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BMW/Titan LSD Viability


Geoff Brown

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Reply to #395

Hello James,

I went for 45/45 on my Tracsport and I have covered about 200 miles with it so far. All seems very smooth. It would be interesting to know what the 30/30 feels like, but I'm not going to shell out for another!

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Hi all. Sorry for the silence but I have been bricklaying from the early to late hours. My 34 year old garden wall will be rebuilt before the weather turns. Totally knackered & nearly good at laying bricks !

So the 'chocolate tea pot' Titan issue continues.

Good to learn that James B diff was not a total catastrophe. Sintered plates fitted which is unusual for the age of the car but I believe were an option from CC IF the customer knew to ask. 

James B - 45/45 set up on my Tracsport. Trouble is no road test report until tomorrow - 4th April - as this will be the first opportunity since diff refit in October 20.

Billy.Whizz #378 -  The statement that you quote from Macdonald about the Titan is an absolute mistruth. I have a CC letter in my possession that contradicts those words & even goes as far as to state that CC made a big mistake with carbon plates & not publishing servicing information.

See if VT stand for that sort of customer care !

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Mine is 45/45 and seems fine on the road but hasn't been tracked yet.

On Thursday I did the same route on which I first started to worry about the Titan and when the plates finally failed. I accelerated hard out of the slipway onto the A47, which last year caused quite a fishtail when I went over a particular bump, causing me to lift off and take stock. 

Thursday, just floored the throttle and rocketed off up the road, over the bump like it wasn't there! Lovely!!

 

 

 

 

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Completed a 25 mile test run this AM (Sunday 4th) first run since diff re fit in Oct 20.

First off, GP start to check straight line stability - excellent with no tramping, wobble or need to swop ends. Challenging bends taken at 70-75 with covering throttle, very stable & spits car out nicely when applying more throttle. Extremely quiet & smooth in operation. Tracsport definitely gives a feeling of security & stability.. 

PIO at very low speed with variable throttle but this occurred with Titan.

On return home checked underneath. All OK except for a small dribble of oil at bottom of back plate. 
Further investigation found matching witness marks on DD & top of gold plug. Obviously the DD touching the plug had slightly loosened it allowing oil to pass the sealing ring.

Unfortunately had to replace gold plug with original BMW plug as to grind enough off gold plug to guarantee good clearance would compromise integrity of plug body.

My diff back plate has the fill/drain plug port situated at the bottom rhs (looking fwd) angled downwards at about 45'. I understand that other back plates have a vertical fill/drain port allowing more clearance for the plug body.

Pity about the gold plug as that is one of the main health monitoring weapons.

Further test drive to confirm all OK with BMW plug in place & no oil weep.

Take my advice - if in doubt about a Titan LSU whether to refresh (possibly every 2-3 years) or replace & one has the £££ reserves go straight for a Tracsport unit. Steve's unit is to be applauded. And no I don't get a commission !!

 

 

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Shame about the plug, Geoff, not something that even crossed my mind because as you say later diffs have the vertical plug. On those the hex of the plug is still below the level of the rest of the casting. 

I wonder if there's a mag plug with an Allen key socket, if that would give you clearance? 

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Now I have a bit of spare time on my hands I thought that I would clarify my reply to Billy.Whizz about the info that was given to him by CC regarding the BMW/Titan diff.

 

1) #378 - 'Recently a member of the MT asked G. Mac about any problems with the titan diff and his answer was, you have nothing to worry about.'

2) #408 - 'Geoff I'm only stating what a member of the management team told me in an email and my question to him was about the current titan diff, he got that answer directly from G Mac when he asked him a few days after the webinar evening with CC.'

In both cases the comments to a certain degree are misinformation & an untruth.

The 2016> & current BMW LSD should be fitted with sintered plates then yes there is less to worry about but the situation still remains that the Titan will require health monitoring & a refresh every 10000 road miles in accordance with Titan's own recommendations. Inevitably due to the Titan design the Belleville springs may possibly fail under 100% compression well before the service is required. The shrapnel likely to cause internal damage. In fact James B's Titan is a lesson in catching it just in time for a 2012 unit with only 7000 miles.

The <2016 BMW LSD will be fitted with carbon faced plates which as we all know from discussion here can be prone to accelerated wear & the break up of the Belleville springs which potentially cause catastrophic internal failure. So in this case there is more to worry about !

Another worry is that CC naively considered the BMW/Titan a 'fit & forget' unit even though Titan clearly published the service requirements. CC have never published the service requirements for the BMW/Titan which leaves owners to find out the hard way spending ££££ to rectify the problem.

IMO the only way out of this problem is for CC to come clean, publicly admit the mistakes made & publish the servicing recommendations. Any time soon on that count. Trouble is I do not expect the slightest hint of contrition nor any financial recompense for their error.

I see the Titan problem as the largest automotive Iceberg in history with CC balancing on one toe above the very adjacent water line.

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PIO - Pilot Induced Oscillation - sorry an aviation term for the plonker cannot keep steady on the controls or in my case feather touching & letting off on the throttle at very low speed causing a bit of drive line shunt but not kangaroo hopping.

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ScottR400D:

'But 'largest automotive Iceberg in history'? I'm not sure it's that bad...... Wink'    Come on got to have some theatre surely ?

'even Titan's servicing recommendations aren't adequate'  They would be adequate if the Titan was engineered better & not built to a budget. Oh & CC were honest about the servicing requirement in the first place. 

Hopefully those of us who went another path will not have to worry about servicing every 10000 miles or 2 - 3 years. 

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"even Titan's servicing recommendations aren't adequate'  They would be adequate if the Titan was engineered better & not built to a budget. Oh & CC were honest about the servicing requirement in the first place."

Well, yes but then we wouldn't have this thread in the first place! *wink*

But I do agree with your last point. Occasionally, because most of the time I just don't think about the diff any more when I'm out, I start to wondering if the SPC is still working, it's so quiet; then I floor the throttle and it reassures me..........

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ScottR400D - Yes, the Tracsport is so eerily quiet !  The only way that one knows it is working is when attempting a challenging corner on a Wiltshire B road at a higher speed than one would with the Titan in place. Serenely drive round with out a drama or crisis.

I have just had a local member drop off some borrowed tools after re fitting a BMW LSD to his R300D. He opted for the Tracsport & he is just as amazed. 

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  • 1 month later...

#43 Hi Chris

At last I had the chance to check my 2017 420R with under 4k miles from new it looks like my diff will need attention L/H wheel turns but R/H stays still.

So next thing is decision is what to do next ?

Mrp

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# 421 James B

This really was not a dig at Chris having re-read the thread. It is a request for advice without financial involvement just advice.

I understand what Chris has said and he is right. However I don't do track days but I like to have a LSD on the road without the ongoing refreshing maintenance.

At this time I don't have the time to do a replacement  myself and would rather pay and get it done to use the car as quickly as possible.

My thought is buy a new regular diff from Caterham send it to get an SPC fitted and then get my regular repair guy to exchange it.

That is just my thoughts and ramblings, hope it makes sense.

Mrp

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If you can afford for the car to be off the road take your final drive out and send it to Steve, hopefully you have caught it in time so as the degrading components have not caused damage to the CWP, in which case you have two options, ask Steve to rebuild the Titan or fit a proven design, the Tracsport, this way it saves you the financial outlay of a new open final drive from CC.

 

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Replying to #422

"This really was not a dig at Chris having re-read the thread."

I never thought your comment was a dig at anyone - and I'd be surprised if anyone else did!

For what it's worth, I have just gone down the route described above by 7wotw; not cheap but I'm confident that I won't have any more issues and Steve at SPC is great to deal with.

James

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