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Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:36 pm
by splitpin
Decided to check rear diff oil, found posts on forum saying to check wether limited slip by jacking both rear wheels, turning one by hand and if other side turns same way it is limited slip diff. Mine turned in other direction so I think should not be fitted with lsd. After topping up, I found a small yellow label on back axle saying only to use limited slip oil. So now I wonder if I have limited slip diff or not.
Thanks.

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:40 pm
by scanner
splitpin wrote:Decided to check rear diff oil, found posts on forum saying to check wether limited slip by jacking both rear wheels, turning one by hand and if other side turns same way it is limited slip diff. Mine turned in other direction so I think should not be fitted with lsd. After topping up, I found a small yellow label on back axle saying only to use limited slip oil. So now I wonder if I have limited slip diff or not.
Thanks.

Perhaps the diff has been changed?

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:37 pm
by splitpin
Thanks, need someone to confirm that if if other wheel rotates in opposite direction, that it is not limited slip diff.
Thanks.

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:09 pm
by francophile1947

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:26 pm
by splitpin
Thanks for that francophile1947, just read through that string, seems it's not so simple to decide if lsd or not. I have slight concern as when I topped up I also put in a tube of Molyslip Gear Protection, this stuff must not be used in lsd diffs, but am not sure what damage it could do.
Thanks again.

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:36 pm
by scanner
splitpin wrote:Thanks for that francophile1947, just read through that string, seems it's not so simple to decide if lsd or not. I have slight concern as when I topped up I also put in a tube of Molyslip Gear Protection, this stuff must not be used in lsd diffs, but am not sure what damage it could do.
Thanks again.
At a guess I would think it makes them slip.

To be safe your best bet is to drain it all out and start again.

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:29 pm
by splitpin
I was thinking that myself scanner but the damage may be already done as has been driven. When you say you guess it would make it slip do you mean one wheel would spin so it would be as a normal diff or that drive to both rear wheels may be lost.
Thanks.

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:58 pm
by scanner
splitpin wrote:I was thinking that myself scanner but the damage may be already done as has been driven. When you say you guess it would make it slip do you mean one wheel would spin so it would be as a normal diff or that drive to both rear wheels may be lost.
Thanks.
Dunno.. I don't understand (fully) how they work. It's something to do with clutches or something. It must be better to drain it and refill, than leave the Molyslip in even longer and possibly do more damage.

The thing you must do, is find out whether or not it is an LSD and put the appropriate oil in.

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:31 pm
by splitpin
I agree with your advice scanner, won't be driving any more until I find out for definate wether it is lsd or not and then draining oil if it is. After reading the string francophile1947 found am even more confused as there is conflicting advice there.
Thanks.

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:25 pm
by The Great Pretender
If it says it is a LSD assume it is. You wont destroy the dif, it will still work but you may make the clutch slip then you will have a non LSD. If it was mine I would drain it, fill it with desiel and run it for a few miles and drain it. Hopefully that will remove the 'slip' from the clutch.
Good luck............... :wink:

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:53 pm
by Winniebongo
Hi, I was involved in the original post, the one linked to earlier, no expert on LSDs but ours had the yellow sticker which I was advised was indicating it has LSD. Getting the correct oil was a bit of an effort as not knowing much about them I don't really fancy rebuilding it if i get it wrong so decided to err on the side of caution and go with the best oil I could track down, this turned out to be a Silkolene oil (Silktrans syn 5, I think) which we had to get from a motorsport place (£9.95 for 1 litre) as they were the only ones who stocked it (Start with the Silkolene website, owned by Fuchs and that should tell you your local dealer) in my experience nothing else matched the Mazda spec. Due to the importance I was lead to believe having the correct oil in these diffs holds I would say drain it down and refill with the correct oil, I doubt you will have done it any/much damage as it won't have been under a great deal of load but better to be safe than sorry. Ours is still fine a year and a half later anyway :D

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 6:59 pm
by splitpin
Thanks for replys, checked with experts today, have concluded mine isn't lsd. The yellow label just says to use lsd oil, not that it is an lsd diff, just as some manual gearboxes specify automatic transmission fluid, doesn't make them automatics. According to experts the method of jacking both rear wheels, turning one side by hand, other side turns same way with lsd and the opposite way with non lsd is correct.
Thanks again for advice.

Re: Rear differential oil, and lsd.

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 1:45 pm
by missfixit70
Just tripped over this one, don't remember seeing it before. I'd be interested to know if anyone actually has LSD or is it just an assumption due to the sticker saying to use LSD oil?