Hey Folks,

What's a sure fire way to tell if my Limited Slip Differential is working correctly?

TL-Rocket

'04 TL SSM/Ebony/6MT/NAVI/HPT

 

Probably not the best, but it's sure fire=do what some drag racers do, dump the clutch and burn rubber. If both tires smoke, it's working.

 

take a can of motor oil or lard and coat your right front tire with it, making sure that none of it touches your left front tire.

get in your car. clutch in. rev the car to 3000rpm. shift into first. then slide your left foot left until the clutch pedal pops up.

The car should launch forward if you have limited slip. If not, your right front tire will spin uselessly.

This will be sure fire to check if your limited slip works.

 

I thought you were looking for a way to make sure you weren't getting ripped off by your dealer (drug dealer that is).

 

The best and least intrusive way is to wait for some light, dry snow or some ice, then try to get one tire on a section of pavement with some good traction and the other where it's slick. Your LSD should compensate for the difference by forcing the two drive wheels to share the torque. An old trick was to preload the drive wheels (RWD) by carefully applying the emergency or foot brake to force equal distribution of torque.

 

SB, it is 74 degrees in central Virginia today!!! - I would look for a bit of sand on the road, or a neighbor's lawn.

 

To Road Rage;

He lives in Massachusetts, not Virginia. My first thought was sand, but then I thought that thrown sand can cause scratches on the paint, so that's why I mentioned "least intrusive". Light snow (preferrably) or ice will cause virtually no damage for this type of test.

Now for a neighbor's lawn.. that's why we have guns. To shoot the fella who does lawn jobs on our lawns.. right?

 

Anyway, Road Rage. How come you have 74 degrees and we're stuck with the mid 50's to 60 here in God-forsaken (it pains me to say it) Northern Virginia.

Take care, friend.

 

water is always a good stand by... have someone coat the 1 tire in water... (as much area as possible) dont get any one the other side. have them continue to hose down the tire while you get in and dump the clutch with a little rpm. the object is to break traction, so you have to be kinda nasty with the clutch engament (aka: dump it) if the car accelerates good lsd, if the wet tire goes up in smoke and the other takes a nap, bad or missing lsd

 

The proper way to see this is to jack the front end up and start the car. Put it in 1st and engage the clutch. Let the cars tires spin freely with no extra gas. Now go around to one side and see of both tires are turning. If they are try and stopping one side carefully with your hands. If it will not stop you have LSD. If it does and the other side just starts to spin faster or the same speed then you do not have LSD.

 

when i looked at the thread i was like ..... huh? lsd test? lol. sorry

 

when i looked at the thread i was like ..... huh? lsd test? lol. sorry

 

With RWD cars that had LSD rear ends, you could jack up the rear of the car then with the engine off, tranny in neutral, and emergency brake off, turn one of the rear wheels by hand. If the other one turned in the same direction, you had LSD. If they turned in opposite directions, you didn't.

 

Same applies to FWD if it is the same LSD type...

Since there are a few different mechanisms the other wheel might not turn at all because theres not enough speed difference between the 2 wheels

 

+1 This way seems less harsh on your clutch.

 

Holy 5 year old (since last post) thread revival.

 

Haha, I didnt even notice its been 5 yrs

 

If you read this link on page 28-29, everything is explained about how to check the LSD. Page 24-27 explain how it works: http://www.importworkshop.com/files/...ical-guide.pdf

Operation:
- engine off, raise front end and place on jack stands
- block rear wheels and apply parking brake
- Shift trans into 1st and rotate one wheel by hand and make sure other wheels turns opposite direction
- repeat procedure for other wheel

Limit Torque Check:
- engine off and front on jack stands
- block rear wheels apply parking brake
- Trans in neutral, using a flex-type torque wrench measure max torque while rotating wheel backwards (use two full rotations)
- Trans in 1st, repeat previous measurment
- Calculate limit torque by dividing step 3 by step 4 (should be greater than or equal to 2.5)
- Repeat procedure on other wheel
- Replace LSD if limit torque is lower than 2.5

They are saying it should be more than twice as hard to turn the wheel with the car in gear.