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You've put alot of miles on it over the years, Paul. EP claims the discs are good for about 80k in normal use.

Drove to work this morning, everything was great. Burning a bit of the old trans fluid off the exhaust from the old tailshaft leak, though. That may take a few days to cook it all off. No leaks, and still running good.

Bill, is the turning any harder? I've heard that an LSD causes harder steering, but that's also in 4x4's, so a FWD application may be different.

Steering effort is 10-20% harder in certain situations.

Ok, about what I figured. But, the added effort's worth the gain, right?

Judging from the drive I just took, well worth it. Katie might not like learning to drive with the Zilla any longer though. The SLE doesn't even have the sport-tuned rack. Much easier steering than the Zilla before the LSD.


44°37'47.71"N
123°13'21.97"W

(30mph S curves....we rolled in at 60, powered up at apex #1 to 75, and held it through the second turn)

Nice.... Now get out that camera mount, we need some video

I can do that, Peter.

A little update on the impressions and condition:

The greatest benefit I've noticed so far is in wet traction in a turn. If I roll into the turn like I used to, I've found I can power through the apex with ALOT more throttle than ever before. With both wheels powered in the turn, traction is nearly doubled. In wet conditions, it's VERY obvious. If I had decent winter tires on this car, it would be ideal in all seasons (but I have summer-only tires on it for now).

The danger is entering the turn too hot under braking, or switching between two cars that are quite different now, without adapting my driving style.

I plan to drop the pan for an inspection again before WCBF, even if no symptoms of the 2nd blown diff damage surface before then.

There are many advantages to that LSD. Not just for there superiour burn out qualities in the water box. I noticed mine was much better in the rain as well. And I did not mind the steering becoming more positive.

Good to see it rolling again.

Found yesterday it CAN get rather squirrelly in the rain....HEAVY rain. As it scrambles for traction, it intermittently grabs left and right, in spite of the great wet performance of these tires. Kinda freaked Katie out, and Dex almost fell off the seat.

Torque-steer in mild wet and dry conditions is reduced noticably, but not by half. We'll see how bad it is with the slicks at the track. Last couple years I fought the torque steer for the first 1/8 mile.

I thought the change in steering effort would widen the gap between the two cars to the point I wouldn't like it (the SLE doesn't have the sport rack like the SSEi, rather the 'granny rack' all SE's got), but so far I've had no trouble switching back and forth between the two cars. The steering on the SSEi doesn't snap back to center coming out of a turn as badly as I was led to believe it would.