521 East Los Angeles Avenue E & F, Simi Valley, California 93065
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Differential
What is a differential and what does it do?
The differential takes the power from the transmission and transfers it to the wheels. Depending on how your vehicle is driving, acceleration or turning it needs to have power delivered to the wheels correctly and efficiently. For instance, If you make a right turn, the left wheels will travel farther and need to turn more than the right wheels.
In this SIMPLE explanation, the differential distributes the power your engine creates from the transmission to the wheels.
Since the differential controls ALL of the power delivered to the wheels. We can optimize or hack this system to get even BETTER performance your of your BMW or Porsche.
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Ratio swap for BMW or Porsche
By changing or swapping the ratios we can alter the amount engine revolutions compared to the power that is delivered to your wheels. A simpler example would be, the lower the ratio number, the faster the car will go with the same number of engine revolutions. If we increase the number the better the car will accelerate, but it will take away some of your high-speed capability.
Engineers somewhere wanted to make this even more confusing. A high numerical gear ratio is called a low gear or low rear end, and a low numerical gear ratio is called high gear.
Bottom line, low gears give fast acceleration, higher gears give you a better top end speed.
We have tuned hundreds of vehicles and know sounds confusing. Before we do any tuning we are happy and excited to break it down for you and get you the BEST performance out of your vehicle.
Limited slip differential (LSD)
This is important in a few different ways.
First, back to the example of a car turning right. During that right turn the left wheels must turn more than the right. If not they would slip, which is where the limited slip differential comes in to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Second, as your vehicle is flying down the road. If your right tire or tires received more power than the left. You would drift to the left of the road.
In some cases if the power is distributed unevenly you will also get wheel spin.
Other things on top of giving you POOR performance is uneven tire wear, improper alignment, uneven breaking and eventually can be a safety concern. Which is why the LSD is in place to make sure your tires are all getting the proper amount of power at any time.
If the limited slip differential senses your tire slipping it can also cut or lower power to that wheel to get your vehicle and tire spin under control.
If your Limited Slip Differential is off, you may get a light on your dash, or your check engine light may turn on.
Give us a call, we can hook up our computer and figure out what’s going on.
In some cases, we need to replace you Limited Slip Differential and install a new one.
There are also high-performance limited slip differentials that may be a better fit which have better ratios to increase the performance in your BMW or Porsche.
Differential service, fluids, leaks
As with any performance or essential part of your vehicle, it does need regular maintenance and fluid exchange. Each vehicle and differential is a little different but a good rule of them is 30K-60K miles.
Remember, the differentials job is to take the hundreds of lbs of torque and channel it and distribute it effectively.
So with all that power going through one component, we have seen them break down over time. Which is why we HIGHLY recommend staying on top of the maintenance. As well as watching for leaks and any other wear and tear issue we can correct or service before we need to replace your differential.
Replacing bearings and seals
If your differential is acting up, whether that is a howling from the rear of your vehicle or visible leaks.
Sometimes we can just replace the bearings and seals and get another 20K, 40K or more out of your differential.
So before you think all is lost and throw in the towel, let us take a look and see if we can repair your differential before changing out the whole thing.
Contact us for more information or to Schedule an Appointment.