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Caution with 2nd hand LSD

3K views 33 replies 11 participants last post by  Madasadad1 
#1 ·
I appreciate im probably in the minority who has had a bad experience when purchasing a 2nd hand LSD but my experience recently has highlighted that extreme car must be exercised with both the purchase and fitting.....
So an opportunity arose to purchase a quaife from a person trading their car in. The person suggested a garage known to people in the local BMW community. A date was arranged and on the morning we met the cars were left with the garage and then collected later. In an attempt to make sure i wasnt getting shafted, I got the garage to send a video of the wheels being turned, to confirm an lsd in place and the wheels turning in the same direction. The garage did a half shaft swap since they didnt have the 50mm spanner (that raised an eyebrow, but no matter)
On picking the car up, i noticed a faint whine from the rear of the car and mentioned it to the seller who stated it didn't do it in his car. Mentioned it to the garage who said, seemed fine to us, we werent near the diff since we did a half shaft swap.
So with both parties saying, not our problem, and having no choice but to drive the car I eventually managed to get the car up on a vehicle lift and videoed the noise it makes. I approached a coupe of quaife specialists who diagnose, without having it opened up, failed pinion bearing as the most likely issue.
Estimated costs for repair by Birds £800! Solution, buy another open diff and transfer the quaife into, so long as its not wrecked! An oil change showed heavy contamination with metal and the differential overfilled with oil. A new diff was purchased from ebay and I arranged delivery by UPS, who succeeded in delivering the box the diff was packed into, minus the differential! That investigation process is ongoing. Ive had to buy ANOTHER one at twice the cost since I have fitting arranged for 7th Jan.
So my advice is..... before you buy your diff, hear it in the car you're buying it from or you may just be buying a box or rotating metal shavings, also make sure you can verify the capabilities of the guy fitting it!
I obviously bought a perfect differential from a reliable seller that was subsequently installed by a highly skilled garage. A differential that as soon as I started the car, **** itself and was left me with a scenario where by the time i get this resolved I may have a quaife LSD fitted for more than the cost of a new one, or most likely since the quaife is likely goosed as well, It'll have cost me almost £2k to end up where I started, with an Open Differential and vowing never to try and do stuff on the cheap again.

BUYER BEWARE
 
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#27 ·
padders said:
Are you on all season or winter tyres? If not I fully agree, in fact I wouldn't even be that keen to use anything other than Eco-Pro to damp the torque delivery! Non summer tyres are rather more forgiving of lower tyre temps.
MPSS.

I look forward to switching to MP4S when my current tyres are worn down.
 
#28 ·
padders said:
Are you on all season or winter tyres? If not I fully agree, in fact I wouldn't even be that keen to use anything other than Eco-Pro to damp the torque delivery! Non summer tyres are rather more forgiving of lower tyre temps.
You do realise that engine torque in ECOPRO is EXACTLY the same as in any other mode? Just the throttle pedal stretched out to give a finer scale.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#29 ·
NISFAN said:
padders said:
Are you on all season or winter tyres? If not I fully agree, in fact I wouldn't even be that keen to use anything other than Eco-Pro to damp the torque delivery! Non summer tyres are rather more forgiving of lower tyre temps.
You do realise that engine torque in ECOPRO is EXACTLY the same as in any other mode? Just the throttle pedal stretched out to give a finer scale.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I said torque delivery. Half throttle in EP delivers less torque than half throttle in Comfort or Sport because in actual fact it delivers less throttle. I wasn't suggesting any boost changes Do you dispute that on unsuitable tyres, in adverse conditions, Eco Pro is more likely to get you moving and less likely to put you backwards into a hedge*? Driving in Comfort Mode with delicate throttle sensitivity where necessary would do the job just as well of course.

*though is also saps your will to live
 
#34 ·
Are you on all season or winter tyres? If not I fully agree, in fact I wouldn't even be that keen to use anything other than Eco-Pro to damp the torque delivery! Non summer tyres are rather more forgiving of lower tyre temps.
[/quote]

Im on Michelin Cross Climates, brilliant for this time of year
 
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