!!
whats up with the 4wd thing. Is that true. What's the purpose of 4wd then???

Peace out...

[Immeraufdemhund]

hey if you want to here's what you can do. have some young kid hold on to your left tire.. put it in first...and you'll see your right tire spin too. ORRR!!1 the smarter way is to try moving the right tire with it in gear and it will spin a little bit on it's own. It did that in both my accord and my prelude.. If i held on to one of the tires in the prelude the other would start to spin.

[89accordlxi]

Has anyone ever owned an RC car that did that. Sometimes when your playing with it on gravel, only one tire would spin out. Then if you hold the car in the air, both wheels would spin but if you held on to one of the wheels, the other would keep spinning. And if the car is off and you spun one of the wheels by hand, the other would spin in the opposite direction. I wonder if that would happen with our cars...

Just thought I'd share..

Peace out..

[smufguy]

yes its true on the 4wd and all wheel drive configurations. if one wheel is like up in the air while the other is stuck in a mud. the diff disengages on the one in the air, and puts all the power in ur stuck wheel to get u out. its a brilliant idea and u can find the best awd for cars in an audi and subaru is catching up pretty quick. i would love a 3g awd custom if someone makes em .

[jteuton]

ok....i'm not totally positive about what each and every model accord has but here are the facts
1. in an open differential configuration only one wheel spins ...the right rear (rwd) or left front (fwd).....and the other wheel will spin in the opposite direction i'm sure
2. in a lsd the the other wheel will spin if the first wheel looses traction
3. in a locker both wheels spin all the time but when turning in a corner will cause tire to chirp cause the outside tire need to turn at a different radius so thats why lsd was invented.
4.i have a friend who has an open differential and his other tire spins occasionally......i have no clue why
5. most four wheel drive have a lsd rearend which gives you two tires to aid in traction while having an open frondend. Some cars could possible have a lsd in the front and back in awd mode which kicks serious ass and is the best configuration.
6. on most trucks they use an open differential in the front and lsd in the rear so they aren't true 4wd's
7. no cars come from the factory these days with lockers. The easiest way to get a locker is to weld the gears together. (old hotrod trick)
8. Does the awd subaru have lsd on both axles?
9. I'm pretty sure on the accord you would have an open so i'm thinking there is only one wheel that does the pulling all the time
10. some older 4wd trucks you can actually lock in the axles you want the power to go to

[ACCORD EX]

yes 89accordlxi !
2 wheels up , both will spin !
one wheel up , that one only will spin !
spin the wheel with hand , the other one will spin in the other direction !

MIKE

[jteuton]

ok so somebody explain the difference between awd and 4wd cause thats where i start to lose it

[jteuton]

i didn't think both wheels will spin when they are up in the air on our car....only one does???? right??.....well with all these techno gadgets on newer cars and sensors and split time sharing and stuff who knows which wheel is getting traction and what percentage. I thought the subaru gives power to the wheel with the most traction but i also though that the right wheel on the accord has no purpose.....????

[locknload68]

Why would they design a car where only one wheel has power to it. The power is split between both wheels. The wheel that is easier to turn has more power tranmitted to it. That means the left wheel must be easier to turn when both wheels are in the air. If you would have slowed it down a little bit, that resistance would cause the right wheel to turn. If the right wheel has no purpose, then why is there an axle going to it? If you don't believe me about this, it's all right here:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/differential2.htm

[jteuton]

well i knew i was confused.....thanks for the link......

[ACCORD EX]

Originally posted by jteuton
i didn't think both wheels will spin when they are up in the air on our car....only one does???? right??.....well with all these techno gadgets on newer cars and sensors and split time sharing and stuff who knows which wheel is getting traction and what percentage. I thought the subaru gives power to the wheel with the most traction but i also though that the right wheel on the accord has no purpose.....????

when i raised my car ( front end ) both wheels turned ! so this is real time experience not justa theory !

MIKE

[Immeraufdemhund]

at higher speeds both would spin.....BUT my drivers side would spin a bunch quicker than my passangers side. (but as of now i can't even turn on my car... stupid bad drivers)

[Coitis1]

this hasn't been answered yet so i'll ask again, what's the difference between 4wd and awd? and i was just wondering if only one wheel got power wouldn't ur car drift to the side instead of driving straight? or at least put tremendous stress on the control arms or something?

[quagmire]

In an open diff, the power is supplied to both wheels equally, unless there is a loss of traction to one wheel. When this happens, the differential delivers more power to the wheel with less traction, which is why an open diff car does a one wheel burnout. So if a tire is in the air and the other is in the mud, then the power goes to the wheel in the air, because it is encountering less resistance and the diff thinks it has the least traction. The reason a differential does this is because, in a turn, the outside wheel must turn faster than the inside wheel to cover a longer distance in the same time. A limited slip is so named because it is "smart" enough to tell between turning and a loss of traction when accelerating, etc. So it differentiates to allow for the different wheel speeds in a turn and doesnt for the second case.

The difference between 4wd and awd is that 4wd vehicles have a two speed transfer case, ie 4high and 4low. A awd has a single speed with a 1:1 ratio, the same as the 4high on the 4wd.

As for when the wheels are up in the air, i cant say why it choose the left wheel. I imagine it has something to do with crank rotation direction and the design of the differential.

I hope this helps.