LSDs respond differently to a normal diff when one wheel starts to slip. They transfer torque to the wheel that still has traction whereas with an open diff the torque is always split equally meaning that the spinning wheel keeps spinning, and the car loses traction.
They are great in situations such as when cornering hard where the inner rear wheel is unloaded. You can still get some power down whereas with an open diff the inner wheel will just spin.
On the downside, when the rear end of the car breaks away under power with an LSD, it will be much more prone to stepping out, since both rear wheels will generally let go at once, so they can be more of a handful to drive, especially in the wet.
For normal road use, I'd say they don't make a lot of difference, except for the odd moment when "pressing on". Their ability to deal with lack of traction in terms of not getting stuck in mud, snow, etc. is partly made up for by the traction control system on a V6, which can achieve a similar, although not as effective, result by braking the slipping wheel.
Kevin
Author
Topic: LSD's (Read 723 times)