Rear Limited-Slip Differential?

I was curious and found mentions on the net of torsen/True-Trac/helical LSDs going into the rears of 3rd and 4th gens, a Tacoma but not any 5th gen that I could see.

I'd guess between traction control, a rear locker and the Limited's full-time 4WD it would be pretty niche and most appealing to SR5/TRD Sport models. I was thinking it'd be nice to have in wet pavement conditions.

Has it ever happened? Does such an aftermarket fitment exist?

 

I am curious about this as well. Although I haven't heard of the option for the 5th Gen 4R.

When I purchased my 4Runner I was worried that the open diffs meant it's less capable in certain conditions. When I experienced how well the traction control system and stability control systems work my mind was put to ease. The rig detects and reacts to slip very quickly and sends power where it needs to be. The only time the lack of an LSD comes up is when I come to a stop and hold the traction control button for a few seconds. This disables traction control and stability control. With these systems deactivated the 4R is pretty helpless in low traction/ 2-hi scenarios. The rear right wheel just spins like crazy.

Coming from the sports car world clutch style or VLSD's do wear out and need to be rebuilt every once in a while. Maybe since the 4R is such a long lasting vehicle Toyota wanted to remove the need for this? Plus Toyota's TC and SCS work so well it may be a redundant system.

Another thing to consider is ATRAC and MTS would in theory work against an LSD. So that's probably another reason they kept the diff open.

This is all just conjecture of course. An interesting topic for sure.

 

" The only time the lack of an LSD comes up is when I come to a stop and hold the traction control button for a few seconds. This disables traction control and stability control." - why would I do it ?

 

Why would you disable traction and stability control?
Because

 

Come to think of it maybe MTS and ATRAC would benefit from an LSD?

This is just speculation after all.

 

Traction/stability control and it not being very popular when it was around definitely means no factory LSD in most non-performance vehicles from the factory. IIRC the RAV4, Highlander, RX, Celica? at some point had a torsen rear option up to around 20 years ago.

I don’t think one would improve MTS or ATRAC much directly but I think it might result in less clatter by keeping power going to both sides more evenly before either intervenes and help out in 2H and 4H where traction control is less aggressive.