If you have LSD in your MCS, have you tried this? When your MCS is on blocks, if you hand turn/rotate one front wheel (say right side in forward motion), what does the other one (front left) do?

A. Turn in the same direction (forward motion) or
B. Turn the opposite direction (reverse motion).

As far as I know, a typical LSD will result in both wheels turning in the same direction right? How come mine doesn't? Is my MCS missing it's LSD? Your thoughts are appreciated before I go banging on Mini's door!

 

shouldnt both your wheel turn in the same direction regardless if you have LSD or not on your car?? @@ LSD will just limit the rotation of the side of the wheel that the computer think is spinning.... besides.... how can it rotate backwards when you go forward? either your eyes are seeing something wrong or there is something really wrong w/ your car..... I bet is your eyes tho

 

In a regular car , open diff will spin in opposite directions when one tire is turned . Have not checked my MINI .

 

I just turn traction control off, rev to 4k rpm and let her rip. you'll know if you've got an LSD

 

LOL..........PGT , you are so right !

 

This works on ice covered wooden bridges as well.

 

I would think if your mini is in Psychedelic colors, its definitely taken LSD :D:D:D Possibly you have a Pink Floyd CD in the player

 

My 2000 M Coupe also equipped with LSD (standard) also doe the same. It depends on the type of LSD. I can guarantee that my M Coupe has a LSD but doing the above test (to the drive axle) makes it seem like it does not.

 

This is what I was afraid of.... however, I was told a Torsen diff will behave the same way... is this true? So maybe the MCS has a Torsen type diff...


hmmm, this is interesting. At least now I feel a bit better, which leads me to try the next test....



will let you know what happens...

 

The 'which way the other wheel spins test' is not valid.

If your tranny is in gear (so the input shaft to the differential cannot turn) , the opposite wheel will turn in the opposite direction of the one you are turning... it works this way on all differentials.

You have three shafts going into the differential. The right axle, the left axle and the pinion or input shaft.

If you stop one of them, the other two will turn in opposite directions of each other, this is just the way the gears are put together. They can't do anything else.

If the tranny is in gear (the pinion shaft now cannot turn), the opposite wheel can only turn backwards from the other one.

If your tranny is in neutral, you may see the opposite wheel turn the same direction as the one you are turning if the pinion or input shaft (you can't see it) is doing all the turning, or

or

you may get a little of both, some input shaft turning and some opposite wheel turning. This will show up as the opposite wheel turning backwards but not as fast as the one you are hand turning

Jack up on tire and put a small block of wood under the suspension to hold the tire off the pavement just an inch or two. The other tire is on the ground.

Now, gently pull forward about three feet. If the car pulls forward and falls off of the wood block, you have LSD of some sort.

If you just sit there and the wheel in the air just spins, you do not have LSD.

Be careful, have no cars or objects in front of you, no children pets or adults in front of the car... it won't jump out of control, it will just move forward or it will not.

Or, if you don't mind potentially spinning a wheel in the grass beside your driveway try this;

water down the grass to make it slick
if your driveway is on a hill this is better
put one front wheel in the grass and one on the pavement

pull forward.

If the grass wheel just spins, you don't

If the car move forward, you do.

Hope this helps

YD

 

what abt putting one wheel on a block of ice and other on ground. will that help

 

I wanna see pics, dude, hehe

t

 

Not a good test as my car without an LSD will leave skid marks from both tires. LSD only works when one has more traction than the other front tire.
put one wheel in the mud and leave the other on the pavement and accelerate hard.

 

"Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD, died yesterday at the age of 102, just 10 days after the 55th anniversary of his notorious bicycle trip while tripping on "acid". Hofmann, who suffered a heart attack at home in Basel, Switzerland, was the first person to synthesize lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, and the first human known to experience its mind bending effects." (quoted from Scientific American)

Oops, you probably meant the OTHER LSD. My bad.

 

The guy tripping on LSD, still living till 102 quite an achievement

 

 

There are no lasting physical effects from ingesting LSD, but I think we may be off-topic-opic-opic-opic.

 

The Mini factory LSD isn't your typical/traditional limited slip, there's no real limit to the amount it'll let slip. It's similar to a Torsen LSD in that it transmits a percentage of torque, but it's not gear driven & unlike traditional positive slip diffs, it never locks up, so if one tire is completely without traction, there's nothing to be transfered to the other tire.

Here's the official story;
http://www.gkndriveline.com/drivelin...icle_0011.html

and a previous NAM thread I came across when I ran into the same confusion.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co....php?p=2072364

 

n1tr0, thanks for the heads up. Excellent!

 

No problem, I was sure they'd screwed up the build on my Mini & forgotten the LSD when I first got it up on my lift & spun a tire I was dialing my dealer like it was 911

I would have preferred something that'd lock up (when you hit something really slippy), even a Quaife, but for the $$ and w/o having to R&R the trans & void the warranty, it's a pretty great option.

just another ~40k miles or a worn out clutch until I pop an upgrade in.

 

I know how to test it but I was told it was dangerous in a previous thread so I can't tell you, you might hurt yourself or your Mini...

 

After reading your comments, I decided to go out and actually do the test. I jacked up my right front tire about two inches off the ground with a rolling hydraulic jack. I turned the jack so the jack wheels were as close to being in line with the direction of the car as possible.

I started the car on level ground, first gear, the car started pulling forward, reverse, the car started pulling backward. I only went a foot or so in each direction fearing the jack would catch on something and flip sideways and cause body damage.

I was not happy with all the moaning and groaning that came from the differential, not pleasant sounds. So I kept the test brief. The differential didn't lock or pull as hard as I have seen on other rear wheel drive posi tractions, and limited slip units, but it definitely did pull with one wheel up in the air.

YD

 

Yo'sDad, When you said "definitely did pull", is it only slightly?

So, as it has been raining most of this morning (OK only once in a blue moon over here in OZ) so I decided to do the one wheel on grass test. I had traction control switched off completely, select 1st gear and go. The wheel on the grass has no traction, therefore spinning like mad. I can hear lots of "moaning and groaning" as well and the car started to pull forward, only so slightly but constant pull. Hmmmm ... Is this it? Is this the LSD in action? Does this mean that if I have no LSD, the car remains stationary? OR does this mean I have NO LSD????

 

with it being a torque sensing LSD, it only transfers a percentage of the traction, so if one wheel is completely without traction, (ie. 20% of 0 traction = 0 traction) there's nothing to be transfered

 

As stated by others here, our MINI stock LSD is no where near a lock up, or even a medium lock up. It is a soft-assistance sort of transfer. If your car pulls forward a little bit then you do have LSD, if the dif is quiet when spinning the wet grass wheel and you don't move an inch, you don't.

I wish the transfer from the spinning wheel to the traction wheel was stronger, but that may cause wet cornering handling issues on a FWD car... I'm not sure.

I'm also guessing it is a soft transfer because when cornering the outer wheel turns more revs than the inner wheel and you wouldn't want the dif to lock up just because of that alone.

I do know that on a wet street, coming to a rolling stop city block corner, then making a turn and applying a reasonable throttle, my inside wheel does not spin. If the DSC and ASC whatever is engaged, I do get a jerky driveline action, but the car still pulls nicely, the car follows my steering angle, does not wash out at the front and just pulls through the corner..I'm talking about reasonable street speeds here. I know some of this is due to DSC and ASC. I guess another test is in order with the DSC turned off.

I have a particular 90 street corner that is always covered in leaves, and in the shade so it is the last place to dry out and goes uphill as soon as you turn. In a rear wheel car, any gas at all you just spin, or the rear comes loose. In my MINI, I purposely hit the throttle hard as I am turning, the DSC light comes on, the car follows my intended steering track, jerks and jumps, but strongly pulls right up the hill. Some of this is e-nanny helped, and some of it is LSD... not sure how much of which.

YD