limited slip

[PatNy]

how to tell if its going...i got stuck in the snow on sunday and i worked the car pretty good to try to get out....lol fustration got the best of me cause i reved it high and kinda got on it real good...well i got on it really good.....well after i got out i smelt something burning might have been the tires but just wanna check....im a lil worried how would i check if its damaged or anything?? it was probably the tires because its driving normally since then and i i did smell something when i had the heat on today smelled like something burning but went away when i turned the heat off....thank you in advance

[Jon325i]

Differentials are one of those parts that simply work or they don't. In order to destroy one you would have to empty all the gear lube oil from it and drive hard for a while.....even then you would hear plently of harsh grinding noise signifying its nearing the end. Given your description of the situation and how you remedied it, I would have to say this burning smell you detected was either your tires or your clutch.

You never made any mention of the mileage on your car so I can't really determine if its due to a tired clutch or not. If it was the tires creating the burning smell, they would've had to been spinning on a rather abrasive surface (asphault or gravel) and you would likely hear something at this point.

Don't know what else it could be, but those are my two guesses based on what you told us.

Jon

[PatNy]

thank you i was spinning the tires on concrete.....because i dug my self in the snow....my eta has only 91k....im pretty sure it was the tires also just wanted to check...i kno im going to be entering the black hole of the e30 world so i just wanted to make sure that this wouldnt be another item that would need fixing......thank you!

[Mystikal]

It was rubber burning. You should have smelled my car after about an hour of drifting in a massive parking lot on Sunday.

[OreoGaborio]

well, i know MY lsd is still workin after 178k miles... i know this cuz i got mildly stuck in the snow a couple weeks ago & was able to leave the car in gear w/ the engine running & the tires spinning slowly & not move an inch... so i hopped out, looked at the wheels & they were both spinning in the same direction.

btw, i left it in 1st gear, since that was the opposite direction i had to go to get out... that way if it moved in any direction, it was gonna go a tiny bit further into the snow & not rollin down the street ;)

[PatNy]

lol nice.....my tires stunk when i was doing dougnuts also lol!!! that was before the snow tho!!