Differential Acting Up

[silvachris1]

Well, here's what's happening.
I've got a 99 Camaro, Auto Y87 car, so 3.42 and LSD. Anywho, here lately the car has been acting a little weird. I noticed I've been losing traction more frequently as of late, so I started experimenting. Burnouts are fine, both rear tires spin (like I've always been able to). The thing thats different though is that only the rightside rear tire spins in a turn situation. Donuts are only possible in a left hand turn. Either direction that I turn, the right rear is still the only tire that spins. This causes me to loose traction easier in slick situations. I had to pull out on wet leaves a few days ago and didn't think I was gonna get anywhere. I checked the fluid in the diff and it was low but clean, normal metal shavings, nothing serious, no chunks. Opened the diff up and the posi unit looked good, no missing teeth or anything. I changed the fluid, put in the additive, and it's still the same old thing.
I coulda damaged it last time I was at the track, but I really don't know what's even wrong with it. Please help me figure this out.

[Tru2Chevy]

How many miles are on the diff? Would you consider yourself a 'spirited' driver? How often are you at the track/how many passes do you have on the car?

- Justin

[silvachris1]

58,000 miles on the car and the diff. I've done a few crazy things but nothing too dumb. I can count the number of donuts on one hand. I've done more than a couple burnouts with the car. Less than 50 passes down the track (1/8 mile) in the 3 and 1/2 years I've owned it. The car has never had a problem turning the tires over so I don't think I put any more strain on the rear than an LS1 car could.

The only thing I can relate to this issue is the clunk I heard last time I was at the track. I pulled a short burnout to scrub my tires didn't even really push it to smoke em, but I heard a clunk, and my buddy said the driverside rear tire wasn't spinning at time. But even after all that, burnouts still go fine, still leaves 2 fresh stripes. I never felt anything acting up till about a 3 weeks ago, and the trip to the track was in late September, maybe the 1st week of October.

Any ideas on the root of the problem?

[silvachris1]

::crickets::

[FunkZ]

They do wear out, even the torsen ones.

How much metal was on the cover magnet?

[silvachris1]

I guess one could wear out, maybe a bearing inside it or something? I guess nobody has a clue at all. There was minimal metal shavings on the magnet, like barely covering the whole thing. Completely collected the shavings made something less than the size of an eraser off a pencil (the part thats showing). I don't think I even saw any shavings in the fluid either. It was a little low on fluid though.

[Tru2Chevy]

It sounds like it is just starting to wear out. spinning the tires while turning will make it wear out faster. When applying power, a posi basically locks both sides together, so that they spin with equal power going to them. When you corner, the posi will 'slip' which allows the inside rear tire to turn slower than the outside rear. If you are applying a lot of power during a cornering situation, the diff will be trying to lock and slip at the same time.....not good for wear and tear.

- Justin

[silvachris1]

I guess... It's just started happening though. It's not a progressive thing. It was just out of nowhere. It just started spinning the right rear only in a slick situation. Like when I pulled out on those wet leaves, the left side was on pavement. But I started noticing that the rightside would lost traction, even at even fairly low RPMs (like I'm not even going WOT) when turning at the end of a street up a hill. Or when I pull onto the highway into traffic. It does fine if both tires are on dry pavement in a straight line.