Determining If It Has A Quaife

[welshpug 1,661]

how did you determine that? did you take a shaft out and look through the hole?

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

No, gave it a bit of yeeha and could tell by the way the inside wheel was lighting up.

[welshpug 1,661]

a Quaife will do that if you're daft enough, they don't lock.

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

Na, there was a distinct difference in how it behaved compared to my 205. Also noticed that although the biting point is very high on the pedal with cable fully adjusted, the clutch didn't slip. Lost a set of back brake pads though!

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

I've took the shafts out this car, and I can see a small bar as I look into where the shaft goes, I take it that this means it's just a standard diff?

 

 

something to do with I can see the planet gear shaft, where as I wouldn't if it was a quaife diff?

Edited September 22, 2015 by dobboy

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

That's different to what I've seen with Quaifes but not quite the same as an open diff either!

 

Now you've bought it pop the left driveshaft out and have a look in the hole, if there is a cross pin it's an open diff.

new I read this somewhere...... think it was the OS I seen the pin though.

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

Could one of you knowledgeable chaps advise me a wee bit on something please.

 

My mini came with BMW's LSD as standard (not all Mini Cooper S' had this, and the original buyer of my car might have taken it as an option)

 

Looking at Quaife, they do an ATB diff, and I might be able to get my hands on one.

 

The Quaife is supposed to be a big upgrade, but wondering if it would be as big an upgrade to mine as it has the BMW LSD.

 

 

I take it the BMW one is similar in operation to the Quaife (torque biasing), but wondering what sort of level of improvement the Quaife can/would/is likely to have over the BMW LSD diff?

 

Thanks

[Anthony 1,003]

To be honest, I'm not sure that I'd bother changing from one variant of a ATB to another (assuming that's what the Mini one is) as I can't see the difference will be that great. A plate-type diff is a big step up in performance over an ATB so if you wanted something more hardcore and assuming that one is available for the Bini, that's what I'd go for.

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

To be honest, I'm not sure that I'd bother changing from one variant of a ATB to another (assuming that's what the Mini one is) as I can't see the difference will be that great. A plate-type diff is a big step up in performance over an ATB so if you wanted something more hardcore and assuming that one is available for the Bini, that's what I'd go for.

Thanks Anthony, that's what I was kind of thinking.

 

Though one of the things that put's me off going plated is that the diffs are inside the box and not bolted on like a 205, so a bit of hassle for maintenance.

 

Thanks!

[Anthony 1,003]

I'm not personally convinced about the claims of frequent maintenance for plate diffs on road and occasional trackday cars. Certainly my Tran-X was still in excellent condition with no notable wear after thousands of miles of road use with a couple of trackdays and 'Ring trips, and that was just running on standard 75W80 gear oil with no additives. That's true of a couple of others I know too.

 

Clearly if you're doing rallying or something that works the diff hard then it's going to need much more regular fettling which I agree would be a pain if the gearbox needs to be removed and stripped down each time.

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

Anthony, my Tran-X in my Saxo was the same (a fair bit of spirited road miles and a few track days) although I never opened it up to see if there was any wear.

However i'm pretty sure it was actually better when I sold it than what it was when I bought it, although it was supposed to have been refurbished just before I got it, so maybe the plates had to bed in etc. That was a great diff that, just a pity I could run faster than the car up a hill