Diff Noise

[Chris J T]

I have only had the car R300 k series for a couple weeks and have noticed how noisy the diff is.
clunks on / off throttle, but I have mainly noticed the whine from the diff at about 50 mph, even can hear it through ear plugs, been told that car has LSD. Question is how noisy ahould these be, I still have short warranty with CC and wondered if I need to get it sorted.
Chris

[JeffC]

from my experience they all do that sir,not so much whine but they are clunky, I had my Csr260 diff rebuilt as i thought it was shot the racket it made! but when returned from R&R it was the same in fact it was worse as I fitted the diff support bars at the same time which seems to amplify the din up to your ear level! they tend to be worse when cruising, on and off the throttle mine is pretty quiet,strange thing is I have owned numerous westfields with standard Sierra LSD and they are quiet but downside is they don't work as well on track . my latest DR400 is pretty much new with 3.9 Lsd which was supplied new/recon by R&R and does the same, tbh as is going to be a road car Im seriously considered buying a sierra 3.6 standard Lsd to make it more road friendly.

[hodgre]

out for a test drive with CC in r400 at weekend and was also told they all do that as well!

[Steve-B]

TADTS...if you can hear the diff then you're not pressing the right pedal hard enough!

[2slo]

New ones clunk as well Chris, it's all part of the experience

[ravon]

That's really interesting info, the diff in my 260 CSR makes a hell of a racket, and clonks ! It has the extra support bars, I'd wondered if they increased the noise. Thanks.

[JeffC]

ravon said:

That's really interesting info, the diff in my 260 CSR makes a hell of a racket, and clonks ! It has the extra support bars, I'd wondered if they increased the noise. Thanks.

I broke the diff casing on my csr with the extra grip when i fitted toyo 888s and did a trackday at Oulton Park, I sent the diff to rr and as said fitted the brace bars at the same time, the clunky noise was considerably worse than I remembered it Ive had 7 type cars for 10 years including 7 becs and this was noisy ?? so bad I even removed it and sent it back to Phil so he could double check it! refitted and It was no better, I sold the car shortly after that and it wasn"t til a good while after I thought about the bars and how it could have been a contributing factor amplifying the noise?? if you ever remove yours to see if it quietens down I would be very interested to hear the results!!

can someone explain if there is a reason why a the diffs Caterhams use have to be so clunky is it relative to how well they work ?? as I said the Lsds ive had in my westys have all been pretty much silent and they were all from high mileage sierras !another thought I have just fitted a brand new Quaife Lsd to my saxo race car and that is silent too and works really well ? when I sold my CSR I spoke to a few people about the transmission noises and was told all Caterhams do it, I was wondering if the clunkyness when cruising came from the 6 speed box ?

Edited by JeffC on Thursday 1st March 07:51

[mickrick]

Apparently, no one in the world can make the crown wheel and pinion gears as good as the original Ford ones.
I think there could be a niche market here........