Low car + replacement axles + raising diff advice
 

So last friday I was out drifting and it was all fun and games until I shattered a bearing casing and had to get the car towed home. Good to see I waited seven months for the car and I've very successfully broken it in three months.

It's on BC BR's which are wound quite low and soon to have a lot of negative camber to tuck aggressively offset wheels on the rear.

My question is....

I'm assuming, due to the ride height being so low, additional stress has been put on the axles and coupled with drifting and some hard driving, is the reason why the casing has exploded after such a short time. At this stage I'm looking at replacing the factory axles with THESE axles from the Drive Shaft Shop.

I have no doubt these axles will be strong enough to withstand the cars power, now and in the future, but I want to know if these axles would be able to withstand the stress of low cars due to the angle off the diff being changed so dramatically. I really don't want to wreck a set of DSS axles if they haven't been over engineered very low cars.

Alternatively, has anyone considered or attempted to raise their diff to reduce the angle/stress on the axles?

Current mods for reference.

Work Kiwamis 8.5 front 9.5 rears both wrapped in Achilles
BC BR coils
Racer X fabrication rear upper control arms
Cusco front/rear sway bar
Cusco rear sway bar

Car has no engine/power modifications.

These are old pics for reference to low. If anything it's a little slower now and rear upper control arms aren't installed in these.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8095/8...d9d6b1ff_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8094/8...02250af5_c.jpg

Do you really have to ask if your suspension modifications contributed to blowing the axle? Of course they did. I'm sure the whack geometry will blow another axle eventually, it'll just take longer.

I love aggressive offsets just as much as the next, but unless you're going to be running wider fenders, you should probably have appropriate/functional sized wheels and tires.

Unless I'm missing the point of massive camber in the rear for drifting.

PBM is working on subframe and diff inserts to help fix the geometry. Between those and some Stance LCAs, the problem will probably be gone.

Wait it out.

DSS can and will build axles for lowered cars, you just need to supply them with the measurement between the hub and the diff with the suspension compressed (to ride height).

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How would lowering the diff fix your issue?? If anything you want to raise it higher. You want the axle as straight as possible at rest, with the car lowered the hub is higher than stock in relation to the diff, so you want the diff higher to flatten the axle. I have no clue how much room there is before you hit the floor of the trunk though.

Which end of the axle did you blow apart? The hub end, or the diff end?

Yeah my mistake.

Broke on the diff side.

Subscribing to this thread... gone through this twice even with lifting my car up alittle on BC Racing Coilovers... I've had enough with this problem happening. I want to get some more info on the best route to take to lowering this car without running into these problems : /

Keep in mind that as you raise the diff you'll also have to change the angle of it to not totally mess up the pinion angle for the driveshaft.

Rumour has it, that if you go low enough.. :P
[ame]http://youtu.be/ox-lfowevqA[/ame]

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/attac...4&d=1375360801

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/attac...5&d=1375360830



New axles arrived this morning. Looks strong as fuck. Will be on tomorrow.

When I asked my tuner about longer rear lower control arms, he mentioned that this causes problems with blowing up CV's and axles popping out, because the longer lower control arms cause the axles to be extended too far out.

I bet your problem has more to do with this than excessive angles.

Subframe/rear diff risers!

What exactly "Broke" here? Pic?

Shattered a bearing casing on the dif side as what has exactly happened here.

I doubt that has anything to do with ride height! what kind of tires do you have? Were you doing a lot of stand still launches?

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Had my new DSS 600hp axles and Racer X Fab upper control arms installed friday. This was the result.... Sorry for the average photos. Click to enlarge.

Went back to the workshop this morning for a quick check over and we now have a new issue...

The outer CV joints on the axles are leaking grease from the rubber boots even though they're clamped up tight as done by DSS. Not great. We cleaned off all the grease, raised it up 20mm and now will give it a few days to see if they stop leaking. If so, the axles don't like a lot of low. If leakage continues there must be an issue with these axles. Fun times.

Photo's prior to finding leaking grease from CV.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3742/9...94c230a284.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2877/9...b4e207ddf7.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2845/9...5b15e9b280.jpg

I'm running 9.5 on the the rear with 225 40 tyres. They're cheap and very hard, non grippy tyres.

Also at the time, very limiter camber.

No launches, just drifting in the dry.

Heavy wheels? Assuming 18"s?



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Not too heavy...

Work Emotion Kiwamis 18x85. front 9.5 rear.

they're around 20+ lbs correct?

22.8lbs according to the http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7535

That is a lot of wheel / tire weight. more than 10% more wheel weight, plus most likely tires that weight more than stock and even grippier... I wouldn't blame this on being lowered... Unfortunately not durable axles which is kind of disappointing.

Are you running the stock diff?

Sigh.....

It seems to be happening to a few people with heavily lowered cars.

This is a car set up very similar to mine and his just went a week or two ago.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20039

Yes, factory dif.

I'm more so concerned about my new upgraded axles leaking grease now... otherwise they will go next which wouldn't be ideal.

Leaking grease can just be a boot / seal of the boot. That could be from a tiny hole in the boot that existed before installation even. Far different from a blown up bearing.

Unfortunately the bearing does not seem to be durable at all.

I don't know the quality of the 600HP axles you all are speaking of, but if the boots are not good they will crack and leak regardless of height. Heck, even the stock will too.

Were you getting any wheel hop at all? Ive broken all kinds of rear end parts during hops are kicking the clutch too much (using a multi plate metallic clutch)

They are leaking from both CV's so that rules out holes in the boot. They are brand new Drive Shaft Shop axles, possibly the best aftermarket axles you can buy.

Yes the car has been driven hard, but not since the upgraded axles were installed.

Maybe too much grease in there?

Give them a call they probably stand behind their product, at least we hope they do...

My BRZ is not my daily, but when I drive it I am hard on it. It is going to be my track car. I have noticed a popping when I go around corners that reminds me of when I had a locking diff. I was thinking it could be the diff on this car but now it makes me think that it is the bearings in the axles popping... (and my car only has 1800 miles on it and is stock).

Guess I'll take it to a dealer and see if I can get them to warranty something :D

damn reading all these makes me worried.

I have BC br coils too and I've been sliding my car also. Im afraid when i do word up drift, i'd be stuck there... my car is maxed out on lowered height but i was gonna take off the lock rings to give me an extra inch or so, once im done drifting it and buy a track car, but now im afraid to even slide it...
im broke and don't wanna spend so much on fixing a new car.

I'm pretty sure we're gonna get alot of hate replies from the forum member for lowering our cars but to each their own. I love flush cars and seeing them drift.

I think what also affect him was his massively heavy wheels.

They're definitely breaking so I'd be careful with it at that height especially if you're drifting. I was drifting mine a lot and yeah, mine was pretty low. Check my build thread.

I know we will get haters and probably a lot of them. I love stanced cars and it's all personal tastes of how you like the car to look aesthetically. People should respect everyone's personal preferences and simply offer advice if they feel they can offer something positive.

I love the look to...

But unfortunately it seems on this sorry to say "cheap" car they cut corners somewhere. This may be why it comes with such gripless tires to keep this from happening

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It's not cutting corners, they just didn't design the components to withstand the car being dropped to 1" from the ground and driven hard.

You are not extending the travel of the suspension. I doubt that is it.

Driving hard is the sad part... A sport car made for being parked haha

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This.

I was thinking ... Are the drivetrain shop parts just upgraded axles or did they replace the ends that bolt up to the half shafts?

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A couple of pounds of additional wheel/tire weight will not break your axles. The combination of hard use (drifting) and extreme axle angle might.

--Dan
Mach V

Actually, it is extending the travel... the stock shocks only have about 2.5" of bump travel from stock resting height, all the coilovers that claim they can go super low have much shorter starting lengths and let the suspension travel way further upwards than it could ever possibly go with stock shocks.

What is the ride height measure from the pinch weld jacking points to the ground?

im pretty sure this car was meant to be driven hard, looking at the past predecessor and knowing that it'll be used for drifting also, is a big hint that these cars are meant for track and drifting. I mean 1990 cars today are still holding up to so much abuse, why shouldn't this?

I just wish all the 86 drifters come together and see how many axles they've replace after drifting or if they haven't at all. I'm not talking bout 1 little corner drifting in streets, i mean actual drifting holding a drift through a whole course and clutch kicking the shit out of it.

ill still drift my car and lower it some more (call me stupid i dont care. to each their own). i just wish this is just parts that failed due to assembly or something like a random failure or hitting something. iono.

Will measure and get back to you.

Not really that impressed with my driveshaft shop axles at this point.

They're still leaking grease after raising the car 20mm to which both my tuner and I thought should fix the issue.

Must be an issue with these axles specifically. I'm not getting a lot of help from the DSS either.

Here's a few pics of them leaking grease just from driving home from work...

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