[Dimi 944]

During one of our recent 944 transmission projects I had to inspect and rebuild the factory LSD unit. After opening the unit I found it full of anti-sieze-like paste. It was everywhere and the pictures below show what came out of the cleaned case alone. The residue is actually made of fine metal and friction-material particles which are a product of wear of the components in the LSD and the transmission.

This brings an important point about keeping the transmission fluid clean by replacing it regularly and the transmission internal magnetic pick ups cleaned as well. They are the only factory installed "filter" in the 944 and possibly some 911 transaxles. Regular maintenance is even more important with transmissions with LSD units because all the "dirt" generated by the wear of the friction components in the LSD and transmission itself tends to get trapped in the LSD housing. This leads to accelerated wear of its components and sometimes could make the unit not serviceable due to excessive wear of parts that are no longer available from Porsche or other aftermarket vendors.