ericdwong

...no I didnt break it, but it seems I found one of its limits. Today as I was manuevering the trailer that was still attached to my car from yesterday's parade, I managed to get my car stuck. The right front wheel was in mud, but the left front wheel was on the driveway still. Needless to say, my trusty differential didn't do its job as well as I had hoped. I was stuck in the mud with one wheel in the mud and the other on the driveway. The stuck wheel just kept spinning and dug itself deeper and deeper. I finally managed to get the thing free after I disattached the trailer and jacked up the car and stuffed a board with a rubber floor mat on it under the car.

I do recall emailing Quaife about the differential if one wheel should come up off the ground what would happen before I bought the unit. They said that it would behave like an open differential. So, this most likely meant that were simply was not enough resistance for the torque biasing aspect of the Quaife differential to work. My tires were kinda bald, and once the tread got caked with wet mud there was no hope. Too bad there wasnt some way of "locking" the differential on the fly, like some of those trucks have. I know nothing can be perfect in this world especially when it comes to FWD, but for the price of the Quaife I'd expect a little more.

DanNY

iTrader: (14)

i think u really bought the wrong car.

Nealoc187

iTrader: (23)

Yep, that's why the call it limited slip instead of "no slip" or locking.

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (1)

but the quaife is NOT a limited-slip differential....it's a all gear torque biasing differential...there's a difference...

I do recall I was driving when the roads were a little slushy one day...and I got one wheel in the slush..and one wheel on wet pavement....and the quaife worked awesome...it gave all the power to the wheel on the wet pavement..and accelerated the car nicely.

Lime

uh. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...I think you maybe shouuld have bought a truck, since you're using your CAR like a TRUCK. And yet you complain constantly about your car being inadequate. Nissan sucks! Yeah ok, you're trying to take a slammed passenger car with something trailed in the back through mud with bald tires. Well I can't speak about the Quaife because I don't have one, but when you're in the mud, you should probably be in a truck. Even then, you can get stuck.

Craig Mack

Well put Erica.

DanNY

iTrader: (14)

::golf clap::

ericdwong

Why am I gettin flamed for this one? I got stuck in my front yard (and yes the driveway is paved). Is it that out of the question that if it were raining, one tire come off of the road into the mud and then your car gets stuck? Ground clearance was not an issue here, cause it wasnt like a crossmember got hung up on anything and I'm not lowered so theres plenty of ground clearnace. I was turning around in my driveway, not offroading in the woods. Whats so car/truck about that? I was hoping the Quaife differential would help me out by getting me unstuck, but obviously in this case that did not happen, even though one of the tires had full traction.

I do admit it does help in the rain, caues theres this one part at the bottom of my street that is always slippery for some reason when it rains. My mom's car will engage its traction control. My car after I put in the differential powers through pretty much effortlessly.

But for the over $1000 price tag, you would think it could help you out by getting only one wheel unstuck?

OriginalMadMax

I used to have two Torsen limited slip differentials on a Toyota longbed 4x4. I believe those were the original design of what Quaife now makes. That truck could outclimb most Jeeps and I pulled my share of Dodge Power Rams out of swamps. Still, there were limits. My tires were not super knobby (but great on the road) so snowmobile trails could pack enough snow in the treads to eliminate traction. That said, the tires being bald on this Maxima probably had a lot to do with the problem, since the one on pavement didn't grab traction either. I've got my Quaife to slip too, just long enough to chirp the tires before grabbing, even in the rain. New tires do help!