The problem comes when powering through corners. Lets say you are making a hard right hand turn, ..all the weight is shifted onto the outside tire and off the indside tire, which causes the inside tire to spin. Because of this you cannot power hard out of turns as fast as you want, limiting the TSX's performance capabilities. And LSD would solve this problem by transfering the power from the inside wheel, to the outside wheel with more traction.

 

haha to go buy milk? im sorry but i do own the car. what would my dad want with a TSX? he is a SUV man.

 

An open diff does nothing to limit wheelspin. This article explains everything: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm

 

I guess I'm the dumb Noob with nothing else better to do

How would an LSD help in that situation? or am I misunderstanding what an LSD is. fdl, your saying it transfers power. Does it transfer it at the time of slippage or does it not allow that outside tire to lose grip at all, or spin less than the inside tire? I thought an LSD never allowed one tire to spin less than the other? Both tires spin equally no matter what?

Does'nt VSA transfer power, but yet apply braking at the same time?

 

Actually an LSD doesnt really transfer power, rather it ensures that the outside (non-spinning) wheel will get its equal share of power. With an open differential, all or most of the power will go to the spinning wheel.

As for VSA, when it detects spinning as far as I know it will actually cut power.

 

well, i guess i am a bit of a noob after reading that website on differentials, although i'm sure 90% of the readers of this site didn't know that much detail. I always assumed that fwd and rwd cars only had one drive wheel unless performance oriented, in which case they had some sort of lsd.

i guess i'm used to tooling around in camrys and accords and smokin only one tire. i assumed that only one tire got power.

as for the tsx, if it has an open differential, and you are accelerating from a stop on dry pavement, assume both wheels have same traction, won't both tires spin, based on the fact that the resistance each tire sees is the same?

if this is true, than straight line acceleration should not benefit at all from a true lsd, unless one side of the car is on ice or sand.

i do realize that an lsd is better for autocrossing, due to ability to shift power to outside wheel with more traction, but how many of us are taking our tsx out autocrossing?

in real world driving, it seems lsd won't help much with performance, except in unbalanced traction situations, in which case you probably shouldn't be racing on ice or dirt roads.

 

Sorry to say, but even though I am Canadian and do get 36mpg, I did know exactly how LSDs acted, as well as open differentials.

But you did recognise you didn't know what you were talking about, so I guess some credit must go back to you then.

 

Amen Dan. But (and there always is a but lol), most muscle cars in the 60's that left two black stripes had limited slip diffs called POSI-Traction. I had a 70 cutlass 350 that would spin one tire down to the rim. I had a 72 cutlass with positraction...two black stripes. Now, I am no expert, but, the fact is that on a fron drive transaxle, power is supplied evenly to both front wheels, otherwise, the car would not be easy to control during excelleration. With good adhesion, front drive cars without LSD do in fact spin both tires. LSD only comes into play when one of the tires loses its grip. In this case, a LSD will lock and keep the tire with grip pulling.

 

The whole reason i started this thread is because i wasn unaware of the fact that most FWD cars have open diffs. coming from a RWD musclecar, i know that not every rwd car has a diff. i assumed that fwd would be the same. i am still not convinced that $8K hyundais have an open diff, what with the extra expense invloved.

the point remains that unless you are circuit racing, an lsd has limited real world value. of course if you are one of those jackasses in a ricer racing through the parkway at 100 mph, you may need the lsd, but if you like to stoplight race ricers, an lsd will not provide any benefit over an open diff. unless one tire is on ice and the other on dry sticky pavement. but only an asshole will drag race in those conditions.

 

Again, please read the article posted by Dan Martin. It doesn't matter whether the car is FWD, RWD, or AWD (or whether it is an econobox, family sedan, sports car, or truck). They all have a differential (AWD has 3 differentials), the only difference is whether the differential being used is an open type or limited slip type.

 

Yeah, we covered that one back on page 2, I believe.

 

woudlnt a LSD aide in any sort of turn no matter how light or gradual? in a turn the outside wheel must spin faster than the inside one. if it didnt the outside side of the car would get left behind so in any turn wouldnt the lsd always send more power to the outside wheel than the inside, and increase the difference between the two for harder turns?

 

why then do lincoln town cars smoke only one tire on dry pavement when both tires are experiencing the same traction? smart ass

 

Its the thread that just refuses to die.........

 

Same Cf but not same traction. The torque of the motor coupled with a shitty suspension means that more weight is transferred to one wheel than the other. This type of car would benefit greatly from an LSD.

smart ass

 

i forgot you canadiens know everything

 

Or at least Dan does.

 

I suggest you do a little more searching before calling people smart ass! :pfawk:

Dan, thanks for answering to this smart ass.

 

I am having a limited slip memory installed...then I am going to...uh...never mind...I forget....