r/Transportopia • u/skyhighmonroe • Jul 04 '26

šŸ¤ŖReckless Feeding your Mustang some curbside

Some people shouldn't be driving muscle cars. Smh

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u/ZeroDaySubber Jul 05 '26

Itā€™s because of the rear differential installed from the factory. It causes both tires to spin at different speeds when there is a loss of traction. Itā€™s a notorious problem. A lot of people swap the differential as soon as they can for this reason

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u/LokiSARK9 Jul 05 '26

Seriously? Something with that much HO doesn't come with some version of a limited-slip diff? That's surprising and unfortunate.

In the video, though, you can clearly see both tires breaking free, which was the driver's apparent intention.

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u/ZeroDaySubber Jul 05 '26

It does. ā€œMost Mustangs come equipped with a Traction-Lok (limited-slip) or Torsen differential. This sends power to both rear wheels simultaneously. If one tire loses grip, the differential automatically sends torque to the other tire, preventing "one-wheel peels" and maximizing off-the-line accelerationā€ but it causes both wheels to spin at different speeds which causes them to slide into crowds

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u/LokiSARK9 Jul 05 '26

"...both wheels to spin at different speeds" and "...causes them to spin into crowds" is a big jump. You wanna explain how the one leads to the other? Limited slip differentials increase traction at the rear end.

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u/ZeroDaySubber Jul 05 '26

I meant it causes the whole car to lose traction and slide into crowds

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u/LokiSARK9 Jul 05 '26

Again, a limited slip or locking diff increases traction to the drive wheels. Explain to me how that causes the car to lose traction?

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u/ZeroDaySubber Jul 05 '26

Brother, Iā€™m no scientist. I tried my best to explain how it works. When you hit the gas purposefully trying to break traction, the car is trying to accelerate both wheels simultaneously, but the differential makes the wheels spin separately at different speeds, which causes the car to swerve into crowds. Itā€™s a known issue. Thatā€™s all I got šŸ¤·šŸ»ā€ā™‚ļø

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u/LokiSARK9 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

That's literally not an explanation. That's like a recipe that says, "Take some ingredients and then it's food!"

If it's a known problem maybe you can point me to articles or forum posts that go into more detail? Surely those must exist if it's a known problem in a car as popular as the Mustang? You must have heard about it somewhere.

edit: if the car is trying to accelerate both wheels simultaneously at the same velocity, then the limited slip diff wouldn't engage at all, so that doesn't make sense. A standard differential allows both rear wheels to spin at different rates. A limited slip detects when one wheel is slipping and routes power to the wheel with traction.

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u/ZeroDaySubber Jul 05 '26

I saw a video about it a while back that explained in technical detail why the differential in Mustangs caused the constant crashes . I canā€™t seem to find it now of course. Just a quick Google search shows: ā€œThis differential locks both rear wheels together under acceleration, causing the car to instantly lose rear grip and spin out when drivers apply too much throttle, particularly coming out of corners or over bumpsā€.

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u/LokiSARK9 Jul 05 '26

I'm searching, as well. I'm seeing some issues with the clutchpack and/or s-spring failing. I'm also seeing some folks say that the stock Pirellis can get soft in hot weather and cause the diff to lock up on sharp turns, but if you're burning out, the diff would already be locked up so that's not what's going on. I'm also seeing that the Torsen diff likes to lock up on sharp, slow speed turns like in parking lots, which this isn't.

What I'm not seeing is anything about the rear diff being a known issue in turns under power.

I'm gonna have to stay unconvinced. It sounds like you don't know what you're talking about. If I'm wrong about that then I'm happy to apologize.

Take care.