Ive waited to post this information till the smoke has cleared and I gave motovicity distribution and quaife UK a shot to remedy the situation. Both have failed to take any recourse or offer and restitution.
Ill first say I am a certified master mechanic and have made a very good living in the auto industry. My account of the problem is not guestimation but years of experience.
Over the winter I had a new quaife diff installed in my 2005 Elise trans. Its a straight forward job but requires a special tool so I had another shop do it. During the time the trans was out I supercharged the car and installed 1 rear motor mount. I changed nothing about the suspension or geometry of the car. I received the trans back, Installed it with new circlips and all looked good for the first 10 miles. I took the car for a shake down run, pulled off the highway and "bang" the car stopped moving. Turns out the axle had snapped. Not from power, but due to it pulling out to the end snapping near the circlip. I towed the car, contacted the installation shop of the diff and quaife and both said "maybe it wasnt seated properly".(see picture)
I bought another axle, installed it with another new circlip and a fresh seal . This time time I double checked it with a prybar to assure the axle was seated properly. It would not come out. But it did move back and forth .240" from its full in seated position to its pulled out by hand extended position. This struck me as odd and excessive but I was assured by motovicity's ace that it was normal. (see pictures)
New axle was in for about a week before I went to take it for a drive and had 3 qts of trans fluid on the ground. I brought the car back in the shop, pulled the shields and saw that it was leaking past the drivers axle seal, the same one that snapped the shaft and just had a new seal. The axle was able to be pulled back so much by hand that it was allowing the fluid to leak out. It was pulling back .240". I again called motovicity and they said "everything looks normal from the pictures"
so I installed a third seal, Set it to factory service manual depth with dial calipers (Never had to do this in the last 15 years as a mechanic) and installed the axle. For the first couple weeks it seemed fine. One day I went to take my fiance somewhere and she says "watch the ground its really slippery" again, 3 qts of fluid on the ground. So I again, call motovicity and speak to josh their technical liason. He reccomends mounting the seal further out. Ridiculous but I will try anything to not have to remove the trans.
So I install the seal as far outboard as I can. I use rtv around the outter diameter for a little extra reassurance as I have now eliminated over 50% of its sealing surface. I checked it for binding to make sure the new position wasnt holding the axle too far out. Fill the trans, Install the oem lotus axle with new circlip that I bought after the first one snapped and start driving the car again. 50 miles later still no leaks. So I Take it on the highway, I pull off to the shoulder to check the map, go to take off and "bang" axle snaps off and its dumping 3 qts of fluid on the ground. Again it goes on the tow truck.
I am finally beyond pissed and decide the trans is coming out. I send it back to the diff installation shop, they tell me everything looks good with install and everything is speced correctly with the install. So I have them pull the diff and send it to quaife's USA distributor, Motovicity. They receive it and within a day completely sure that it is in NO WAY their problem or a defect on their end. I go back and fourth emailing with them but get no where and eventually bite the bullet and by a different differential.
I ended up with a TRD LSD and have since put 700 miles on it with NO problems. The measured pullout on this axle is .080 when it is fulled installed.
Thats a significent difference from the .240 with the quaife diff. I now consider my episode over.... except! I am out thousands of dollars in damages and time of which motovicity and quaife dont see as their problem.
A quick list of costs
$1100 Crappy quaife diff
$350 Installation into trans
$100 Initial new bearings and seals
$180 about 12 qts of MT-90 redline
$20 3 new circlips
$ 20 3 new seals
$1100 new trd diff
$100 new bears and seals for trd diff
$1400 replacement value of axles
14 hours of taking tranny out, putting it in, taking it out, putting it in ... PRiceless!!!!
My theory behind the failure is that there is to much off centered axial rotation that is causing the axle to vibrate and essentially throw itself out of the diff at high speeds (120MPH). I have video running the axle at speed up to about 50mph and the excessive play is obvious.
I know this is long winded and a boring read but its very upsetting to me to get screwed by a company as large as motovicity and quaife. The diff is going back to quaife UK for another inspection so I will update the post if I get any other results. This is a tight online community and I would love to save someone else the trouble.
To the guys that have helped me over the last 5 months of this adventure I appreciate your time. I am happy to say that the TRD diff is working great. I am out over $3000 but I dont have to worry about the axle snapping and sending me into the wall the next time im out.
I should of just googled "quaife axle popping out " and I probably would of gone a different direction. Lifetime warranty my butt.
Ill first say I am a certified master mechanic and have made a very good living in the auto industry. My account of the problem is not guestimation but years of experience.
Over the winter I had a new quaife diff installed in my 2005 Elise trans. Its a straight forward job but requires a special tool so I had another shop do it. During the time the trans was out I supercharged the car and installed 1 rear motor mount. I changed nothing about the suspension or geometry of the car. I received the trans back, Installed it with new circlips and all looked good for the first 10 miles. I took the car for a shake down run, pulled off the highway and "bang" the car stopped moving. Turns out the axle had snapped. Not from power, but due to it pulling out to the end snapping near the circlip. I towed the car, contacted the installation shop of the diff and quaife and both said "maybe it wasnt seated properly".(see picture)
I bought another axle, installed it with another new circlip and a fresh seal . This time time I double checked it with a prybar to assure the axle was seated properly. It would not come out. But it did move back and forth .240" from its full in seated position to its pulled out by hand extended position. This struck me as odd and excessive but I was assured by motovicity's ace that it was normal. (see pictures)
New axle was in for about a week before I went to take it for a drive and had 3 qts of trans fluid on the ground. I brought the car back in the shop, pulled the shields and saw that it was leaking past the drivers axle seal, the same one that snapped the shaft and just had a new seal. The axle was able to be pulled back so much by hand that it was allowing the fluid to leak out. It was pulling back .240". I again called motovicity and they said "everything looks normal from the pictures"
so I installed a third seal, Set it to factory service manual depth with dial calipers (Never had to do this in the last 15 years as a mechanic) and installed the axle. For the first couple weeks it seemed fine. One day I went to take my fiance somewhere and she says "watch the ground its really slippery" again, 3 qts of fluid on the ground. So I again, call motovicity and speak to josh their technical liason. He reccomends mounting the seal further out. Ridiculous but I will try anything to not have to remove the trans.
So I install the seal as far outboard as I can. I use rtv around the outter diameter for a little extra reassurance as I have now eliminated over 50% of its sealing surface. I checked it for binding to make sure the new position wasnt holding the axle too far out. Fill the trans, Install the oem lotus axle with new circlip that I bought after the first one snapped and start driving the car again. 50 miles later still no leaks. So I Take it on the highway, I pull off to the shoulder to check the map, go to take off and "bang" axle snaps off and its dumping 3 qts of fluid on the ground. Again it goes on the tow truck.
I am finally beyond pissed and decide the trans is coming out. I send it back to the diff installation shop, they tell me everything looks good with install and everything is speced correctly with the install. So I have them pull the diff and send it to quaife's USA distributor, Motovicity. They receive it and within a day completely sure that it is in NO WAY their problem or a defect on their end. I go back and fourth emailing with them but get no where and eventually bite the bullet and by a different differential.
I ended up with a TRD LSD and have since put 700 miles on it with NO problems. The measured pullout on this axle is .080 when it is fulled installed.
Thats a significent difference from the .240 with the quaife diff. I now consider my episode over.... except! I am out thousands of dollars in damages and time of which motovicity and quaife dont see as their problem.
A quick list of costs
$1100 Crappy quaife diff
$350 Installation into trans
$100 Initial new bearings and seals
$180 about 12 qts of MT-90 redline
$20 3 new circlips
$ 20 3 new seals
$1100 new trd diff
$100 new bears and seals for trd diff
$1400 replacement value of axles
14 hours of taking tranny out, putting it in, taking it out, putting it in ... PRiceless!!!!
My theory behind the failure is that there is to much off centered axial rotation that is causing the axle to vibrate and essentially throw itself out of the diff at high speeds (120MPH). I have video running the axle at speed up to about 50mph and the excessive play is obvious.
I know this is long winded and a boring read but its very upsetting to me to get screwed by a company as large as motovicity and quaife. The diff is going back to quaife UK for another inspection so I will update the post if I get any other results. This is a tight online community and I would love to save someone else the trouble.
To the guys that have helped me over the last 5 months of this adventure I appreciate your time. I am happy to say that the TRD diff is working great. I am out over $3000 but I dont have to worry about the axle snapping and sending me into the wall the next time im out.
I should of just googled "quaife axle popping out " and I probably would of gone a different direction. Lifetime warranty my butt.
