I have!

I got a "great deal" on a used RS TC not too long ago. I sent it to TRE to have it checked out. Jon let me know that the TC was definately abused, the LSD was in good shape, but the ring gear had 12 damaged teeth. Not badly damaged, but he let me know that it wouldn't take too many 6000RPM 500lb ft clutch dumps before giving up the ghost.

I've moved on from drag racing to autox and hopefully road course racing someday, so this didn't bother me too much. That and I'm not making anywhere near 500lb ft.

He sent me back the TC and I installed it. Immediately fell in love, a front LSD is everything it's made out to be and more. I got between 1500 and 2000 miles on the TC before it started making a light whine. This was not the typical 55-60MPH whine that a bad ring and pinion typically sounds like, but it was high pitched at all speeds. Just sounded like excessive gear noise.

I still had my old TC at this point (thank God it didn't sell) so I decided to pull the RS TC and put it's LSD into my 03 TC (a direct swap BTW).

I drained the fluid and it looked DARK, real dark, but the magnet was completely clean.... weird I thought. (Diaqueen BTW)

Cracked the case open and this is what I found....



I pulled the carrier and wiped it off....



This substance was not slick but sticky.

I pulled my old TC apart to do some comparisons...

 

Interesting, eh?

 

So I swapped the LSD.... I'll be putting the 03 TC w/ LSD back in after Jon finishes someupgrades to my tranny. He was so intrigued by my LSD failure that he offered to cover shipping just to check it out. I'll be sending it to him when I get the time to box it up.

BTW, there were no visible holes on the viscous assembly, just a small nick along the weld line, which the picture didn't come out on.

 

Very interesting in deed...

 

I guess the moral of the story is...

If the deal seems too good to be true, it is.... (duh) Still made out at half the price of a ralliart LSD

If you drain your TC and the oil looks dark greenish, your VCD is shot.

 

good post super

 

So the VCU came unsealed then? Maybe i dont understand whats going on in there.

Interested to see what Jon's thoughts on this are once he gets it.

 

Yes, somehow the VCU came unsealed and the fuild inside leaked out into the TC.

 

ok. The first thing i thought when i read the topic was: How the !*#* did that happen.

 

Yeah, I'm still asking myself that question... the car was never at the track for that short period of time and it saw 1 autox. I think Jon is asking the same questions and that's why he wants it back to inspect and learn.

 

I've never seen a viscous dump it's guts like that on any car and I've seen well over 30 different ones working on trannies/diffs. Weird as hell.

 

This TC is going to Jon @ TRE on Monday. He's going to try and figure out what happened, maybe we can all learn something here....

 

Cool. My Trans and T-case are going to him next monday too, that is if i dont have any problems taking them out.

 

Bump for updates. . .

It's been a while now. Any news on what caused the failure?? I've always wondered if the VCU could wear out and get softer or harder over time, but never thought about it failing!

EVOlutionary