Calling all J-spec MR-S owners.. Your help is needed..

[aaronjb]

Conducting a little research here to see if we can find a way to determine if a Japanese car has an LSD or not, without having to tear down the transmission.

A post over on SpyderChat indicated that (for US cars, at least) the A/TR part of the VIN plate would read 01B plus the transmission code (C56/C60) if you have LSD, or 01A if you have no LSD..

Now, Ste's reads C56-01B... what does yours read? If they all read 01B then I guess the theory is wrong.. if there's a mix then it could be right  s;) s;)

(My UK car reads 02BC52, incidentally)

[Team_Dandism]

My 99 MR-S has C56-01B, and may have an LSD in it, if you turn one wheel the other does nothing (i expected it to turn same direction for LSD or opposite for open).

Quick update will now be swapping this out in favour of a C66-02B from a 2005 UK car, I'll let you know if i can notice the difference.

[SteveJ]

My 99 MR-S has C56-01B, and may have an LSD in it, if you turn one wheel the other does nothing (i expected it to turn same direction for LSD or opposite for open).

Nope - not true at all. The opposite wheel will only turn if the car is in gear (ie. the input side of the diff cannot turn), and it will ALWAYS turn in the opposite direction regardless of the LSD being fitted or not.

The LSD ONLY locks the output shafts together when torque is applied to the input side (ie. you are accelerating)

The only way to test for the presence of an LSD is to put the wheels on surfaces with radically different grip levels and see if one wheel spins or both (ie. One wheel on tarmac and the other on wet grass for example)

Anyway back to the original topic, I would suggest you gather details from UK cars as well - you never know what surprises might be lurking out there  s;) s;)

[Anonymous]

Aaron my 2001 MR-S reads C56-01B too  s:? :? s:?

[AllanE]

As I've just posted on another thread, my VIN plate also shows 02BC52.
LSD or not?!?

[northernalex]

As I've just posted on another thread, my VIN plate also shows 02BC52.
LSD or not?!?

I suspect your car is not J-Spec from what you put on the other forum, so it most likley will have an LSD.

[spit]

I think you're right Alex.

Good to see an old thread resurrected though. I think Aaron and I got to the bottom of this via MSN some time ago with help from some photo evidence from Japanese language car websites. Unfortunately we didn't bother to conclude on this thread  s:oops: :oops: s:oops:   (which basically confirms the Spyderchat rumour that A=No, B=Yes).