Hehe thats me driving in All terrain tires year round.
I'm planning on installing a locking diff from ecstunning in the rear, and was also wondering if anything should be done with the front diff for improvements :)

60/40ish split rear/front for the early e53s.

I would build a Quaife or other helical front diff if it was easy(er) like the rear diff, but given the clamshell design issues, and how fantastic just having the Quaife in the rear diff is, I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze.

The Quaife works so well with the DSC in really poor traction situations for me that I can’t see how a front LSD diff would be enough of an improvement to make the build related brain damage worth it.

I thought about the ratcheting ECS diff, but my x5 spends a lot of time on the hwy. The Quaife is one improvement to my e53 that has drastically changed the cars behavior and performance, for the better.

Even most AWD racecars (the few that there are) don't use limited slip in the front axle, just because it's almost completely unnecessary no matter how much power you have, and it promotes understeer.



In a big lumbering family wagon like an X5 it would be even less useful, because of the low power to weight ratio (in the grand scheme of things) and all the weight transfer to the rear under acceleration due to the insanely high CG.


Quiafe is a great diff (I had one in an old MR2 Turbo) but very expensive and made for racing. I actually did a term project on a helical Type 1 differential (what Quiafe uses) in third year of mechanical engineering school. Virtually indestructible and will never wear out, which makes it great for street cars, unlike clutch pack differentials.

That all makes sense to me. A better upgrade than a LSD front diff would be a lockable xfer case for us non x-drive types. Ours is essentially an open middle diff between the front and rear wheels.

My project is an S62 in an E30 with E53 front drive assembly, GS6-53 BZ transmission and E70 ATC 700 transfer case.


I'll need to pull out all the tricks to get it to turn :rofl: