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Tonight I had a weird thing happen, I'm not sure if it was the tyres or the diff.

Dry night, did a run to Lobethal and back, was fine on the way up, I was taking it sort of easy because my current tyres on the NA8 14's are absolute trash. Half way back I was coming round a sort of tightish but smooth left hander, wasn't going in too hard, pretty sure i didnt do anything suddenly that would have unbalanced the car, but the back swung right out reeeeeeeally smoothly, almost like it was on ice. I caught it but before I had a chance to slow right down there was a second left hander, and it did the same thing, though not to the same extent. Pulled over first chance I had thinking the back right had deflated but it seemed fine, as did the left. A bit later it did the same thing on a right hander.

I havent really had it swing the back out on a dry road before (well once.... but that was because I had hit the limiter in third, changed in to fourth then dropped back to third and compression locked it at the start of a long left hander on the Gorge and slid 90 degrees to the road for about 80 metres till the car came to a stop) and it was just really sudden.

Could my Torsen be on the way out and just suddenly open-wheeled, or could it be the tyres (though I wasnt going too quickly for the corner and they didnt feel hot or even warm when I pulled over... I was running 30psi tonight though as I find with these tyres the car skips on anything much higher) or could there maybe have been some dirt or something that I didnt see?

Adam_NAclubman wrote:Tonight I had a weird thing happen, I'm not sure if it was the tyres or the diff.

I was taking it sort of easy because my current tyres on the NA8 14's are absolute trash.

Enough said.

Without the torsen you probably would have been going backwards.

Adam_NAclubman wrote:Tonight I had a weird thing happen, I'm not sure if it was the tyres or the diff.

Dry night, did a run to Lobethal and back, was fine on the way up, I was taking it sort of easy because my current tyres on the NA8 14's are absolute trash. Half way back I was coming round a sort of tightish but smooth left hander, wasn't going in too hard, pretty sure i didnt do anything suddenly that would have unbalanced the car, but the back swung right out reeeeeeeally smoothly, almost like it was on ice. I caught it but before I had a chance to slow right down there was a second left hander, and it did the same thing, though not to the same extent. Pulled over first chance I had thinking the back right had deflated but it seemed fine, as did the left. A bit later it did the same thing on a right hander.

I havent really had it swing the back out on a dry road before (well once.... but that was because I had hit the limiter in third, changed in to fourth then dropped back to third and compression locked it at the start of a long left hander on the Gorge and slid 90 degrees to the road for about 80 metres till the car came to a stop) and it was just really sudden.

Could my Torsen be on the way out and just suddenly open-wheeled, or could it be the tyres (though I wasnt going too quickly for the corner and they didnt feel hot or even warm when I pulled over... I was running 30psi tonight though as I find with these tyres the car skips on anything much higher) or could there maybe have been some dirt or something that I didnt see?

Diesel on the road?

I dont know if it was the tyres... It was a slower corner than most of the other ones on that road, and I was going slowish.

I used to get the back of the DR30 (2way equipped yeeha) playing funny buggers a fair bit but this felt different, more like a tyre had suddenly deflated

MY clubman with the crap old tyres used to slide very nicely.
THe sticky tyres I have now dont slide anymore though
Hate to think would happen when they do break away though...

Most probly something on the road like dirt,oil or a bump in the road. If your lsd is on the way out you will start single wheeling usually the inside wheel and u will fill the rear of the car uneasy around mid corner as the wheels swap power from one side to the other. When tires get old, worn or ovreheated they often loose heaps of grip and cannot hold pressure for as long as they should.
I can slide the back of our NA6 out when required and thats with advan nevo tires which are quite grippy.

the exact same thing happened to me about 6 times over the course of a week or 2, when i first got my '5 late last year. it was very worrying and i thought it might have been my diff too. anyway, i took the car in for service and got some new tyres put on (the old tyres were stuffed) , and got a wheel alignment. apprently the wheels were WAY out of alignment.

anyway, it hasn't happened again, the car grips the road much better now. i would suggest you get some new tyres and a full alignment done a.s.a.p.

Another vote for checking your alignment, you could have toe out at the rear which will make it very loose. I had 9mm out on the rr which made it exciting every corner...not!

Its definitely not the alignment


It hasnt done it before, and hasnt done it since.

I think I'll change the oil in the diff, but I guess it was probably a combination of something on the road and tyres.


I was just suprised that it did it as I drive it (very) hard in the hills very regularly and its never really jumped out before, I've had it a bit taily on Lobethal Rd once going the other way but we were really hammering that night