Clutch or LSD issue????

Was on a 5 minute drive home (about a mile) from an appointment and I came to a stop to turn into my neighborhood. Once traffic passed I proceeded to turn and the transmission caught for a second, slipped, and then caught again. It made a loud grinding noise while it was slipping. I came to a stop and put it in neutral and started over. 1st gear same thing, 2nd gear same thing. I was able to get it back to my driveway, but I think it was making a gear whine type noise while I was driving for that 1/4 mi...it was hard to tell. If I was hard on the gas, it would definitely slip again. Neighbor flagged me down in my driveway so I stopped there too. Once I was done talking to him I pulled it into the garage and the same thing happened.

Car has 116k miles on it, I'm the original owner. Gearbox fluid was swapped out 7500 miles ago and probably 25k before that. Car is stock except for a Forge WGA I installed in 2012 when the stock one failed. I believe it's making about stock boost levels, but I don't have a gauge so I'm going solely off feel. If anything maybe I'm running 1-2 psi over stock, but it was hard to tell since I was driving with a blown WGA for 6 mo or so prior.

I was originally thinking clutch, but searching a little here, I'm thinking it could be the LSD instead?? I did not notice any smell nor was I being hard on the car when it failed.

Edit: I'll add that I didn't notice anything off prior to this incident. It came out of nowhere. I did not detect any clutch slippage prior to this event like I had felt in previous cars I owned when the clutch went out. This combined with reading some on here is what has me thinking its the LSD.

Agreed, sounds like lsd to me too.

No way to know until you get the case split open but it certainly sounds like the infamous LSD.

thanks for the input guys. Starting to debate whether this is worth fixing. I don't have the time to work on it in the near future (not to mention this may be beyond my ability), and I'm thinking this is going to be 10+ hours of labor at a mechanic and figure $1100 in parts for a new diff and clutch. Looking at over $2k for an 11 year old car with 116k on the clock. The hood and both front fenders have major rust perforations along with the typical protege rust at the rear wheel well where it meets the bumper.

On the other hand I have 2500 miles on new rear calipers, pads, and rotors, 300 miles on new front pads and rotors, about 1000 miles on brand new pilot a/s 3 tires, and about 20k miles on new tokico shocks and springs.

Damn, I'm glad I don't have any rust. It was a no brainer when my LSD went, i've put a good 25k miles on it since then.

OK, trying to get a handle on what parts to buy if I decide to fix this. This is my beater so I'm trying to do this as low cost as possible, but not necessarily "cheap". I don't want to put junk parts in....

Should I go with the revised LSD from Mazda (think we're on version 3?) or an m factory one? So far the price difference looks to be about $200 more for the mfactory. I'm most interested in having the best driveability and reliability as I will not be tracking the car and I'm making stock power levels. Obviously the mfactory one will be bulletproof, but will I be ok if I go with the newer design Mazda diff and save what will be like 10% of the repair cost? If I do go with the stock diff, should I have it welded or is that no longer necessary with the latest revision?

Also, should I go with the exedy stage 1 clutch or is there a lower cost alternative that is also of good quality? Who made the OE clutch, was it LUK or Sachs? Those are both about half the price of the exedy I think.

I went with an OEM lsd, it's actually the 6th or 7th revision. OEM clutch is exedy and I went with that as well. Stock diff was about $400 and M factory is $700 AND you have to drill the rivets off the old ring gear (final drive) on the stock diff IF the teeth are not damaged, otherwise you need a new ring gear whereas the stock diff has the ring gear already installed. I didn't bother to have mind welded and I don't expect it to ever fail. No need to over-do it on the clutch, people are always putting stage 2 or better clutches in street cars making barely 200hp and it is completely unnecessary.

Thank you for the response....that is exactly what I was looking to hear.

I'm definitely not looking to over do the clutch, I guess I'm wondering if I would be "under doing" it going with a Sachs or LUK clutch? They are half the price of the exedy, but they are specific to the turbo model protege, which I think is the same as the 2.3L NA mazda 6. Also, I'm only looking to get a few more years out of this car, and I don't drive much...even less lately ~5k miles a year. I'm thinking that if I got 50k miles out of the Sachs clutch that would be fine as I probably wouldn't have the car anymore. Do you think it is worth it to pony up for the exedy? I'm not even sure how it is better? Sachs is owned by ZF and makes good parts, they were the OE for a ton of stuff on my BMW 330.

Also, if you don't mind, could you PM me where you were able to find a diff at that great price? I've been shopping a lot last night and today and I'm not seeing anything close to that. I think MSRP is $667....

I worked at Mazda so that was after my discount. Diff was $440 and the clutch was about $350. I would stick with exedy but honestly as long as they are specific to the MSP with the stiffer pressure plate you are probably fine. SU has them for 575 or 675 if you want it welded.

Both of those clutches say they are made for the MSP, they have a separate part # they use for regular protege applications. I think the MSP part numbers might match those of the 4 cylinder mazda 6 from 2003 onward, but I would have to check again. I know that car made slightly less power than the MSP, but it was close so I wouldn't be surprised if they shared a clutch and pressure plate.

I found the stock diff for $520 online. I'm still debating between that and the mfactory. Once I get confirmation from my mechanic that the diff is indeed my only problem, I might find out how much it would cost to get the stocker welded locally. Of course, if the ring gear is damaged then it makes the choice between stock vs. mfactory easy as I'm not going to try and locate a ring gear to use. I'm thinking welding locally would be both cheaper than buying from a vendor, and I'm guessing would reduce the lead team significantly.

I'm not convinced welding the diff will actually strengthen it or be necessary. My original LSD didn't actually fail the reverse lockout bracket broke and a piece chipped a tooth on the final drive gear creating a whining noise.

At this point, 10 years later, I think there is lots of evidence of the diff housing cracking/separating at the location where it meets the ring gear. I'm pretty certain that welding it would provide additional strength as the photos I've seen of broken ones show a shear failure of the metal. The weld would help to distribute the force over a large portion of the metal thus reducing the stress. However, by the time you pay to have the stock diff welded, it probably makes sense just to buy the mfactory one which doesn't have the problem.

Welding the stock diff is the best solution if you do it preemptively, if you're in my case, the question becomes is it worth another $100 to not even have to worry about it...

PSUENGR said:

At this point, 10 years later, I think there is lots of evidence of the diff housing cracking/separating at the location where it meets the ring gear. I'm pretty certain that welding it would provide additional strength as the photos I've seen of broken ones show a shear failure of the metal. The weld would help to distribute the force over a large portion of the metal thus reducing the stress. However, by the time you pay to have the stock diff welded, it probably makes sense just to buy the mfactory one which doesn't have the problem.

Welding the stock diff is the best solution if you do it preemptively, if you're in my case, the question becomes is it worth another $100 to not even have to worry about it...

Click to expand...

I just did this for my blown LSD, if you decide you want to do it email any questions to me at rlynne223 (at) gmail (dot) com. I decided to use the latest revision LSD with the extra welds. The bad thing about this is you can't just swap transmissions as the new one could also blow at any time

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...-Teardown-amp-Rebuild-w-LSD-amp-5th-Gear-Swap


Parts & Supplies Needed:
------------------------

Part 1: 1x Mazdaspeed Protege LSD OEM Rev3 Welded Differential & Ring Gear
OLD PART NUMBER - GS01-27-190A
NEW PART NUMBER - GSY1-27-190 (MSP Revision #3 2006)

Part 2: 1x Primary Shaft Lock Nut
F520-17-628

Part 3: 1x Secondary Shaft Lock Nut
F521-17-628A

Part 4: 2x Carrier Bearings
G5R0-27-350B

Part 5: 2x Oil seal
F003-27-238A

Part 6: 2x Front Axle Nut (spindle nut) 32mm
GJ21-33-042B

Part 7: Permatex Ultra Grey Rigid High-Torque RTV Silicone Gasket Maker
http://www.permatex.com/products/product-selector?view=productcategory&id=5

Confirmed that it was the diff, waiting for my mechanic to get the rest of the parts and get it put back together...

PSUENGR said:

At this point, 10 years later, I think there is lots of evidence of the diff housing cracking/separating at the location where it meets the ring gear. I'm pretty certain that welding it would provide additional strength as the photos I've seen of broken ones show a shear failure of the metal. The weld would help to distribute the force over a large portion of the metal thus reducing the stress. However, by the time you pay to have the stock diff welded, it probably makes sense just to buy the mfactory one which doesn't have the problem.

Welding the stock diff is the best solution if you do it preemptively, if you're in my case, the question becomes is it worth another $100 to not even have to worry about it...

Click to expand...

I agree welding a stock diff may help, but with the current version you buy today I don't think it's required