Destroyed diff discussion
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From: Indiana
Destroyed diff discussion
I’m finding that very few people understand diffs well enough to educate me.
I know of someone with an 11 ISF that broke his diff at 70k miles. He said it made some noise so he opened it up, saw the gears in rough shape, and bought a whole new diff. He believes it was power related. Seems unlikely, but he said a couple of west coast guys had a similar experience on 10-12 model years.
I can get the torsen unit from him for probably a decent price. I want it for my IS350 housing (yes it fits). It’s a dice roll. What are the chances the diff is fine versus destroyed? No time was taken to diagnose the issue, but I believe no oil change or anything happened prior (indicating wrong oil used).
Is it possible a gearset can eat itself up a bit and not destroy a torsen? Worth a dice roll for an LSD daily?
I know of someone with an 11 ISF that broke his diff at 70k miles. He said it made some noise so he opened it up, saw the gears in rough shape, and bought a whole new diff. He believes it was power related. Seems unlikely, but he said a couple of west coast guys had a similar experience on 10-12 model years.
I can get the torsen unit from him for probably a decent price. I want it for my IS350 housing (yes it fits). It’s a dice roll. What are the chances the diff is fine versus destroyed? No time was taken to diagnose the issue, but I believe no oil change or anything happened prior (indicating wrong oil used).
Is it possible a gearset can eat itself up a bit and not destroy a torsen? Worth a dice roll for an LSD daily?
Last edited by Jwconeil; Oct 26, 2021 at 10:18 AM.
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From: Indiana
That’s my thoughts as well. Despite his claims, I’ve not seen diff failures that didn’t have some form of human error cause so far, at least on our forum. Any other members have this issue they want to chime in on?
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The first thing that comes to my mind is metal fatigue and/or inevitable impurities in any metal. The airline industry sees this a lot in accident investigations. Hell, humanity used to see this in the Dark Ages when they'd smith swords at temperatures not hot enough to get rid of slag in the metal. Driving your car hard (or the way it's meant to be driven) can certainly accelerate this but the seeds are sown in production - same as a propeller that fails. This may not exactly be the answer you're looking for but I thought it was worth mentioning. With any sealed mechanical unit, all it can take is the tiniest piece of failure to bring down the entire machine. Betcha that's what happened to your friend with the 2011 - it was just a matter of time.
Maybe, but also, Torsen units do die, and sometimes pretty spectacularly. If the guy is a hoonigan, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he killed the diff. Any number of Supra owners killed factory Torsen spools by drag racing consistently.
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Is the OSG better designed for those rigors?
I’m arriving at the conclusion that I’ll put an OSG in my F and my 350 can inherit my torsen, now that I’ve confirmed it’s a direct fit.
I’m arriving at the conclusion that I’ll put an OSG in my F and my 350 can inherit my torsen, now that I’ve confirmed it’s a direct fit.
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I still kick myself for missing the OSG group buy. Once this is back in budget I'm all over it. My guess is it's hands down the most worthwhile performance upgrade for our cars outside of blowing them which isn't my thing. Lance, I've read pretty much everything you've written about them and not having one is making me bonkers.
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Thread Starter
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Joined: Apr 2017
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From: Indiana
I still kick myself for missing the OSG group buy. Once this is back in budget I'm all over it. My guess is it's hands down the most worthwhile performance upgrade for our cars outside of blowing them which isn't my thing. Lance, I've read pretty much everything you've written about them and not having one is making me bonkers.
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If RR racing or anyone for that matter would sell these diffs with whatever gear ratio you wanted and customized to the buyers liking(color, bushings, titanium hardware, gear ratio, etc) that would be great. No need to build or do anything just drop old pumpkin and install new. Surprised no one does this especially with how common it is with other car brands.
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From: Indiana
If RR racing or anyone for that matter would sell these diffs with whatever gear ratio you wanted and customized to the buyers liking(color, bushings, titanium hardware, gear ratio, etc) that would be great. No need to build or do anything just drop old pumpkin and install new. Surprised no one does this especially with how common it is with other car brands.
I don’t think many would drop 5k plus, and by the time you buy everything new, your easily there. The parts directly from Lexus are pretty steep.
If RR racing or anyone for that matter would sell these diffs with whatever gear ratio you wanted and customized to the buyers liking(color, bushings, titanium hardware, gear ratio, etc) that would be great. No need to build or do anything just drop old pumpkin and install new. Surprised no one does this especially with how common it is with other car brands.
I know what it's like to work in a shop supporting championship winning racers. I've built championship winning engines. That doesn't exist in the Lexus world, at least here in the US. Maybe, just MAYBE they'll get something going with Gazoo, but I'm not holding my breath.
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