Rear limited slip differential - Benzworld.org

JQ · 02-21-2003, 03:51 AM

I got a European 2000 E430T. Should this car be equiped with a rear limited slip differential?

The reason I ask is that I got stuck in the driveway, with only a tiny bit of ice under one of the rear wheels. The other rear wheel was on bare asphalt, but the other wheel just kept spinning and the car would not move an inch. Is this normal?

Quite embarrasing, I was leaving a party, and all my friends were laughing becasue I had by far the nicest car and the weather was not like you would expect to get stuck. We had to put some sand under the spinning wheel, and put a couple of folkes in the trunk for better traktion.

///S320 · 02-21-2003, 09:31 AM

In 2000 US models, limited slip differential was standard on all 320AWD wagons (i think). The scenerio you are describing has nothing to do with your cars advanced technical engineering.

Once i had my car struck like that too. Its just basic laws of physics, you have ice under one wheel and no matter what kind of car you have, it will loose traction, with no matter how great the force you are applying. Even if you have the slip differential mechanism, it can only do so much.

All you had to do was to push the car out of it.

[:o)]

OBX884 · 02-21-2003, 10:08 AM

Is this something that traction control should take care of? If not, then what is traction control supposed to do?

JQ · 02-21-2003, 01:04 PM

Even though I am an engineer, I donâ€™t really fully understand the physics behind a limited slip differential. But I do believe what you say is true; that a limited slip can not distribute the power to one wheel if the other wheel has virtually no traction at all. If it could, why would the serious off-roaders have the possibility to lock the differential?

The ESP however I would have assumed would have helped me out of the situation. When the slipping wheel starts spinning, it should apply the break, and the differential will distribute the power to the wheel with traction. My situation was that I was standing down hill, facing a garage door, and I had to go backwards. Does the ESP work in reverse?