FWD Tire Heating Issues

[Erik Bennett]

I've started to get very serious in my sim racing lately and have been using RTT on a second monitor to watch tire temps. It seems no matter what my setup is (at this moment I'm sticking with FWD cars) either the driver side or passenger side tire goes 30% hotter than the other. I've tried changing the anti-roll bar, softening or tightening springs on the corner that does. Can anyone explain this better to me? I've read through the RD Setup Guides and alot of it makes sense to me but there are some things that still go over my head.

 

[Erik Tveit]

Well, its no more advanced than that the car actually is FWD.

FWD = All power and every steering input is affecting the temps on only the Front Wheels
RWD = All power on the back wheels, and since it isn't dragging it self through the corners, less temps on the Front wheels.
AWD = Power on all wheels, but depends on the torque setting. Like a 50/50 torque setting will have higher front temps. But a 40/60 or 30/70 depending on the car will have more or less equal tire temps.

 

[William Levesque]

Good boy Erik

 

[Marco Bijl]

You are right about that Erik.

However, it does not explain why 1 of the tires has different temps then the other one.
I think it depends on the track, and the direction in it. Are there a lot of right turns, or are there a lot of left turns in it. The inner tire in the corner produces the least amount of heat since it has less friction then the outer tire. Try driving on an oval with a regular setup, and you will see what I mean

But then again, I am no expert on this

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

It depends on what direction you're traveling. Clockwise and you left front has the highest temps, counter-clockwise it's the right front. Some tracks are cleverly designed to get more equal tire wear/temps, like one long corner in the opposite direction that loads the not-so-much used tire a lot. Some track are spesifically designed to eat the most loaded tire for breakfast before starting to enjoy the main course.. Driver can affect a lot how the tires behave, if one corner is hotter than the other so much it's starting to get to a problem, you either need to set LSD to tighter settings or try to take some corners differently. If the unloaded tire gets too cold (right front in clockwise tracks) use too much steering angle in couple of corners to get temps up. It increases tirewear but unloaded tires have anyway less tire wear and balanced front tires are better than one used, one new.

 

[Erik Bennett]

After a few hours of trying different setups out I've got the fronts within 10-15% of each other, one is still hotter than the other after about 6 laps. It does make sense what Kennett and Marco said about the tracks because I realized a lot of the tracks I was testing setups at were dominant lefts or dominant rights (a lot of the STCC2 tracks). I played on the oval for about an hour then it kind of hit me how all the different settings for toeing in and springs and such work together. My setups might be weak compared to the pro's at this point but I'm going for a balanced car until I get a lot better. I'm trying the Jensen Button approach (Smooth is Fast).

Thank you all for the advice. Can't wait till my application is approved so I can race with you all.

 

[Mark Gormley]

I've dubbed this 'Anderstorp Syndrome' but what has been mentioned above is correct, one tyre is doing more work, and something about thermodynamics which I should really know relates work and heat. There's probably a way to get creative with springs or cambers but I haven't discovered any cure for this other than a pitstop.