I know this isn't trubo/SC related but the most intellegent org memebers hang out in here. I will summarize the issue.

I have an I30 VLSD tranny. The other day I was agressive on the throttle leaving my driveway and it layed some rubber. When I was in the driveway I noticed it only left one strip. So I decided to look into it by going to an empty parking lot and do a couple launches to see what it would lay., Well sure enough it only left 1 strip of rubber on the right wheel.

I know it is a VLSD tranny.
I Jacked the car up and rotated one tire and they both spin the same direction. The car still corners awesome and feels like there is endless grip, I am running Amsoil MTG which was replaced about 2 years ago when I repaired some leaking tranny seals done by a crappy mechanic. Is it possible the fluid needs to be replaced or could something else be wrong?

 

vlsd fluid is self contained, whatever fluid you have in the trans has no bearing on it's operation. wheels spinning the same way indicate that it is working at least partially. i've witnessed many times though (just this last friday infact) a VLSD trans doing a burnout at the drag strip and spinning only one tire during the burnout - this was a high mileage VLSD in my buddy's 3rd gen though. VLSD does not = locking so it is possible to spin only one tire at least some of the time. sounds like yours is somewhat worn out.

 

Yeah man, on my old VLSD, even though the test in 1st gear both wheels still turned the same direction, but during hard cornering i use to kill the inner wheel. Even during some burnouts id only get 1 black patch. The VLSD fluid as previously stated is self contained, i dont think you can replace the fluid..probably not worth it even if you could. It could be partially working, i am sure i read somewhere that it might be fine under normal driving but once you start to push it the fluid heats up and it looses its function.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_slip_differential

found that on wikipedia. Who knows how true the 60K miles thing is, my first tranny at 180K miles on it and it worked fine till the last 5000K miles when i actually started racing/beating it lol.

 

I did some tests about this a while back. My current VLSD tranny only has about 10K on it and it leaves 2 strips of rubber on the ground every time.

My buddy has a 96 with about 100K on his VLSD and he only spins one at launch. It probably starts seeing direct power to both later on down the road though...

 

So even if i replace the gear oil its not going to make a difference? The mileage on the tranny should be around 70k. Also it still seems to be working in agressive cornering?

Edit: I read the link posted above look like its done. I will replace the gear oil anyway since it has been about 30k.

 

The gear oil itself has nothing to do with the actuation of the VLSD. The inside of the VLSD contains a viscous silicone fluid which is sealed inside of the VLSD, and is not replaceable. The silicone fluid breaks down over time from heat, eventually leading it to be an open diff. Nissan used this same design from at least the early 90's up until the introduction of the factory HLSD in the 5.5 gen's. 300z's, 240's, maxima's, all had viscous LSD's.

 

This saddens me

 

pretty much. Although you can get the viscous unit from nissan though. If you planned on going with the VLSD, in which case id just get the quaife..but those wont work in VLSD equipped.

The part number for the complete viscous diff is

38411-96E01

Just for the viscous assembly, probably all you need but from the diagrams on fast it may be easier to get the complete diff.

38420-96E01

Just thought id throw out those part numbers if anyone wanted to replace the diff. I have the FAST program so i thought id help out.