MS 2K1 AE

I've been getting an odd noise from the right front of my car when engaging the clutch with the wheel turned all the way left or right. It kind of sounds like a bad CV joint, but not quite. More metal on metal grinding than a typical worn CV clicking noise. I checked my boots and nothing is torn, and I'm assuming that a 16K car shouldn't have CV issues anyways. I mentioned this to the dealer and they gave the front end a thorough inspection and I got a clean bill of health. It didn't happen all the time, so I was planning on just keeping my eye on it.

Now for the odd part. Yesterday, I had a couple of good runs while heading home from work. I did basic 2K launches with quick clutch releases, but nothing rough. I noticed that I was getting quite a bit more torque steer than normal. In the past, I think that my torque steer has been minimal (even with 4K launches) due to the LSD. Yesterday though, I was pulling all over the place.

Then today, as I was driving home, I noticed something really odd. First of all, it rained all day and the roads were soaked. As I made a right turn, dropped to second, and punched it, my right front tire begin to spin like crazy and then it turned into serious wheel hop. The odd thing was is that it was the right side only. The left tire remained firmly planted. I repeated this event several times, from a rolling start and from a dead stop. I haven't been able to test on dry pavement yet.

My question is this...I was under the impression that the LSD was supposed to prevent one wheel from spinning independently of the other. If there isn't enough traction (due to high RPM launch, rain, snow, etc), then both wheels would spin. I have proven this in the past by leaving nice 10 foot long parallel patches of rubber, but now it appears to not be working.

Am I missing something? Can the LSD break/malfunction? Does it need oil/lubrication? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

The nissan lsds up to 2001 featured a viscous liquid type limited slip diff. This means when one wheel spins alot more than the other, the liquid becomes agitated and begins to solidify. This begins to transfer power over to the other wheel. The amount of transfer is only like 20-30% from what I hear. It's the nature of the beast(lsd). But it does sound like the lsd is not working correctly though. If the fluid leaks out, then the unit would not work that great. But I don't know if there would be any mechanical sounds associated w/ a malfunctioning lsd though. Maybe something else is wrong? I remember reading about bad motor mounts creating wheel-hop also.