Rear diff

My car currently has factory diffs all round. I’m taking my sub frame out shortly to freshen the rear end up, should I install a nismo rear diff I’ve had sitting in the garage at the same time?

Long term I will buy Modena front diff but I don’t have plans to buy one any time soon, as that money can be spent on other areas of the car that need it.

Should I wait until I buy a Modena front or stick the rear nismo in now?

Yes put it in,
i have both modena and nismo rear

the nismo rear gives me some of the rear rotation i want, and drive out of a corner
the modena gives me traction out of corners

you may even decide to skip the modena with just the two way rear

I couldnt put any power down with the viscous rear and just the modena front

these are vids on my shitty bc racing suspension and worn out re11's in 3 degree celcius weather

ill have some videos up with my new suspension setup after this coming weekend

http://www.ubcscc.com/events/2013/Slush2Nov24/t.txt set 5th fastest time of day on a small agile car circuit

POS CLS N WOR DRIVER NAME YR MAKE MODEL SPONSOR TIRES BEST
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. STR TG NIGEL KOIT 02 HONDA S2000 DUNLOP 38.491
2. STC TG LAWRENCE LIANG 91 HONDA CIVIC TOYO 38.536
3. STS TG RICHARD BASFORD 95 MAZDA MIATA WWW.TEAMVCMC.COM TOYO 38.635
4. STX TG DENNY FOK 13 SCION FR-S SKY AUTO SERVICES TOYO 38.863
5. SSM INX NICHOLAS CHU 90 NISSAN GTI-R 38.901

Cheers for advice nick, I've heard of people running just the Modena front, but never just a nismo rear. Funny enough I have bc's at the moment, spring rates are way to stiff, not overly happy. I'm going to look at other options shortly.

what spring rates you got on the bc's mr woody?

Modena front makes a huge difference & although expensive it one of the best things you can do in terms of improving handling.
Nismo diffs can be a bit clonky on a road car.
BC standard spring rates are useless for road. I used 4 front & 3 rear for road.

I'll need to go have a look bob, got feeling they are 8 and 6kg.

I always thought about getting a Modena before they aren't readily available. My R isn't a daily car or anything but still want to keep it somewhat drivable on the road. Did u order another set of springs with different rates through bc mate?

as mr b said the standard 7kg front and 6kg rear are useless for road and far too stiff

when people order from us we recommend 5kg front springs and 4kg rears which work well and allow the suspension to work over bumpy roads, plus they are also good for track use on most curcuits.
the only time you will need higher graded springs is if the car is being used for sprints / hillclimbs where there are hard tight turns where suspension is under much more load.
if you need lighter rate springs woody then il get a price if you like, they will transform the cars handling on the road.

the 3kg springs are not actually 3kg although they are marked as such
infact they are 3.5kg


as for diffs........front diff is very good as is rear but if im honest with you and the car is prim arily used for road driving then I wouldn't bother certainly with the plated rear as it makes driving the car in town type scenario's a real pain as they grab and snatch on any sort of lock and if reversing into a space on full lock you will find that you can even lock and drag one of the rear wheels symptoms are as though brakes are binding.

so really is a case of horses for courses, great on track but shite otr

gtir_woody wrote:I always thought about getting a Modena before they aren't readily available. My R isn't a daily car or anything but still want to keep it somewhat drivable on the road. Did u order another set of springs with different rates through bc mate?  

I ordered my BC with 5 & 4 but as roads I drive on are bad dropped down to 4 & 3 sourced locally.
BC not bad for money but for road use I found standard strut cases with Bilstien inserts far better.
You get a lot for your money with BC, allow proper setup & quite good for track use, they are better than many of the coilover options at sensible money & easier/cheaper rebuilt than Tiens ...

Cheers for the info bob. I'll check my rates and swing you a PM, might grab a few other things from you to make the postage worth while.

Arghh that's no good to hear about using them on the road. I guess my car leans towards more of track setup but I've always wanted to keep it a fairly drivable road car aswell. Difficult to have both I know. Not so much worried about reversing etc but you'd still recommend leaving the rear off for now to keep it streetable?

yeah tbh you cant beat the stock struts with inserts and uprated damping for road use and even light track.
that's why I rave about the likes of gab, ohlins, koni ect, far more suitable for road and some track use

there is either a full track set up car or one for fast road use each has its purpose so if your seriously keen on racing and getting fast lap times then their is no real compromise between the two.

as for the rear diff once again great on track but if mainly a road car then it would drive me up the wall so wouldn't bother but that's just my opinion on them as ive driven a few with rear plated diffs fitted

Mr B wrote: I ordered my BC with 5 & 4 but as roads I drive on are bad dropped down to 4 & 3 sourced locally.
BC not bad for money but for road use I found standard strut cases with Bilstien inserts far better.
You get a lot for your money with BC, allow proper setup & quite good for track use, they are better than many of the coilover options at sensible money & easier/cheaper rebuilt than Tiens ...

Thanks mate. I agree, BCs are a really common coilover though. They are a good price and the quality is on par with more expensive coilivers. I had some in my BMW and they travelled probably 60,000kms and were still perfect. Defiantly keen to move onto lighter spring rates or maybe a good strut/spring combo like you guys mentioned

I don't have to put the diff in for awhile so I'll have some time to ponder on it anyway. Next minute you'll see me posting "should have listened to bob" haha

not a big job to change it anyway so try it and see what you think.
have you got the shafts for it too as think the ends are slightly shorter than those with viscous diff

if its a track car, i'd do stock housings with koni 8611-1257 inserts. however this requires fabrication work and maybe more than u want to do, but i can't stress how important good suspension is over outright power, but again thats personal preference. i gave up a new gtx2863r turbo in place for a custom double adjustable suspension




the biggest issue with bc racing coils is there's actually bout an inch or less of travel before it hits the overly stiff bumpstop
u can try replacing the bushing with a progressive koni, but the stiff ride is the non digressive damping , bump stops, less so than the spring itself. over most bumps the car is fine on 7kg/6kg, its anything over an inch in size and hit the bumpstops which is the backbreaker


i personally like the nismo rear diff and i dont mind it all on the street, but thats subjective and everyone's tolerance for nvh is different
u can hear the clunking in a couple of my videos, its noisy at first but i barely notice it anymore as i've gotten used to it
it sees track use regularly and without the diff, the car understeered so much i contemplated selling it. mind u, im used to driving miatas, s2000's. i want the front end of the car to do something specific, and the pulsar just can't. the nismo rear diff has helped a fair amount by inducing rotation and allowing me to put power down, previously as soon as i lifted the inside rear, i couldnt get any power down. its possible my rear viscous was dead.

Yup, I have an extra passenger side axle to use with it bob.

Thanks nick, your new set up looks really solid. I totally agree, nothing worse than seeing a car making good power and the owner has the most disgusting suspension you've ever seen. I think for the moment I'll see how lighter springs in my BCs go and might put some softer bump stops in for extra measure. Bob, what damping setting do you run with those lighter springs?

As for the diff im pretty tolerant and it's only just sitting there so might see how it goes and possibly complain later

Sorry to hijack, where can I get a nismo rear diff from? I like the sound of more rotation on the rear.
Google and ebay throw up standards.

Couldn't care less for clunky or poor road performance as long as it's good for track and hillclimb.

il search through all the rear diffs I have chris and may uncover one
they are very hard to find though

Nismo rear diffs are easy to find, they fitted the same diff to other vehicles

http://nissanpartspeople.com/product/Frontier%202%20Dr/2003/NISMO%20R-Tune%20Powertrain/Limited%20Slip%20Differential

however doesnt mean they have stock, i would contact them for stock
I checked a little over a year and a half ago at both canadian and american nissan and its discontinued with no stock on hand
so if you find one grab it

Think I've only ever had 2 or 3 in ten years of doing these and the complete diffs sell for anything between 550-600

And are the ones supplied for other vehicles setup with same plate pressure & supplied with correct shaft ! :-/

i'm using the frontier one, with two left hand rear axles, works fine for me

nabbed it for 200 usd new in box.

I searched around 6 months ago and found maybe 10 different places that sold them and for very good prices.

GTI-R US wrote:Think I've only ever had 2 or 3 in ten years of doing these and the complete diffs sell for anything between 550-600

That's about the price I paid for mine. There was a guy that had like 10 of them awhile ago. Not sure which R forum he was from