Blackline helical LSD - any good?

[Limonge]

booloveblankie, hi you have news ? i need a lsd188k and i want know if blackline is a good choise !!

I am also interested, is it working as it should?

[SDJ]

I've just fitted one of these. Got it delivered for £523 with 10% off. Quality seems really good. Fitting isn't an easy DIY, but with some decent bearing pullers and a hydraulic press was able to swap the original bearings over. No shimming was required as the backlash was fine. You do need to grind the original case for clearance to manoeuvre it in, but that's the same as a quaiffe.
Only one test drive done so far and it's brilliant. No funny noises or vibrations and goes sideways beautifully on a greasy roundabout
https://www.mattlewisracing.co.uk/produ ... f7db1f5bc5

[Vanne]

did someone say that the oem traction isnt completely rubbish? i cant for the life of me think of a more interfering unit. making any personal best runs an impossibility if left on. (thats on the dry ofcourse, in the wet i have no idea as i dont think ive *ever* driven my car in the rain.. but in the dry... its nice to keep on for a warmup lap, but then its gotta go.. hmm maybe the traction control on my mums C220 is worse...
absolute rubbish system that traction control in our e85/86.

combine that with the fact that if you lift off the trottle a bit abrupt, it pre pressurizes the braking system , youve got 2 systems that i cant fathom for the life of me why they would have included those on the zed... anyways, you can disco the traction, sadly you cant correct the brake system, unless you remove it completely.

(slightly OT, but thought id add that in as it came up a few posts ago)

interested in a review of that copy LSD

[Jakg]

combine that with the fact that if you lift off the trottle a bit abrupt, it pre pressurizes the braking system , youve got 2 systems that i cant fathom for the life of me why they would have included those on the zed... anyways, you can disco the traction, sadly you cant correct the brake system, unless you remove it completely.

Isn't the brake thing only on the Z4M, not the rest of the range?

[SDJ]

Nothing funky happens on my regular 2003 3.0.
I always turn the TC off when larking about obviously, so not an issue for me. Plus there's quite a lot of traction and not that much power anyway, so driving with the TC on isn't a big problem in normal driving.
I'm enjoying the greasy roads at the moment though

[Vanne]

Isn't the brake thing only on the Z4M, not the rest of the range?
[/quote]

No idea? Good question, maybe Liam will chime in?

[booloveblankie]

Hi folks, apolgies for the massive delay!
Long story short - my 130i got driven into by a truck, fought my insurer for a bit, fought my repairer for a bit, and am now (still!) arguing with the insurer over a year on from the incident...

So it's taken me a little longer to put mileage on the LSD than I'd hoped but I've done a couple thousand kms now with a good mix of city, country and spirited driving so am confident enough giving an opinion.

Do I recommend this LSD?
Absolutely! It is a night and day difference in rear end grip on acceleration. Traction control kicks in a lot less and I generally have much more confidence to accelerate into traffic, around corners, etc.

Haven't been doing any skids around roundabouts but it does leave two nice black lines when launching hard...

How is the car to drive?
The consequence to driving dynamics is that the car is much less neutral in cornering. The ability to use the throttle to steer is a little unusual at first but you get used to it. Applying throttle will induce a little understeer but that's a known characteristic of LSDs on RWD cars.

I got caught out at first by having different diameter tyres left to right (had a puncture previously, didn't want to change both... Wasn't an issue with an open diff ) which caused the car to turn during straight line acceleration too but sorted that out quickly enough.

Is there a downside?
The one thing that maybe counts as a negative which is a little gear whine when hovering at constant speed - most notable around 50km/h. It's by no means overly loud but it's not silent like the open diff. (No, it's not diff bearings. Those were replaced when the diff was.) Some of you gearheads will probably think it's cool (because racecar )! I don't find it to be of concern and most people I have in the car don't notice it unless I point it out.

Overall I'm very happy with the purchase and happy to recommend to others.

[SDJ]

Hi booloveblankie, glad you are enjoying the diff, I certainly am. Did you install it yourself and measure the crown wheel backlash?
The Blackline part of the diff doesn't do anything when going straight ahead so won't be causing any whine, but if the pinion and crownwheel don't have enough backlash it will whine. The backlash is set with different thickness circlips on the side bearings. If you look at them they have the thickness marked on them, which is why you mustn't mixed them up left to right.
I was lucky that my new diff gave just enough backlash, a little less than the original one removed. You can't easily buy the circlips, but you can buy shims more easily apparently, if you have too much backlash, or machine some material off.

With regards to the car pushing/understeering a bit underpower i haven't noticed it much, but when i fitted an lsd to my M135i this happened. Once you are used to getting harder on the power earlier the balance comes back though and you can 'steer from the rear', although not so easy in a e85 due to the lower power. Biggest benefit for me is that is breaks traction in a nice predictable way

[Liam22]

Isn't the brake thing only on the Z4M, not the rest of the range?

No idea? Good question, maybe Liam will chime in?

Happens on my E86 too. Seems to pre-pressurise the brakes when the accelerator pedal closes from wide-open-throttle very quickly.

Disabling steering angle sensor stops it from happening, disables DSC, but keeps the ABS.

[TheDan]

Happens on my E86 too. Seems to pre-pressurise the brakes when the accelerator pedal closes from wide-open-throttle very quickly.

Disabling steering angle sensor stops it from happening, disables DSC, but keeps the ABS.

How easy is it to disable the steering angle sensor? And could I wire a switch into the circuit?

[Joycey]

My Blackline diff arrived last week, planning to fit it shortly.

Really struggle in the wet when I loose traction she feels so unstable. In the dry I can't fault it. I also have my first track day of the year in April looking forward to the rear feeling tighter on exits.

FD2D256D-7023-4952-9818-EBFD5755E682.jpeg (64.96 KiB) Viewed 1101 times

[Liam22]

How easy is it to disable the steering angle sensor? And could I wire a switch into the circuit?

See pages 29 & 30 in my build thread.

[1536Z4]

My Blackline diff arrived last week, planning to fit it shortly.

Any update on the LSD ?
Cheers

[SDJ]

My Blackline diff arrived last week, planning to fit it shortly.

Any update on the LSD ?
Cheers

Loving mine, especially in the wet

[B21]

Can you still get Quaife for E85s?

I guess even if you can they are more pricey?