The two differentials next to each other; MFactory & OEM




Crown wheel pre-cleaning




Measuring some diameters; NO difference between the two units





Assembly time:
Crown wheel to LS unit, perfect match






Loctite for the bolts!


Starting to put things together: 110Nm, star pattern










Pressing bearings back:










Mfactory/bearings back in to the case, reverse install, races, shims, measured clearances, found within spec (no change from original measurement). Sorry, didn't get pictures of that process.










Cleaned the (blocked) weep hole, applied gasket maker, joined the two parts


After a 3h break, we refilled with oil, installed it back to the car. I spinned the wheels by hand while on lift to hear for noises or feel any play, but there was nothing.

We took the car for a (very spirited) test drive and what a difference!!! Specially in the corners, the power delivery is quite different and you can really feel the car pushing hard throughout the corner. There was no ASC intervention throughout the test drive (it was enabled) and there were no issues i.e. odd noises upon acceleration/deceleration.
Overall I am very pleased with this purchase, highly recommended to anyone considering an LSD unit. I commute around 600miles / week, so I will provide in short time a 2000 mile review.

 

Excellent review, glad you are enjoying your purchase so far

 

I heard very positive feedbacks regarding installation of Helical LSD from my another community. Stephen should know what I mean.
I hope I'll publish more photos from installation of Helical LSD bit later.
However, I have some words regarding Metal Plate LSD which looks like Cusco RS.

1) Except some issues with fitment in diff housing - fitment is very well. I reported my comment to Stephen and he informed me, that case of latest Metal plate LSD version was bit changed.
2) Well, for Helical LSD you should use usual oil. But, please pay attention, for clutch type LSDs recomended another type of oil. It related to differences between type of functionality Helical and Metal plated LSDs in terms of MFactory. Metal plate LSD it's a true Limited Slip Diff. Oil should be more slippery than "normal" oil. Of course, you can decide to use Castrol SAF-XJ oil for LSD which uses in M-series. Unfortunately I found that it's not very good idea. In fact, in motion - absolutely perfect! But with Castrol oil this LSD unbelievable noisy on low speed corners - parking first of all, but also when I tried to start and turn on crossroad as e.g.! Lock instantaneous. But again, in motion - absolutely perfect!
Side effect - during such not completely correct operations, cluthes of LSD have higher temperature, which definetelly bad. Diff cover with additional radiator can little bit reduce temp, but it's not right way.

I asked my friend who owner of BMW M-series cars and they said, that from time to time have same situation with noise.
I investigated this situation and found couple of things.
Actualy, same situation for M-series described in SI B33 01 02.
It means, that BMW ordered another special oil for LSD with Friction Modifiers(from Castrol I suppose) instead existing, which the same to Castrol SAF-XJ, but this "right" oil available only as original oil. In fact - bit expensive for oil.
However, Redline(on other company of course) product Limited Slip Friction Modifier. Also, in other comminities I found same recomendation to use KaaZ oil and/or Friction Modifiers.

 

Yes, all of the Metal Plate LSD's are now the revised fitment, so NO modifications are required to the carrier casing for the LSD to fit. The issue was due to the width of the Metal Plate LSD (due to the discs inside). This IS NOT an issue with the Helical LSD.

With regards to gear oil, no special fluid is required for the Helical LSD. For the Metal Plate LSD, due to noise during low speed corning, it is advised to add some Friction Modifier to reduce the "disc chatter". Again, no special fluid is actually required for the Metal Plate LSD either; just the Friction Modifier (around $5 per bottle).

 

...due to the discs inside...

Is it mean, that you have another disk size for new Metal Plate LSD which are different with old version?

just the Friction Modifier (around $5 per bottle).

Yes, correct, with one small comment - need to add FM before operating of LSD or use oil which already have FM. In other case it can overheat and broke Metal Plate LSD
In described situation, Castrol SAF-XJ already have some modifiers but is not enough and additional modifiers is required.

 

The discs are the same, but we modified the design of it slightly to give us more room to modify the casing

 

Ok, I'll rephrase. Old disks and new disks are interchangeable?
As owner of "old" version of LSD I think about spare parts in future.

 

Yes, you will still be able to use the discs in future

 

So it was $1000 vs $1200 for the wavetrac?

 

NIce. What ratios are sold? Can you provide like a 3.15 or something similar and pop it in a 2.93?

 

We don't have any oem cores or final drives in stock at the moment, so for the rebuild service, the quickest option would be for you to send us your core (the final drive ratio will be the same as what you send us). Alternatively, we could source a different core for you first, but this may take some time.

 

Note: This is NOT a bash at US or UK made LSD's as they are very good quality LSD's; just expensive for what you are getting due to higher labor costs and "brand name tax"

Western Made LSD's: These are ALL machine-cut LSD's (aka Billet)

Asian Made LSD's: Can fall into two categories:

1) Cast Helical LSD's (e.g OBX, eBay etc) - The bane of Asian made products, and what gives "Asia" (or in particular, made in China/Taiwan) it's bad reputation. Mass made in zero-QC factories throughout China & Taiwan (mainly China)
2) Forged Helical LSD's (i.e MFactory) - We are the Only company to offer a Forged Helical LSD; Designed & Engineered in the USA, but manufactured in-house in Taiwan. We control 100% the design, development and manufacturing of our LSD's, and this is why we are able to offer "similar (if not better) to Western Made" at a much lower cost. In terms of manufacturing quality and strength, instead of repeating myself over and over, I will leave it for you to decide: http://www.teammfactory.com/articles_forging

To put it simply, it is impossible for a "Western" manufacture to offer something similar in terms of manufactured specification to our Helical LSD (and Gears) without it costing several times more.

As the saying goes, it is not Where a product is made, but Who is making it

 

Are you really saying you build a superior product to Quaife and Wavetrac?
If so i would really like to hear from representatives from both of those company's to get their opinion of what's really accurate and true.

 

Not at all; All I'm saying is that our "Asian Made" LSD's are designed, engineering and manufactured to every bit the same level (if not better) than the equivalent "Western Made" LSD.

No "brand" bashing whatsoever, as all companies mentioned in this thread (besides OBX) offer very good quality LSD's that you cannot go wrong with. If you were to hear from the "other" representatives, they could only tell you their own design and manufacturing processes; nothing stated in this thread is false or inaccurate.

At the end of the day, it is the consumers responsibility to take into account all facts about a company and be informed before making their purchase. We make that easier as we, as a manufacturer, have nothing to hide, fully disclose all of our manufacturing processes and where our factory is located, as well as communicate directly with the consumer and not just via third parties (shops, distributors etc).

Not all companies are willing to fully disclose everything (with good reason), but that's not how our company operates.

 

I paid around $120 for the OEM oil seals, bolts, loctite, differential oil, drain/fill plugs, and gasket sealant plus $100 for the installation and $40 import tax. I know install labor is cheap compared to elsewhere.

 

^Wait till the engine leaks

Added around 400 miles since install. No issues so far, recording the outside casing temperature to see whether it has increased or not.

 

1000 mile update:

For some reason I take the long way home instead of the short .
The diff is still super quiet, no leaks/noises. There is no increase on the case temperature after LSD install so I will skip the Z4 finned cover for now.

 

Where can I get different thickness carrier locking rings/shims/c-clips?

 

Check these:

Carrier Shims - BMW Part Numbers:

SPACER RINGS SET. 1,30MM-1,70MM 33139065736
SPACER RINGS SET. 1,75MM-1,90MM 33139065737

(also 10k mile update: no issues!!! )

 

Good to hear it's holding up. Hoping to test mine out very soon.

I'm really confused with the retaining rings/shims in our differentials. I've been searching like crazy and am getting conflicting info.
The retaining rings are the shims, right? So don't you just get different thickness retaining rings?
I looked up the part numbers you gave on ECS and what the pictures show, aren't retaining rings.

EDIT:
Still curious about the shims and stuff, but it's looking like I won't be needing anything. I switched the retaining rings from side to side and now it's nice and tight like the original diff. Will be checking the wear pattern and backlash later. I'll also post up pics of what I used for a bearing puller and press, so people know what else can be used to do this job without wrecking the original bearings.


Bearing removal:
I used this cheap Harbor Freight puller and an impact. One side was super easy. The other side, I had to use a hammer and chisel to move the bearing until there was a large enough gap to get the puller under the bearing.


Bearing install:
I used a 20 ton Harbor Freight press. They went on super easy, so I bet an arbor press would even work.


Labor cost:
Free-ninety-nine
Gotta love being able to diy... and have a brother who is a diesel tech with whatever tools I don't have. Giant locking retaining ring pliers are a must! I would NOT try removing them without that tool.

 

UPDATE

This is mainly for those who only skim through posts and don't have the time to read through everything. I am writing this for 2 reasons:

1) To prevent the spread of mis-information (and especially by haters/trolls, of which we have a few)
2) To update everyone on the status of the situation

Problem: A handful of customers from our initial batch of E46 fitment LSD's (made/sold around 1.5 years ago) had issues with the case bolts coming loose from the underside of the LSD. By handful, I literally mean only a handful, from our initial batch of 100 units made. Since this initial batch, we have updated & revised the design of our LSD significantly. What you purchase now is not the same unit as the ones from this initial batch. For what it's worth, we have sold over one thousand of our E46 units within the past quarter alone (both MFactory branded and custom branded), making us North Americas largest BMW diff manufacturer. In comparison, our closest US competitor only manages to sell a few hundred units per year of all their BMW fitments combined. To the trolls/haters, we are not just some little trading company peddling cheap China knockoffs, as much as you keep trying to tell yourselves

Cause of Problem: It was determined by our customers (see video posted above) that some of the bolts may not have been torqued down sufficiently enough, with the correct torque value being 40-45nm (45nm being the max. for the M8 12.9 bolts). However, even with being under-torqued, the bolts should still not have come loose as they are pre-assembled with Loctite Red (which is bonds so hard that, should you try to loosen or even further tighten the bolts without heating the unit up beforehand, you will snap the bolts). Unfortunately, we were unable to determine the exact reason why they came loose due to the bolts being either already removed, or snapped, with the return units that we received. In light of this issue though, we now make sure to double-check every single LSD during assembly to ensure that the case bolts have the correct torque value

Issues due to Problem: In most cases, the only issue that was found was noise coming from the pumpkin/carrier. Even without any case bolts, it is impossible for the LSD to come apart/twist due to an internal feature built into the LSD, so actual LSD failure is highly improbable and would still continue to function as it nothing had happened. The worst case scenario (which happened in one case I believe) is the bolts may come loose entirely and, due to the centrifugal effect of the turning diff, get flushed outwards by the gear oil and damage the weaker cast pumpkin/carrier cover

The outcome: It is not my place to publicly state who is to blame here, regardless of the findings after we received the LSD's back for analysis. What's important is that we stood behind our product 100% (they do come with a Lifetime Warranty that we are proud of), and sorted out the issues amicably with the customers concerned. This was in the form of either a rebuilt LSD, or exchange for one of our Plate LSD's (which don't have case bolts). Whilst the customers did have to pay to ship the LSD back to us (it was only expensive as they had to ship from Russia, and we don't have an office/facility in Russia. If it was in North America, Europe, Asia or Australia where we do have offices/facilities, it would be a different story), we covered the cost of shipping back the warranty replacement. For what it's worth, most companies do not include any shipping costs (either way) arising from warranty claims

As mentioned at the start of this thread, all companies have their haters/trolls, and they are always going to be haters/trolls. There is nothing that I can do about that (other than get them banned/warned for trolling, like I have done on several other BMW forums. If you are reading this, you know who you are). My point? All companies have their issues, especially ones that are new to the market. What makes or breaks that company though is how the situation is handled. As they say, the customer always comes first, and that was most certainly the case here.

 

Our current generation of Helical LSD (our products are revised as and when new manufacturing technologies are developed which allow performance improvements) utilises a revised housing that has undergone a newer heat treatment technology. Not only does this allow us to make the housing lighter (less material = weight savings) whilst retaining structural integrity, but it is also tougher (how much it can deform before breaking). The internal gears are also forged using a newer technology which allows them to be more wear-resistant.

Whilst not originally intended for this particular application (the case and gears aren't really under much stress unless you are kerb hopping or rally driving), we still apply it where economics allow.

Infact, v3 of our Helical LSD has just passed the preliminary design stage, patent application underway, and will be something different altogether! And the prototype of our v2 Metal Plate LSD will be set for testing at our German facility (and at Hockenheim & Nürburgring) later this month. This was designed in collaboration with our German facility from scratch, with the main aim to outperform anything else currently on the market short of Electronic Differentials (real ones).

 

It acts as an open diff until you lose traction. Then it splits torque nearly 50/50 to both wheels until You let off the gas pedal and it goes back to normal. If you have ever driven a 4 wheel drive vehicle (or any vehicle with a locking diff) you know that you don't want to engage lockers at all times on a DD, only under wheel slippage.
If you want a locked differential on demand Eaton makes E-lockers that lock at push of a button.
Check out the article below to review key differences between toes of locking diff. I personally installed an M-Factory Helical LSD and couldn't be more happy with it. Now I just need more power to get the rear end to lock out on demand. ;-)
http://www.trak-life.com/basic-intr...-introduction-helical-torsen-viscous-mechanical-limited-slip-differentials-lsd/

Sent from my Droid Turbo2

 

Since the thread is revived, might as well give an update.. LSD is still functioning without issues, changed the oil and noticed nothing unusual. I was hearing some weird noises a few months ago which led me to think it was broken, but [thankfully] it was a handbrake issue combined with cupped tires. mFactory has issued a recall on the LSD bolts and according to their part numbers, I seem to be affected, however still contemplating if it's worth taking everything apart again, I mean, if the bolts were to undo themselves, it would have happened by now...

 

Posting a 60000+ mile / 3 years after install review:

Rock solid no issues. Usual oil change once a year.

Had to drop the diff one time to change all of the bushes because they were gone but it's irrelevant

 

4 year update, now running Redline 75W140 instead of Motul (availability issue). Old fluid came out clean. As of September 2018, the LSD works with my s/c'ed B30 engine which I can say for sure has loads more torque/HP than a 2.2 lol. It's even more useful now that I can break traction with 1/2/3rd gears

 

We can consider 6 year update today all good with double the HP and triple the torque since initial install

 

7-year update, with 15 psi of boost, and extreme abuse of the drivetrain, still works