Front Wheel Drive (FWD)

Front wheel drives (FWD) or (front engine, front wheel drive) vehicles have the engine, transmission and driven wheels at the front of a vehicle. This means that the rear wheel axle is not equipped with a differential. The front wheels axle instead has a differential to split the torque.

In a FWD, the engine can either be mounted longitudinally or transversely. The disadvantage with longitudinal placement is that the bonnet becomes too long. Hence, transverse mounting is preferred over longitudinal mounting.

The power from the engine is transmitted to the transaxle via a clutch. Clutch allows the gearbox to be completely disengaged with the engine in order to help in smoother gear transition. Transaxle is a drive axle that combines both the transmission and differential functions together.

The transaxle then supplies the power to the front wheels via constant velocity (CV) joints.

Advantages of a FWD:

·         It is compact in structure and hence saves a lot of space. With a transversely mounted engine, the bonnet length can be kept a lot shorter.

·         The ground clearance can be kept low since a tunnel won’t be required in the chassis to accommodate the propeller shaft.

·         More traction on the driven front wheels since the front axle will be carrying more load than the rear axle.

·         Thrust will be in the intended direction which is not the case in rear wheel drives.

Disadvantages of a FWD:

·         Vehicles with high powered engines will tend to move from left to right due to torque steer. The power generated by the engine causes torque steer.

·         Front wheels will undergo more wear due to the heavy load, braking and steering. Rear wheels won’t feel that much heat and thus uneven wearing of the tires take place.

·         Under acceleration, the weight is transferred from the front side of the vehicle to the rear. This reduces the traction between front wheels and the surface.