"CLSD on Canadian '87 Turbos (yes/no?)"

[Careless]

So, Racinjitter and I spent the better and brigther half of the day cruising from my two locations to grab some stuff... *waves*

 

And at the end of the whole adventure, before Rj set off, he had a look-see at my 87 turbo, because I know virtually nothing about them other than I like them and it was a good purchase for what I paid. (probably not compared to what some other people paid, but not all of us can find cars for a case of beer!)

 

Anyways... looking through the receipts the owner gave me... it seems as though a the shop decided it would be nice to "replace worn differential - R200" as indicated on the receipt. The car clearly has a non-LSD unit in there now, as Rj mentioned that if it was a CLSD, it would have a finned diff cover. The car was babied for it's entire life span. HOW does a diff get worn out unless it was a mechanical failure?

EDITED (just to be sure):

The car is an 05/87.

 

The previous owner is a kind-hearted man, and only sold me the car at a low-ball price because of a divorce issue... And the repairs easily totaled over 8,000 in only 4 receipts... out of about 25 or so, all of which he gave me, along with his Ontario Z car membership, Limited edition ZEDLINE Magazines that are hard to come by for Z fans, and a really really nice car when you get down to it. I mean for the money I paid... it's great...

 

But if it was stripped of an original equipment performance model feature... well....

 

I've contacted both the PO, and the shop that did the work, and I am waiting on the reply from the shop.

[The Chiropractor]

Sounds like the PO got JACKED!!! Depending on your relationship with the previous owner, I would definitely incorporate them into your pursuit of this issue, march into the shop and call the owner on the carpet over this. First of all, depending on the mileage, not likely that the diff was worn out, and secondly, it seems logical to do any necessary repairs on one of these rather than to swap it out, especially for an employee's one legger R200. If you can get the PO to cooperate, and if this wasn't done 10 years ago, it might be worth your time and the threat of exposure on the shop's side to the community, and to the bureau of automotive repair, for that shop to make right on this. Just my $.02, but it pisses me off just to hear about it.

[TONY C]

you know they jacked it... any specialty shop knows what is what.

I say blow their name up!

Don't let this happen to other people.

kinda like a rape victum that never tells.

[Careless]

Yeah...

 

I really don't wanna get ahead of myself on this one. I've personally met the owner of this shop before and he's a very very nice guy. Perhaps not the one who did the work on the car, either. Their work orders are fairly detailed, all things I can understand.

 

And perhaps they made the previous owner and offer, but I'm wondering why they wouldn't have written it down this particular unit on the work-order at all, rather than just R200?...

 

First order of business, email the Previous Owner to see if he knows anything about it.

[Careless]

you know they jacked it... any specialty shop knows what is what.

I say blow their name up!

Don't let this happen to other people.

kinda like a rape victum that never tells.

 

LOL. as much as it frustrates me, I'm only posting this for the people who don't really examine their cars when they get them back. I don't want to go on strike in front of the

 

TO BE HONEST, i'm happy with the car as is... but I WAS weary of that when i saw it in the pages I was given.

 

I'll have to do some sleuthing. The reason I didn't catch it when I bought it was because I didn't know about it. plain and simple. so I can see why swapping it out would be an easy thing...

 

:-/

[TONY C]

seems to me that if they wanted to hide something they would add the least amount of info possible.

usually when things seem fishy... they are.

[woldson]

Is it possible they did not even change it? My mom's honda had recitps saying the head gasket replace and when i bent the values and removed the head I'am 90% sure it was still the stock one!

[Careless]

Is it possible they did not even change it? My mom's honda had recitps saying the head gasket replace and when i bent the values and removed the head I'am 90% sure it was still the stock one!

 

So you're thinking that the "replace worn differential - R200" was not actually done, but the finned CLSD carrier cover plate was the only thing switched for 200 bucks + labour = 600 bucks total?

 

I'd hate to believe it was jacked, but it sounds like a more reasonable answer to the missing cover plate. Especially since it's an 05 / 87 Turbo.

[Guest TeamNissan]

Have you checked yourself to see if it really is open or lsd? Maybe the replacement had a cracked cover or something?

[Guest TeamNissan]

And I think it may be tech possible for THAT dif to be worn out because its clutch lsd, pretty sure if you beat on that rear long enough it will certainly fail prematurely. Idk though that sure does suck man, sorry to hear it.

[Careless]

Well, I just talked to the previous owner, and he had this to say:

"All I was told by the mechanic was that the new one was off about 4 km per 100 km in the speedometer reading. So when you’re registering 100 you’re actually doing 96"

So the unit was definately replaced with a completely different one, but NO mention of the value was indicated. ESPECIALLY after looking through the receipts, I can pick out 2 of them that are over 1200 dollars in repairs, 1 over 2500, and 1 (this particular one) over 3400. I don't think he would have skimped on the differential unless it was the only one kicking around at the shop. Even then, they should be able to source one out.

 

And the previous owner said he rarely even went into boost because it scared him, and he just liked driving the car because he got it for a dirt cheap price and found out its real value.

 

I've also emailed the shop with an invoice number and date of repair, a long with what was told to the previous owner.

 

:-/

 

still trying not to point fingers.

[Guest TeamNissan]

oy vey, I bet even if they do correct their mistake they re going to expect more money because they charged 200 for a open and a clsd is going to cost much more. I doubt they are going to eat the labor AND that. Is there a better Business Bureau in your neck of the woods?

 

 

I think you can solace in the fact you got the car for a steal. no?

[Careless]

oy vey, I bet even if they do correct their mistake they re going to expect more money because they charged 200 for a open and a clsd is going to cost much more. I doubt they are going to eat the labor AND that. Is there a better Business Bureau in your neck of the woods?

 

You're most likely right with that one, I don't think they're going to eat the costs on this one. They'll expect some sort of payment. I'll ask for my worn clunky clutch diff back. LOL.

 

It's not like I'm driving this car till the spring anyway. I can try and service an R200 CLSD diff. I don't mind. I THOUGHT something felt weird when I slammed it into 2nd gear and it went squirrelly for like 4 seconds, every which way on the wet pavement.

 

I think you can solace in the fact you got the car for a steal. no?

 

Nah. This makes the car less enjoyable, because I was hoping to take it to a drift event this season, only to do some hot laps though... no real drifting, because at this particular event it's more of a series of practice laps.

 

They'll probably ask for some sort of payment. Then I have to weigh in the difference between buying a new helical or clutch unit instead of going back to the stock CLSD. problem is finding one that will fit for a good price.

[Careless]

I've also read that Canadian cars didn't get CLSD until 88?

 

Is this true, or can someone denounce that claim.

[Darrel]

You weren't had, the PO was. It's amazing what some unscrupulous mechanics can do with a car owner that has to rely on them for repairs.

[Careless]

I'm going to change my first post to reflect the fact that I'm not sure what's happened here yet, and I've emailed the only two people who can do something about it, and one has replied, the other I am waiting on.

 

Adding to that, I'd still like to verify with some good evidence whether or not the 04/87 Turbos did come with a CLSD in the Canadian market at all.

 

I've read somewhere that the 88's were the first to be equipped with them, which doesn't surprise me because of the differences between the s13's and s13 coupes and hicas + vlsd options that were or were not available or standard on Canadian models.

 

Nissan likes to do this, from what little I've seen.

[woldson]

Its just weird that the diff would wear out and they would repace it with a lesser version. How would the owner as well (mabey) even know it was worn out, (if he did not even get on it). Then notice only the speed had changed with the new one? These things bother me, but at this point it is also beyond as well. A mistery indeed! Hummmm how was it to be detemined that is was worn in the frist place may currie some answers. The owner must have asked why he was spending so much money on this?

[Careless]

Its just weird that the diff would wear out and they would repace it with a lesser version. How would the owner as well (mabey) even know it was worn out, (if he did not even get on it). Then notice only the speed had changed with the new one? These things bother me, but at this point it is also beyond as well. A mistery indeed! Hummmm how was it to be detemined that is was worn in the frist place may currie some answers. The owner must have asked why he was spending so much money on this?

 

The owner did not spend a lot of money on this particular repair. It seems to be done at a reduced rate. Another reason why I pointed a finger blindly, at first.

 

I've removed all blind accusations within this thread up until I get an email back from the shop owner, who I'm sure will take the time to inform me of what was and wasn't done as well as why it was done this way. I've also asked that a moderator change the title of the thread to a question rather than a statement.

 

As I said, I've met him in person and he's a great person. Chances are it's a Canadian specific model discrepancy. I'm going to see if I can find more info on it, but most of the stuff I've found is prefaced by the word "apparently", which doesn't seal the deal for me. I was talking with a fellow who picked apart an 87 turbo a couple of months ago, and told me he had taken the CLSD off the car and said it was an 87 turbo model as well. This was in October. That's when I started to read about the spring-steel clutch disk runs that a board member was doing here. So after seeing a lack of an LSD on my 87 turbo, naturally I was curious.

 

Also, the previous owner was informed of the mph increase at the time of repair, and to be honest, I myself would not care about a 4mph difference in speed as I tend to drive 4 or 5 km/h under the speed limit anyway.

[GrayZee]

I was going to buy a diff out of a 87/88turbo z31 once. I would have had to remove it myself in some poor conditions so I decided to confirm that the car indeed had a LSD before I would bother going to all of that work. I Got the serial number from the car and went to the dealership to see if they could verify anything for me. After spending a few minutes on the computer the parts manager told me that this car was a fully loaded model with every bell and whistle. However there was no evidence that it had anything special about the diff. In fact he told me that he could find that there was no evidence that there was anything special about ANY diff in ANY z31. I did not bother to remove the diff and kinda assumed that there was difference between Canadian and US models.

[Careless]

There is no indication of any differential options with either, neither for the US or the Canadian models that you can readily see or dissect by using the VIN number.

 

I'll have to punch it into Nissan FAST when I get home after new-years tomorrow, but I'll bet it's not going to spit out information about the diff.

 

If I were to go into the actual "differential" parts list, it would then show me clutch discs. I'm sure of that, because I have the parts numbers for all the clutch discs, and that's how I found them.