I am running a 5-speed with 3.64's and I love it. I do have very high cruising RPMs on the freeway, but it does not bother me.
An LSD will give you much better traction off the line and especially in corners. It is also alot more expensive though and unless you are doing heavy tracking or putting down tons of power, go with OEM.

James

 

Cool, thanks alot. I dont track the car so just a regular diff will be fine for me. I'm just not sure which one to get, obviously the 3.46 will be cheaper, since the 3.64 is kind of rare.

 

I would go with the 3.46 for a street driven 6-speed car.

A limited slip differential applies power to both rear wheels, a regular differential applies power only to the rear wheel with the least amount of traction. A limited slip diff for our cars will run you $3000+. (that's three thousand dollars not three hundred)

 

I would go with the 3.46 for a street driven 6-speed car.

A limited slip differential applies power to both rear wheels, a regular differential applies power only to the rear wheel with the least amount of traction. A limited slip diff for our cars will run you $3000+. (that's three thousand dollars not three hundred)

lol, thanks for the response. I was wiating for you to respond, you seem very very knowledgeable about diffs. Thanks. I will look into the 3.46 then. Not about to spend 3000 for the LSD lol.

 

lol, thanks for the response. I was wiating for you to respond, you seem very very knowledgeable about diffs. Thanks. I will look into the 3.46 then. Not about to spend 3000 for the LSD lol.

If you have a ZHP (Performance Package) 330 with the 6-speed manual transmission, and spin 2800 rpms at 80 mph now, with the 3.46 you will be spinning at 3155 rpms at 80 mph. Which is lower rpms than a stock 325 spins at that same speed, so it shouldn't be a bother after the first few days and you get used to it being higher than you are accustomed to. And your car will pull very noticeably harder throught the gears.

 

Allright my 2001 325i has a 3.46 differential, its non-lsd.....i hate the dam thing...i posted a thread a lil while back about it and asking ppl what should i do with it...and why its turns the way it does and handles the way it does...cuz i turn pretty hard it slids everywhere, and i have pretty good thread on the tires... its a P.O.S for me.. i heard if i have more horsepower then it would turn better... not sure if its true , i have a remus exhaust and Benfer intake..with Pirelli P Zero Nero tires...back then before the 3.46 differential the car would turn great i mean i beat the crap out of it turning never slid, squealed, nothing it was a dream come true becuz i put a really good suspension on it (eibach), spent almost 2 grand on it , but with the 3.46 it got soo much worse ..i hate it... on the freeway going 60mph i get like 3000-3200 rpm's never really looked going 80 mph.... but i dont like it at all.. iam going to the stock differntial sooner or later... hope urs doesnt turn out like mine did.....o yea if anyone can help me out too w/ my differential that be great.. such as if its true more horsepower on a 3.46 makes it turn better????and if there is anything i can do .......thanks and i hope this helps u

 

Allright my 2001 325i has a 3.46 differential, its non-lsd.....i hate the dam thing...i posted a thread a lil while back about it and asking ppl what should i do with it...and why its turns the way it does and handles the way it does...cuz i turn pretty hard it slids everywhere, and i have pretty good thread on the tires... its a P.O.S for me.. i heard if i have more horsepower then it would turn better... not sure if its true , i have a remus exhaust and Benfer intake..with Pirelli P Zero Nero tires...back then before the 3.46 differential the car would turn great i mean i beat the crap out of it turning never slid, squealed, nothing it was a dream come true becuz i put a really good suspension on it (eibach), spent almost 2 grand on it , but with the 3.46 it got soo much worse ..i hate it... on the freeway going 60mph i get like 3000-3200 rpm's never really looked going 80 mph.... but i dont like it at all.. iam going to the stock differntial sooner or later... hope urs doesnt turn out like mine did.....o yea if anyone can help me out too w/ my differential that be great.. such as if its true more horsepower on a 3.46 makes it turn better????and if there is anything i can do .......thanks and i hope this helps u

I dont know much about differentials, but i dont think a diff has anything to do in regards to handling and turning.

 

I know some thing about differnetial... i know the turning is worse cuz of it ... but i wanna know why its soo much worse, and is there anything i can do...

 

I dont know much about differentials, but i dont think a diff has anything to do in regards to handling and turning.

It does when you're powering out of a corner.

 

Allright my 2001 325i has a 3.46 differential, its non-lsd.....i hate the dam thing...i posted a thread a lil while back about it and asking ppl what should i do with it...and why its turns the way it does and handles the way it does...cuz i turn pretty hard it slids everywhere, and i have pretty good thread on the tires... its a P.O.S for me.. i heard if i have more horsepower then it would turn better... not sure if its true , i have a remus exhaust and Benfer intake..with Pirelli P Zero Nero tires...back then before the 3.46 differential the car would turn great i mean i beat the crap out of it turning never slid, squealed, nothing it was a dream come true becuz i put a really good suspension on it (eibach), spent almost 2 grand on it , but with the 3.46 it got soo much worse ..i hate it... on the freeway going 60mph i get like 3000-3200 rpm's never really looked going 80 mph.... but i dont like it at all.. iam going to the stock differntial sooner or later... hope urs doesnt turn out like mine did.....o yea if anyone can help me out too w/ my differential that be great.. such as if its true more horsepower on a 3.46 makes it turn better????and if there is anything i can do .......thanks and i hope this helps u

Sounds like some kind of installation error or other broken parts. Just changing the gear ratio absolutely, positively, will NOT cause any kind of handling problem. That is fact. Anyone claiming otherwise clearly doesn't understand how these things work. They probably shouldn't even use a scissors.

 

I picked the 3,46 LSD for my car and i love it i ordered it from bimmerworld 3.200.00 with a new core.

 

I dont know much about differentials, but i dont think a diff has anything to do in regards to handling and turning.

It has a lot to do with cornering. Basically an LSD (as I understand it) will allow the wheels to spin at their correct rotational velocities where-as an open one will put the power to each tyre no matter how much they are slipping. This of course comes in handy when you are on the power in a turn and the inside wheel starts to spin because all the weight is being forced to the otherside of the car. The LSD will allow the wheel to travel at a different speed and provide traction instead of smoke. :thumbup:

 

It has a lot to do with cornering. Basically an LSD (as I understand it) will allow the wheels to spin at their correct rotational velocities where-as an open one will put the power to each tyre no matter how much they are slipping. This of course comes in handy when you are on the power in a turn and the inside wheel starts to spin because all the weight is being forced to the otherside of the car. The LSD will allow the wheel to travel at a different speed and provide traction instead of smoke. :thumbup:

Umm.. No.

Both open and limited slip differentials allow the rear wheels to turn at different speeds when going around corners. That's the whole point of a differential, since when going around a corner the outside wheel has to travel a longer distance than the inside wheel. If the wheels couldn't turn at different speeds, the outside wheel would get dragged across the pavement when cornering.

An open differential tries to apply the same torque to both rear wheels. But it can only apply as much torque as the wheel with the least traction can utilize, so if one wheel is on concrete and the other wheel is on ice, the wheel on ice would spin while the wheel on concrete would not.

A limited slip differential applies a certain amount of torque to both wheels regardless of which wheel has more traction.