One for the 'tell him he's dreaming file'

[topnotchrally 162]

7 hours ago, Neil McCauley said:

One thing to note is the Z3 LSD's are torsen style which can lend itself to losing lock up if the inner wheel loses its contact patch, that and they only lock under acceleration, not braking like a clutch style one will.

Yes the rear suspension is the "same" as an E30 but all the 2.8's also had ASC+T as well as the LSD. That and a convertible will naturally have more chassis flex than a hard top car.

The MZ3 used a clutch type LSD rather than a torsen style one.

I have just been researching this as I want to change the oil in my diff and you need the right kind depending on the diff type.  I have found that early Z3s had clutch diffs ands sometime in mid-late 99 they changed to torsen.  This seems like reliable information to me, people saying the only way to tell what you have is to take the back off and look, but that the early ones definitely came with clutch diffs. 
What do you say to this?  What is your statement based on?

Also, IMHO the ABS can take care of locked wheels...I'd rather have a torsen, it doesn't wear out.

Edited 16 hours ago by topnotchrally

[Neil McCauley 454]

Which statement in particular?  I can’t speak to the earlier cars possibly having clutch diffs, but it seems like luck of the draw if you can only tell when the rear cover is off, especially (imho only) you’re potentially getting an inferior diff. 
 

I’ve driven a couple of 250hp E30’s back to back on classic NZ country roads, one with a rebuilt clutch type diff and the other with an actual Quaife unit (before they started putting a tonne of pre-lash into them) and you could absolutely feel the difference in how the diffs achieved different results.
 

It wasn’t clear from my initial post but I’m talking about the diff locking up not the wheels.

Perhaps the subject of another topic, but changing the E30 ABS to a four channel unit and running a yaw sensor would be an awesome way to give yourself a steppable traction control system which would be ideal for NZ conditions given how wayward they can be.