Does the LSD need to heat up to be most effective?

[murdock_]

id assume so, but not possitive sorry

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

i don't think so. the lsd is just gears right? just make sure it "well lubed". it should be lubed very well right now as we speak.

 

[funnylittlman]

I think the whole car would work better if it was warmed up

 

[DistantTea]

Thats odd... my title posted by not the contents....

I was practicing different corners and a slalom in a super wet (standing deep water) parking lot with another autocrosser in a scooby last night. I set up two corners that I knew both our cars would push on to practice rotating the car... I just couldn't get the car to come around for me.

Then we set up a slalom with the middle cone in a 3 inch deep pond from the rainwater. The scooby went through it first and had alot of trouble. When I first went through it things were pretty rough, but the more I went through it the harder the steering got and the more grip I was getting. I ended up being able to pass through the slalom about 15mph faster than the scooby, but felt like I had been lifting weights for three days straight when I was done. It took alot of muscle to turn that wheel by the end.

All I can figure is the LSD got warmer from all the super tight work and started tranfering more torque to where it was needed... or maybe it got too hot and locked under throttle because of the standing water? I don't know, but the experience was an eye opener and the MSP was screaming through the deep water as fast as I could do it on dry.

Has anyone had experiences that might show the LSD being grippier and quicker when it gets hot?

 

[DistantTea]

No

i don't think so. the lsd is just gears right? just make sure it "well lubed". it should be lubed very well right now as we speak.

Our LSD isn't a gear type. Its a conical ring, or clutch pack type Limited slip. So just like a regular clutch it binds faster when hot.

I just answered my own question.

 

[twiztedjeckel]

don't you plug it in like an iron to warm it up?

 

[Aricjm15]

why the hell were you driving your car in 3 inches of standing water?

 

[KzA]

its 3 inches..not 3 feet...

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

Re: No

Our LSD isn't a gear type. Its a conical ring, or clutch pack type Limited slip. So just like a regular clutch it binds faster when hot.

I just answered my own question.

hmm, you learn something every day. and all this time i thought our lsd was a gear type.

 

[DistantTea]

why the hell were you driving your car in 3 inches of standing water?

The entire parking lot wasn't 3 inches of standing water, just a big 5' x 10' section in the middle. The rest of the lot was just wet.

The point of the excersize was to create autocross corners and slaloms in extremely low grip situations so I could better learn how the car reacts at its limits. The only thing that went through the deep water was the middle of the slalom. The water created a space that required instant correction or you'd lose the pace in the slalom. By the end of the night I was traversing the slalom at an equal speed, even after hitting the water. But it was about that time that I realized the steering feel was hard as a rock, but I had more traction than I'd ever had before. It must have been the LSD coming up to optimal temps. Since I the only two autocrosses I"ve been too have been in the stark cold I never felt it get going like that.

BTW - The wrx that was practicing with me had alot more trouble going through the water in the slalom than the MSP. But from a spectator view the whole practice looked like one big Subaru commercial.