Wheelspin on hills

[Burgo]

Leaving our house we have a steep hill with a tight 180 hairpin we have to climb from stationary. We have to really hug the outside radius where it's slightly less steep otherwise we get stuck no matter how gently you touch the accelerator. Even in summer if you cut the corner onto the steeper bit the MG4 will not go up, but just spins the rear wheel. Recently we have had a lot of rain (we live in Andalucia) and on occasions have been unable to go up the road unless we really hug the outside. The tyres on the car are the original Bridgestone Turanzas.
Does anyone else have problems starting off up hill in slippery conditions?
I know that 'Snow' mode reduces the impact of regenerative braking - does it help in anyway for hill starts??
Any ideas?

 

[bedsev]

Snow mode would not help for accelerating, it's just to stop the wheels locking in snow, which is the opposite problem to what you have.

Do you have any neighbours with RWD cars? Do they have the same problem?

Silly option, but may be useful, can you reverse up the hill? i.e. do it as FWD

 

[ReintjeWA]

In my experience Bridgestone tyres are horrendous for grip, especially in wet conditions. My MG4 loses traction just pulling out of a side street in the wet on these things.

It seems perhaps wasteful but I wouldn’t be surprised if you get better results with a different tyre.

 

[STG]

I get something similar, there is part of a road I travel on everyday and their is a large metal drain cover near the curb (about 1.5m lg) and passengers rear wheel spins due to torque on the slippery metal surface when wet so I always make sure no power is being applied before reaching it.

So it could be on the hill there is less grip for one of you wheels so it takes all the power from the other driving wheel. You could try turning Traction control off I suppose and try the hill?

 

[gdog]

Two bags of gravel in boot will sort it listening to BMW/Mercedes drivers

 

[Tuareg]

Two bags of gravel in boot will sort it listening to BMW/Mercedes drivers

The motor is already in the back.

 

[gdog]

The motor is already in the back.

Regardless to 50/50 weight balance, obviously a bit more weight in rear is going to help. I think BMW claim 50/50 also

 

[mg4mc]

With a hairpin bend there is also a twisting action on the car body that unloads the inner wheel which makes things worse.

 

[Tuareg]

Regardless to 50/50 weight balance, obviously a bit more weight in rear is going to help. I think BMW claim 50/50 also

Yes but on such a steep hill, the weight disttibutiin won't be 50/50, it'll probably be at least 70/30 or even 80/20. Sounds like there's a problem with the road surface. I remember bein in an Austrian ski area a vew years back, a friend had rented a Mercedes A class. He couldn't get it up the hill to the chalet as it kept spinning its front driving wheels. I took it to the lowest point down the hill and reversed it up without any problems, effectively shifting the weight to the back and making it 'rear wheel drive' for that stretch of hill.

 

[slmorgan42]

Does switching to eco mode help as this reduces power.

 

[gdog]

Does switching to eco mode help as this reduces power.

I think it just makes throttle peddle less responsive. May help you manage power delivery some

 

[slmorgan42]

I think it just makes throttle peddle less responsive. May help you manage power delivery some

Yeah that was sort of my thinking. I got stuck in mud once and switching to eco helped get me out. That was different as the car was not in motion of course like going up a hill.

 

[Burgo]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I think it's a combination of a quite hard rubber mix in the tyres, a pretty heavy vehicle, the geometry / dynamics of a tight corner on a steep hill and, to be fair, a pretty old & cheap road surface.
I'll give 'Eco' mode a try as by reducing the throttle response it may help - though after over a year we are pretty used to pulling off using only the miniscule amount of the loud pedal required to overcome gravity.
Also wondering why the traction control doesn't help much - as one wheel spins then it should apply braking to that wheel. Could be that the system is over loaded by the torque generated due to climbing and turning so sharply???

 

[slmorgan42]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I think it's a combination of a quite hard rubber mix in the tyres, a pretty heavy vehicle, the geometry / dynamics of a tight corner on a steep hill and, to be fair, a pretty old & cheap road surface.
I'll give 'Eco' mode a try as by reducing the throttle response it may help - though after over a year we are pretty used to pulling off using only the miniscule amount of the loud pedal required to overcome gravity.
Also wondering why the traction control doesn't help much - as one wheel spins then it should apply braking to that wheel. Could be that the system is over loaded by the torque generated due to climbing and turning so sharply???

Yeah the sharp turn will not help. Always have better luck going in a straight line but obviously the road dictates you have to turn.

 

[QLeo]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I think it's a combination of a quite hard rubber mix in the tyres, a pretty heavy vehicle, the geometry / dynamics of a tight corner on a steep hill and, to be fair, a pretty old & cheap road surface.
I'll give 'Eco' mode a try as by reducing the throttle response it may help - though after over a year we are pretty used to pulling off using only the miniscule amount of the loud pedal required to overcome gravity.
Also wondering why the traction control doesn't help much - as one wheel spins then it should apply braking to that wheel. Could be that the system is over loaded by the torque generated due to climbing and turning so sharply???

Having had to go up a 90+ degree bend on a hill that usually requires 50% of power, in the snow, a few times, I would definitely try both eco AND snow modes for this section. I can't be sure, but it felt to me that snow mode does help prevent wheelspin by feeding in the power more gently.
There is definitely a world of difference between eco and normal under those circumstances, though.
Re the snow, the one caveat is that we have all-season tyres.