E86 Diff swap.

[jack07]

For reference to help any E86 owners with failing diff,as mine was.Having replaced the bearings in my diff last year,I was still left with noisy spider gears and some remaining whine. I compared measurements from the earlier 3.0 litre diff,and although they look very different,all the vital. Dimensions are the same.I now have a silent running diff that is far less likely to fail again as she has the taper roller bearings.You are not stuck with the later light duty item When funds permit,a Quaife LSD will be added

 

[Zulu4]

So would this 'light duty' diff equally apply to a 3.0si roadster ?
And, to clarify, the fix is to replace with a diff from a pre-facelift 3.0i ?

 

[jack07]

Roadster uses a different ratio.
I can tell you that the critical mounting dimensions i.e.size,spacing of the 3 mounting points,the pcd of input and output flanges are the same,So although the appearance of the casings are dissimilar( cannot upload the picture of them side by side as file is too large),the one from the pre- Face lift 3.0 litre auto E 85 with 3.46 ratio directly replaced and upgraded my noisy E86 manual 3.46 .It just bolts straight in

 

[Spriteracer]

Since Jack07's kind offer of an E86 one but which then went awol, I have been looking for the 3.0i auto one as he suggests. Real oem says the part nr is .... 7514131 but I can only find ones with the number 751430, although everything else - donor car, ratio etc., seems correct. I'm guessing the difference is that the realoem number refers to an exchange unit as the description, and the ones on offer will be originals. Can anyone confirm for sure ?

 

[jack07]

Hi Spriteracer.
I took several photos of the two diffs,but they won't upload here( file too large) I would be happy to email them to you so you can see the casing design

 

[Spriteracer]

Hi Jack07.
How very kind. Thank you. I will PM my email to you.