MFactory LSD?
 

Is anyone running one of these MFactory Helical LSDs?
Helical LSD

I know they are popular with the honda crowd, even in 700hp or so drag civics. I'm told its more or less a clone of a quaife. Does anyone know if the performance is comparable?

They are Chinese clones of Quaifes. We looked some over many years ago and found lots of quality control issues but if those are addressed they can be as good as the original. However if they are in the $700 range and a Quaife is only $300-$400 more then why bother.

Paying 50% more isn't exactly "why bother" territory for me. If the practical difference is not much more than a name then it is worth it to me to save that money for other things.

What you risk is reliability and quality of service. Who knows if they'll back their product if it fails and what the failure rate actually is. A lot more research will have to be done.

Personally I'd rather pay more now and not have to worry than risk having to buy another LSD in the future that might just fail again. Do it once, do it right.

This should be all you need to know in order to make the proper decision. And the proper decision is to stay away.

I have found in life that there are a few times you can afford to be cheap & I understand people have budgets so let me break this down a little. So you save $300-$400 initially http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/smilies/banana.gif Like the DR. said, they have actually inspected & "found lots of quality control issues" Knowing Chinese business practices pretty well (inside track stuff) I would not want to hope they fixed those issues. If this diff decides to let go, what else is going with it? Let me help Ring & Pinon $$$, new carrier & pinion bearings, seals. did it decide to frag & penetrate the diff cover/ Add more $$$. Did it do what it really shouldn't as a limited slip & total lock up take an axle stub or 2 with it? $$$ Oh & do you need to pay someone to install it all? $$$. This adds up to far more than the $300-$400 saved each $ is a actual place holder on what it will cost. What about the tow bill & your down time $$-$$$

I have seen plenty of diffs grenade & installed plenty of gear sets to know that this is not an area I would buy an inferior product. Most people who install a performance diff have a plan to push the car. Will you take the gamble on how long this will last for you?

personally I would wait until the other option became into your budget or saved for it. Do it right, not again!

:twocents: Good luck

I will buy some chinese stuff. BUT if it has anything to do with heat treated metals. I stay far away from the chinese stuff then. They don't know how to heat treat metal! And LSD's have alot of heat treated metals in them.

I have seen plenty of quality control issues with Quaifes.

What were the issues? Please don't say whine as that is a installer problem. I've had three of them and they have all worked great.

I'm also curious what specific issues you saw with the mfactory diffs.

Anyways, according to an mfactory dealer I just contacted, apparently their 350/370Z diff is new and not for sale for a couple months.

That is correct, we do not currently have the 350z LSD available, as it is still under development.

DR_: Our Helical LSD is not a chinese clone of the Q****e. They did not invent the Helical LSD; Gleason did, and ours is based off the Gleason design (as is the Q****e. If ours is a clone, so is theirs), and every model we make uses an oem differential as the base reference to ensure perfect fitment.

As for quality control issues, we take this very seriously. Please could you PM me with details of the issues you were having/had? So far to date, from thousands of LSD's sold, we have not had any serious quality issues, so find it strange that you had issues and never contacted us. Are you sure you're not confusing our brand with OBX? We are not the same as OBX, far from it.

Moderators: I am in contact with the admin regarding a vendor account

Sub'd because I Am Curious (Yellow).

I know absolutely nothing about MFactory but will give them a point for responding. Not a fast response but reasonably quick considering they probably don't monitor this site.

I wanted to respond the same day this thread was posted up, but couldn't as our account was only just now activated.

I appreciate the manufacturer chiming in. When you say that "Our Helical LSD is not a chinese clone of the Q****e" are you saying that you did not clone the Quaife diff, or that it's not made in China?

Both.

We did not "clone" the Q****e. This particular topic has been brought up so much (since 2008 when we started offering our Helical LSD) that we added it to our FAQ: MFactory® Competition Products - Performance Driveline Components

With regards to being "Chinese", all of our products are designed and developed from our R&D Facility in the US, but are manufactured through our partner factories in Taiwan. This helps us reduce the end cost "per unit", but we still control the manufacturing and QC from our overseas office, so there is no detriment to quality nor reliability (as many of our customers can attest to). All of the state-of-the-art equipment that is used in manufacturing our parts is all imported from Japan or Europe. Infact, a lot of the equipment you would not even be able to find commercially in the US (as in, walk down to your local machine shop), which means it would cost several times as much for us to have the same parts manufactured over here.

If "not made in a Western Country" is of worry to you, please don't. It is not "where" a part is made, but "who" controls and makes the part. When we designed our differentials, we did take into account other products on the market, and tried to make ours stronger, lighter and machined to better tolerances, as well as more affordable at the same time. We have succeeded with all of our aims.

So much so that you will not find a single "factual" report of a Q****e being stronger/lighter/better tolerance than our product. Infact, a simple search on Google will show you the complete opposite.

The funny thing about Q****e, before we came around, they were the "go to" and "indestructible" lsd. When we starting offering our version of the Torsen in 2008, everyone was like "cheap chinese copy of Q****e" (yet they don't realise that Q****e didn't invent the Helical LSD, Gleason did, so if ours is a copy, so is theirs).

Then people starting pushing 1200whp and the story significantly changed in our favor. Suffice to say, we've never had to "update" our helical lsd due to failure under high hp; the same can't be said for Q****e ;)

I was just asking for clarification on something you said. Nothing more- I'm not bashing anything. Your statement could have been read either way. Thanks for the clarification.

My apologies if my reply came off as being aggressive; this was in no way intentional (infact, 90% of the post is copy and paste from another forum where the exact same topic is being discussed)

Although our roots are with Honda (and we are an Official OEM for Honda Racing, if that says anything about our quality), we have started to expand into other models. Recognising the large community of 350/370Z owners, this is definitely a market high on our list to develop our range of LSD's (both Helical and Plate type), Final Drives, Close Ratio Gears, Clutches and Flywheel.

We are in the process of sorting out our vendor account just now, and will post up an introduction thread shortly :)

Not a problem. It's hard to infer tone across a forum post. Although I can understand how frustrating it can be to answer the same question over and over again.

Thanks for your input MFactory. Do you have any ETA on when the 350/370 LSDs will be available for purchase?
Sorry for the misinformation about Q****e :)

I had an MFactory in my Mazdaspeed Protege years ago, and it seemed like a very nice piece. Unfortunately the engine went out on that vehicle shortly after the diff install so I didn't have a whole lot of time to evaluate its performance. No fault of the diff of course. That block was not designed to be turbo'd :shakes head:

cant wait.. looking forward to mfactory lsd for my Z!

MFactory, glad you came on. :tup:

I work for a company that has 23,000+ employees. So I base my chinese heat treating gripe on the experience my company has had with the subject. As we no longer buy anything from there anymore.

The close ratio gears for the transmission sounds great! :tup:

Hey MFactory, any updates on when these diffs might be available for purchase?

:ughdance: ...ping...

No return... :facepalm:

I am also interested in an update of their product.

that's why I like & use one made in Japan !!!
 

stock factory LSD.....

We are working on them, however, due to a backlog of other projects at the moment, they are still around 2-3 months away yet unfortunately.

Looking forward to it.

MFactory, are you the same MFactory that makes aftermarket gear sets and synchros for the Civic crowd? Because I know lots of 600+ whp Civics/RSX that swear by MFactory.

Whats up with the Chinese quality?

Lets not forget that they have the longest and oldest wall in history, Beat that!

China FTW :P

:icon18::bowrofl::icon18:

yeah but Japanese build giant robots, beat that

This always bothers me! AMS told me the same thing with their front control arm for our car, yet its funny with thousands of members on this forum, no one runs the arms!

While you may sell and make others cars LSDs, I never believe such bold statements with no proof. If there is thousands, 100 would have no issue coming on and telling us about the product. Ill google the LSD for any car, but I doubt ill find "thousands." only more of these threads asking, "who runs it" and the same responses, "china this, junk that, quality this, quality that."

It's not a bold statement, it's a matter of truth. However, I understand your reservations to these "bold statements". You asked for proof; what proof exactly do you want? Do you really require me to break Privacy/Confidentiality agreements and give you the contact details of thousands of our customers? Short of doing that, there is no way to give you your "proof".

No one on this forum runs our LSD because we don't have anything for the 350/370Z yet, so why would someone who doesn't own a 350/370Z come onto this forum to tell you about our product for their non-350/370Z?!? Sorry, but that just doesn't make any sense.

Yes, please do Google MFactory LSD; You will be surprised at what you find. One other thing, generally, when someone is happy with a product, 90% won't say anything about it. However, when someone is not happy about a product, 90% of the time, they will say something about it. Because of this, yes, I agree with you, you will find it impossible to find thousands of "happy customers" by searching online.

However, what you will find when you do Google MFactory LSD, is that the other 10% of happy people will have posted up about our company and our product, whereas you will not find very many "unhappy" people (and those that you do find, we have always sorted any issues with them. We stand behind our product 100%)

We are 100% committed to making the 350/370Z fitment, so here's what I will offer someone on this forum, should they decide to accept:

I will send the prototype of our 350/370Z Helical LSD Free of Charge for test fitment and review; Yes, absolutely free of charge, under the following conditions:

1) The tester will work with us to ensure 100% fitment and function of the LSD. Tester must be willing, have time and experience of installing differentials in the 350/370Z
2) If, after testing, you find the quality of the product to your approval, you will be required to provide an online review
3) Of course, the LSD is yours to keep and use :)

PM me if you think you are a suitable candidate for R&D :)

Now what do ya got say about that.....:wtf2:

I'm subbing. If they make a cheaper alternative option to quaife that's reliable, I'm in.

Well I searched. Only went through 2 pages of google. Found 2 reviews that had happy people with the install and quality. One civic and one Mazda something. There was no info on the usage and the thread died after about 5 posts. That's pretty weird to me about such an important item. The other threads I found were you guys that cut and pasted the same thing on every car forum showing pics and talking about your product. Again the threads died after about 5 posts with no real interest. I don't think its impossible to find thousands of happy people. I can name lots of products on many forums that come to mind with ease or thousands of posts about the products thread.

See to me that's fishy. I've made threads before and others have too about products that have had thousands of responses; FI's CBE here and Grimmspeed's AOS on Nasioc come to mind. The negative nancy that I mean screams to me those reviews were by paid employees possibly, I mean that's not under for companies to do.

Well if you are committed then I guess we can wait and see. Although you did say you're busy no? So we have to wait and wait and wait for everything for our cars! Intake manifolds and front camber arms come to mind, anyone else with me on that haha :tup: (SPL)

Yes I could do all that and do a review. I'd even have the LSD tested for hardness with a Brinell tester that pushes into the gears and makes a very small dimple, that way people like Rusty can be put at ease. A free LSD is cool, but if my diff explodes I'm kinda SOL no? That's a big risk for something I don't want to pay to get fixed by testing out a $600 product.

So who knows. Contact me in several years when the LSD is ready :bowrofl:

Thank bud! I needed a good laugh. Sittin' here in Tampa waiting for my flight home.:tiphat:

Mods: If I'm breaking any rules, please feel free to edit/delete my post

If you're only going to go through 2 pages of Google, then obviously you're not going to find much, as most of the initial results will be advertisement threads (from either ourselves or our dealers). Also, you really can't compare a niche product to something like an exhaust or oil adaptor.

Just because you can't find thousands of positive reviews, it doesn't mean the product/company is bad. Infact, name an LSD that you know 100% to be to your satisfaction, and then show me their thousands of positive reviews. I'm willing to bet you can't do that either :p Seriously, unless you can show me their thousands of positive reviews then, according to your logic, there are no good LSD's on the market. Hmmm, ok.....

As for paid employees, please :) If you even bothered to read this thread, you will notice some posts from members who have already had experience with our products/company.

Yes, we are busy, but that does not mean we will not be working on this LSD. Our average project lead time is around 2-3 months for new LSD's.

Anyway, here are some reviews for you after 1min of googling:

Part 1: MFactory LSD review - Honda-Tech
http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2395902
Mfactory LSD Installed - Unofficial Honda FIT Forums
M Factory LSD or other LSD's opinions / inputs? - D-series.org
MFactory LSD group buy discussion thread (This was a Group Buy for the Mazda Protege)
mfactory review
Z4-forum.com • View topic - Fitted a LSD to my e85 Z4 3.0

Anyway, synolimit, I'm not going to continue this sort of back-and-forth chat with you, as it's pointless. I completely understand where you are coming from (i.e new company (for 350/370Z at least), overseas manufacturing, can't provide the thousands of positive reviews to prove that we have sold thousands of LSD's since 2008), and understand your reluctance to trust anything coming from a manufacturer. It is what it is, and there is nothing that I can say that will change the way you think.

As said, we are committed to this platform, and we will have something available shortly (i.e a few months, not a few years). Infact, we actually just finished our prototype 350Z AT LSD (albeit our Metal Plate type) last week and is being tested. Whether you take interest or not in our company/products, that's up to you to decide. I'm not forcing you to like our company, and I'm most certainly not forcing you to buy our product :)

Mfactory I sent ya a PM about being a test car.

I have heard good things from some local guys about your diff's.

I've said my peace. If you want a "hatter" tester, I said id test it, but only after it passes testing ill do and quality etc. i mean what better way to sell a product than having someone like me write the review. I won't just blindly install and risk a diff however, I'm sure you can understand that.