Anyone compared Si to Civic (no LSD) in snow?

[VarmintCong]

One of the things making me consider an Si instead of another Sport hatch is the LSD. I have to drive in snow a lot, and while the Sport was fine when the snow tires were newish, it got sketchy this year being the 4th winter season on my snow tires.

Anyone compared a Civic to an Si for snow? Curious how much the LSD benefits. If I get the Si I'll get 17s or 16s with probably 205 width snow tires for the winter.

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[Drake]

Don't have experience in a regular civic, but this past winter the first time I saw my TC dash light come on was while driving up to Duluth, MN during a snowstorm. The car kept traction like a dream on the unplowed highways and I was able to keep up with the caravan of trucks and SUVs in front of me going ~40mph. Scariest driving experience of my young life thus far, and I wouldn't choose to do it again, but this little honda got me to my destination safe and sound.

 

[turbociv910]

i had a lsd put in my 99 civic, and i did actually drive both on compacted snow.., the lsd helped it get moving quicker.

 

[Jeffers]

Two wheels driving instead of one!
Only problem I can see is power understeer in a turn. But that's easier to manage than RWD power oversteer!

 

[longthaitran91]

I only have experience driving in heavy rain storms. The lsd doesn't help if the tires can't do it's job. On stock tires going 90mph in heavy rain feels like the car is going to drift into the next lane on slight turns. After I changing to much better rubber I get full traction at 90mph. The highest I went is 100mph in those conditions. I could probably go further than that but I don't want a ticket. In yield lane right turns at traffic lights, I'm able to push 45-50 with little oversteer. same result dry or wet. Idk if the lsd has anything to do with it.

 

[SDAlexander8]

FWD is great in the snow in traffic. You start sliding and the front wheels pull you back straight again. AWD is just overkill unless you’re damn near Canada, or doing some serious winter off-roading.

 

[SDAlexander8]

I only have experience driving in heavy rain storms. The lsd doesn't help if the tires can't do it's job. On stock tires going 90mph in heavy rain feels like the car is going to drift into the next lane on slight turns. After I changing to much better rubber I get full traction at 90mph. The highest I went is 100mph in those conditions. I could probably go further than that but I don't want a ticket. In yield lane right turns at traffic lights, I'm able to push 45-50 with little oversteer. same result dry or wet. Idk if the lsd has anything to do with it.

Those stock goodyears i wouldn't trust going 60 mph in heavy rain. Felt like driving on ice. I got rid of those in less than 10k miles of driving the car.

 

[Drake]

Those stock goodyears i wouldn't trust going 60 mph in heavy rain. Felt like driving on ice. I got rid of those in less than 10k miles of driving the car.

I don't care what tires you have, going 90mph in "heavy rain" sounds like a death wish

 

[VarmintCong]

Two wheels driving instead of one!
Only problem I can see is power understeer in a turn. But that's easier to manage than RWD power oversteer!

thanks, if you mean both tires spinning in a turn that's ok, easy to control. I used to drift my RWD BMWs commuting in the snow so the only issue I have in the Civic is starting up from a stop or having to stop and restart going up hill. I'd guess an LSD would help that.

I could probably get by just replacing my snows sooner if I get another Sport.

 

[VarmintCong]

FWD is great in the snow in traffic. You start sliding and the front wheels pull you back straight again. AWD is just overkill unless you’re damn near Canada, or doing some serious winter off-roading.

AWD is great fun in the snow, depending on what type of system. My wife's outback is not fun, very hard to get it to do anything interesting.

To me, AWD is not worth the trade off in weight and drivetrain losses the other 98% of days.

 

[REBELXSi]

Not sure if you can do 16's. I think 17 might be the smallest.

 

[VarmintCong]

Not sure if you can do 16's. I think 17 might be the smallest.

Thanks you're right, Tirerack shows 17s as minimum for the Si. I'll use my 17" OZs for winter if I buy it. 8" is wider than I like for snow tires though.

 

[NHCivicGuy]

You're smart for going with the Si versus the hatch due to the LSD. I really do feel and believe it makes a difference. I had a RWD car previously, and swapping out to an LSD made a huge difference. You pair this with a dedicated set of snow tires and this car does very very well. I'm running 17" Honda Accord Hybrid wheels with 215/50r17 General Altimax Arctic snow tires. Tried and true tire that I've been using for years on my cars. I went the whole last winter season with about 10k miles on them and they still had a solid 9-10/32" left.

 

[amirza786]

I know I am weighing in a bit late, but here it goes. What an LSD will do is help you go "straight" in icy conditions, but it's not going to help you any better with slipping or traction. The two things that are going to help you are 1) good tires and 2) traction/stability control. I've driven several different types of cars, fwd and rwd with open diff and fwd and rwd with LSD and E-LSD. The only thing that made a difference was trac control kicking in on both types of diffs

 

[NHCivicGuy]

I know I am weighing in a bit late, but here it goes. What an LSD will do is help you go "straight" in icy conditions, but it's not going to help you any better with slipping or traction. The two things that are going to help you are 1) good tires and 2) traction/stability control. I've driven several different types of cars, fwd and rwd with open diff and fwd and rwd with LSD and E-LSD. The only thing that made a difference was trac control kicking in on both types of diffs

I'm going to chime back in here and say part of what you said is false. Reason being is because an LSD will help you in straight conditions, but it certainly will help you in less traction conditions including going around corners. With an LSD, power is going to be diverted to the one with the most traction (or 50/50, etc. depending on vehicle and conditions), where an open diff is always going to start to send power to the one with least traction. When you're going around a corner, this LSD will ensure power is getting sent to the correct wheel for traction, which in conjunction with traction control will help you even more. However there are still some situations where you want to turn traction control off, but those are pretty rare. There are a few types of LSDs out there, which can change the exact reaction and also varies from FWD or RWD platforms. For us, our cars have the Helical type.

Another thing to take into consideration here is that a manual transmission will always have an advantage over automatic in these situations too. You have much more control over power getting to the wheels (gas/clutch input and gear choice), where an automatic you're pretty stuck. If you had a FWD LSD manual and a FWD LSD automatic, the manual platform would outperform, especially from a dead stop in slippery/snowy conditions.

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