Diff plate change took me about 3 hours when I had to disassemble the LSD to add in shims to stop the clonking, including deDion suspension and diff removal and replacement.
The carbon plate Titan in my 2017 420R had lost all preload at 6500 miles. As I tend to do a fair few road miles & didn’t fancy the prospect of having to get it rebuilt every other year, I decided to replace the Titan with a Tracsport.
I had a Quaife ATB in my previous 7 & while I appreciate there are advantages to them, I prefer the feel of a clutch plate diff. People’s experiences of the Tracsport seem to be very positive & they reputedly last a lot longer between rebuilds than the Titan, so a Tracsport seemed to be the best solution for me.
Having looked at the components of my stripped down Titan, side by side with the equivalent Tracsport parts at Steve Perks workshop, the Tracsport certainly looks far more robust. I’ve covered a couple of hundred road miles since fitting it & the car has far better traction, feels more predictable & is considerably quieter. The off throttle whine & chatter from the Titan completely dominated the driving experience.
While I appreciate plate diffs by their very nature require periodic servicing, the need for a rebuild every 6500 miles doesn’t suit my needs.
I was faced with a £900+ rebuild bill when the Titan failed totally at under 8000 miles. Even after rebuild and a change to sintered plates it was clunky, knocking and just awful to drive. The sintered plates might last longer but my god they’re unpleasant to drive with.
Here’s what another club member (not posted on this thread) told me after a rebuild and change from carbon after a 10000 mile failure:
“I have now done around 1200 miles with the rebuilt Titan, and what a horrid thing it is. It grinds and judders like hell when turning / cornering at low speed, it is very jerky as it slips erratically and it grinds and groans alarmingly. So now I have first hand experience of a Titan diff with metal plates, and its as impressive as I imagined it would be, utter junk. I'm pleased I didn't throw more money at it for sure.”
That car will shortly have an SPC diff.
And while some might be able to remove, rebuild and refit a diff in 3 hours, for most of us it’s considerably more than that and includes a several hundred pound bill for the refurb to boot. A bare repair kit is £250+. A bit more than a set of brake pads which will likely last longer than a Titan LSD and be much easier and cheaper to replace.
I would strongly advise anyone who thinks the Titan is OK (especially with sintered plates) to try and get a ride in an SPC LSD car. Then see what you think.
My point was simply that using the Titan for high mileages (without the maintenance it was designed to have) will result in failure - in my view that's not the fault of the diff. But I'm happy to agree that many may have bought cars with these diffs without fully understanding their racing credentials and the cost of maintaining them.
The question then becomes whether Caterham's marketing department has got this right i.e. a track oriented models have Titan diffs, without considering alternatives for customers that are wanting to use these models as road cars.
Mine is a pure track car. I don't really care if it whines, grinds, groans or judders, as long as it's doing it's job properly but I absolutely understand those who use their cars for road use being unhappy with it.
Although the Titan is not by no means a pleasant thing in terms of NVH, I must admit, for me, it has worked fabulously on track.
My concern is that because I know the noises it's making now weren't present before. Therefore something has changed. ie. If it was correct before, it isn't now. After being in my job for longer than I want to admit, new noises aren't usually good.
Yes, I expect diff rebuilds - but how often is reasonable? I think I will just take it out and have a look, strip it down and see what it looks like over the winter.
At work we look after many race cars (not Caterham) all with LSDs of differing manufacturers and generally don't seem to have the same issues as these here on Blatchat, so I think something is surely wrong somewhere.
Billy, my understanding is that they may well be looking at the issue.
Until they do, I would again recommend anyone with a concern, to try to get a ride in a car with an SPC LSD and then decide if the Titan is good enough.
I agree
Diff plate change took me about 3 hours when I had to disassemble the LSD to add in shims to stop the clonking, including deDion suspension and diff removal and replacement.
James
The carbon plate Titan in my 2017 420R had lost all preload at 6500 miles. As I tend to do a fair few road miles & didn’t fancy the prospect of having to get it rebuilt every other year, I decided to replace the Titan with a Tracsport.
I had a Quaife ATB in my previous 7 & while I appreciate there are advantages to them, I prefer the feel of a clutch plate diff. People’s experiences of the Tracsport seem to be very positive & they reputedly last a lot longer between rebuilds than the Titan, so a Tracsport seemed to be the best solution for me.
Having looked at the components of my stripped down Titan, side by side with the equivalent Tracsport parts at Steve Perks workshop, the Tracsport certainly looks far more robust. I’ve covered a couple of hundred road miles since fitting it & the car has far better traction, feels more predictable & is considerably quieter. The off throttle whine & chatter from the Titan completely dominated the driving experience.
While I appreciate plate diffs by their very nature require periodic servicing, the need for a rebuild every 6500 miles doesn’t suit my needs.
Me neither. But I wouldn't even consider putting a Quaife in my car, so really interested in peoples view of other alternatives.
There are several design flaws in the Titan which lead to premature wear and failure leaving the owner with a sizable rebuild cost.
#9
David, I couldn’t agree at all with that.
I was faced with a £900+ rebuild bill when the Titan failed totally at under 8000 miles. Even after rebuild and a change to sintered plates it was clunky, knocking and just awful to drive. The sintered plates might last longer but my god they’re unpleasant to drive with.
Here’s what another club member (not posted on this thread) told me after a rebuild and change from carbon after a 10000 mile failure:
“I have now done around 1200 miles with the rebuilt Titan, and what a horrid thing it is. It grinds and judders like hell when turning / cornering at low speed, it is very jerky as it slips erratically and it grinds and groans alarmingly. So now I have first hand experience of a Titan diff with metal plates, and its as impressive as I imagined it would be, utter junk. I'm pleased I didn't throw more money at it for sure.”
That car will shortly have an SPC diff.
And while some might be able to remove, rebuild and refit a diff in 3 hours, for most of us it’s considerably more than that and includes a several hundred pound bill for the refurb to boot. A bare repair kit is £250+. A bit more than a set of brake pads which will likely last longer than a Titan LSD and be much easier and cheaper to replace.
I would strongly advise anyone who thinks the Titan is OK (especially with sintered plates) to try and get a ride in an SPC LSD car. Then see what you think.
My point was simply that using the Titan for high mileages (without the maintenance it was designed to have) will result in failure - in my view that's not the fault of the diff. But I'm happy to agree that many may have bought cars with these diffs without fully understanding their racing credentials and the cost of maintaining them.
The question then becomes whether Caterham's marketing department has got this right i.e. a track oriented models have Titan diffs, without considering alternatives for customers that are wanting to use these models as road cars.
Mine is a pure track car. I don't really care if it whines, grinds, groans or judders, as long as it's doing it's job properly but I absolutely understand those who use their cars for road use being unhappy with it.
Although the Titan is not by no means a pleasant thing in terms of NVH, I must admit, for me, it has worked fabulously on track.
My concern is that because I know the noises it's making now weren't present before. Therefore something has changed. ie. If it was correct before, it isn't now. After being in my job for longer than I want to admit, new noises aren't usually good.
Yes, I expect diff rebuilds - but how often is reasonable? I think I will just take it out and have a look, strip it down and see what it looks like over the winter.
At work we look after many race cars (not Caterham) all with LSDs of differing manufacturers and generally don't seem to have the same issues as these here on Blatchat, so I think something is surely wrong somewhere.
Just an opinion.
Andy
C C must know there is an issue with this so why aren't they doing something about it.
Billy, my understanding is that they may well be looking at the issue.
Until they do, I would again recommend anyone with a concern, to try to get a ride in a car with an SPC LSD and then decide if the Titan is good enough.