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Constant-Velocity Joints Universal Joints Independent Rear Suspension

Front-wheel drive vehicles have some disadvantages compared to rear-wheel drive vehicles. They have less weight over the driving wheels, reducing towing capacity. The CV joints in the front wheels wear out faster than the universal joints in rear-wheel drive vehicles due to increased flexing and wider range of motion. Front-wheel drive cars also have a larger turning radius due to limits on how far the front wheels can turn with the transverse engine configuration. This layout also restricts engine size, limiting high-performance vehicles to inline-4 and V6 engines primarily.

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55 views1 page

Constant-Velocity Joints Universal Joints Independent Rear Suspension

Front-wheel drive vehicles have some disadvantages compared to rear-wheel drive vehicles. They have less weight over the driving wheels, reducing towing capacity. The CV joints in the front wheels wear out faster than the universal joints in rear-wheel drive vehicles due to increased flexing and wider range of motion. Front-wheel drive cars also have a larger turning radius due to limits on how far the front wheels can turn with the transverse engine configuration. This layout also restricts engine size, limiting high-performance vehicles to inline-4 and V6 engines primarily.

Uploaded by

vijayakumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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In some towing situations, front-wheel-drive cars can be at a traction disadvantage since

there will be less weight on the driving wheels. Because of this, the weight that the vehicle is
rated to safely tow is likely to be less than that of a rear-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive vehicle
of the same size and power.
Due to geometry and packaging constraints, the CV joints (constant-velocity joints) attached
to the wheel hub have a tendency to wear out much earlier than the universal joints typically
used in their rear-wheel-drive counterparts (although rear-wheel-drive vehicles with independent
rear suspension also employ CV joints and half-shafts). The significantly shorter drive axles on a
front-wheel-drive car causes the joint to flex through a much wider degree of motion,
compounded by additional stress and angles of steering, while the CV joints of a rear-wheeldrive car regularly see angles and wear of less than half that of front-wheel-drive vehicles.
Turning circle FF layouts almost always use a Transverse engine ("east-west")
installation, which limits the amount by which the front wheels can turn, thus increasing the
turning circle of a front-wheel-drive car compared to a rear-wheel-drive one with the same
wheelbase. A notable example is the original Mini. It is widely misconceived that this limitation
is due to a limit on the angle at which a CV joint can be operated, but this is easily disproved by
considering the turning circle of car models that use a longitudinal FF or F4 layout from Audi
and (prior to 1992) Saab
The FF transverse engine layout (also known as "east-west") restricts the size of the engine
that can be placed in modern engine compartments, so it is rarely adopted by powerful luxury
and sports cars. FF configurations can usually only accommodate Inline-4 and V6 engines, while
longer engines such as Inline-6 and 90 big-bore V8 will rarely fit, though there are exceptions.
One way around this problem is using a staggered engine.
It makes heavier use of the front tyres (i.e., accelerating, braking, and turning), causing more
wear in the front than in a rear-wheel-drive layout.
Under extreme braking (like for instance in a panic stop), the already front heavy layout
further reduces traction to the rear wheels. This results in disproportionate gripping forces
focused at the front while the rear does not have enough weight to effectively use its brakes.
Because the rear tyres' capabilities in braking are not very high, a significant number of cheaper
front drive vehicles use drum brakes in the rear even today.

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