I have read on these forums that the usual cause of most S2000 Diff's failing has to do with it's tendency to float back towards the the rear cover causing it's failure. I was curious to know if there is a reason why the aftermarket's only apparent solution to this phenomena would be the Comptech reinforced mounts. I have seen that most RWD american cars have another solution in the form of a "TA Girdle" which looks to help eliminate this issue. It appears that the "TA Girdle" is designed in a way to provide most of it's structural support externally thus eliminating any clearance issues within the pumpkin itself.

Does the Honda Diff's design prevent this from being another option for our cars? If so, what part of it's design?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Here's a PIC of the TA Girdle:

 

Look here: https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=333166

The same question was asked a few days ago

 

Wow, I hate when that happens....

 

i thought the diff problem was the pinion gear itself would break under heavy stress due to the weakness of the teeth and that is what causes it to get pushed out the back... ? then reinforcing the housing will keep it inside, but youll still have to replace your gears and any other internal components that got destroyed when the gear went... please explain...

 

you are correct. under heavy acceleration, the carrier bearing caps flex, pulling the ring gear away from the pinion gear. so now the ring teeth are hitting the thinner part of the pinion gear teeth and the pinion gear teeth shatter.

 

so getting something like a comptech reinforced diff. housing will do nothing to stop the aforementioned flexing and shattering? all itll do is keep the shattered gears inside the housing?

 

just recently i changed my diff fluid and i had some shavings on the magnet.
is this normal or are diff gears about to shatter
my 02S has about 44k miles on it

 

After seeing the way the OEM Diff is designed this girdle is a mute point but just for the sake of conversation I will add this. Since the flexing of the bearing cap (most likely front to back rather then side to side) is what causes the Pinion to unseat itself from the Ring then adding more material to the cap itself would "help" lessen this flexing. The Comptech and the TA Girdle both look to aid in adding mass to the cap but the Comptech unit looks to only add internal bracing. In theory, it would seem that having a bigger surface area to brace off of like the entire circumference of the diff pressing in on the weak point would give you better results. The Girdle would give the rear an almost "Ford 9" design where the entire housing acts as one piece which is stronger then the modular design of most diffs.

 

I think you have it kind of wrong. it is not the rear cap that is the problem.

it is the 2 caps that go over the bearings on the right and left side of the differential. The caps are 2 fairly weak pieces of metal...much like the caps that go over the camshafts in the head. These caps flex, the diff moves back (along with the ring gear) and this makes the pinion act on the weaker, thinner part of the ring gear. this breaks the sprockets on the ring gear, making the car immobile.

a new rear cap won't help with this really. The comptech solution does work very well in strengthening the caps as it has a strong billet steel reinforcement on each bearing cap along with stronger studs. Yes, some (but not many) comptech reinforced diffs have had problems, but these were all boosted, High HP/high TQ applications I believe.

 

I am aware that the rear Cap is not the issue but I think you are missing the point of what this girdle does. Obviously there would be no benefit to strengthening the rear diff cover.