Over the years, I have owned many different types and styles of vehicles.
Back in the day, sports cars, especially Z-28s, Trans AMs and Corvettes were my preferred vehicles.
The Camaros and Trans AMs came with GM factory "limited slip differentials" which were the clutch based units that required the additional friction reducer additive to be added when the rear end gear oil was changed.
Those rear ends were fairly solid in performance and would stand up to quite a few two tire burn outs.
I never broke one and I do admit to abusing them when the situations called for it.
What they didn't tell you back then was that type of behavior resulted in excessive rear tire wear.
Oh, the lessons learned during our youth.
Fast forward to more recent times, the trucks I tend to drive came from the factory with the infamous G80 limited slip differential that comes in many of our trucks.
Surprisingly, my 2004 EXT has no mention of a limited slip G80 in it's AWD rear differential set up.
That AWD vehicle has it's own way of dealing with traction using active braking, sensors, computers and other magic, but the differentials still do not use a friction modifier additive.
The G80 has a spotty reputation that is probably a bit tarnished due to driver abuse more than anything else.
As mentioned above, the G80 does not require a friction modifier additive, but rather straight gear oil of the prescribed weight.
Same for the front differentials.
Within the past year, I chose to have the entire rear end, including the gears, seals, bearings and limited slip device replaced in the rear end of my 2003 Avalanche Z-66 with the factory G80.
That truck had over 280K miles on it with no rear end failures other than the bearings being worn out.
Since both myself and the previous owner, that I know well, are not the types of drivers to abuse our equipment, the longevity of the G80 in that truck speaks to how well those rear ends can perform.
It was my choice to replace the G80 with a
Detroit Truetrac® Differential.
This true limited slip differential also does not use a friction modifier additive, either.
So far, I am quite pleased with the performance of the TrueTrac and it does behave quite different from the G80.
I now have zero concerns should the need arise to apply copious amounts of throttle when both back tires have limited traction.
I feel this rear end will spin the rear tires like crazy without scattering itself all over the pavement like the G80's are known to do on occasion.
I'm not likely to do that, but I know I can if the need presents itself.
On the flip side, Youtube is full of videos of drivers that were not quite so lucky with their G80's.
But, in almost every case the driving preferences of those drivers can almost always show to be the biggest cause for rear end failure.
Some people were just born to entertain the rest of us.
