Open diff as standard?

[Richie-VRS]

I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on a query, had the car on my mates lift today fitting my downpipe and he spun the drivers side wheel which resulted in the passenger wheel turning in the same direction.

I was always of the understanding that an open diff would have the opposite wheel turn in the opposite direction so I'm not sure why mine both turn the same way?

The car has a standard (as far as I'm aware) 02Q gearbox.

[dronners]

sounds like a good sign of an LSD from what i can see on google.  if you can leave good sets of 11's along the floor thats normally a good sign too

[Richie-VRS]

Yeah it's certainly how I would test for an lsd but I just find it hard to believe it has one as it was standard till I got my hands on it.

I can't even seem to find online if some kind of crappy viscous lsd was available as an option.

I'll put the esp off in the morning and see if I can leave 11's 

[pudding]

It's an open diff.  The reason both wheels turn in the same direction when unloaded is because of part no. 14 in the diagram below, which is a spring.  There's one behind each output flange which applies a small preload to the diff. 

[Richie-VRS]

Thanks Pudding, I was 99.9% sure it was but my mate had me questioning myself.

I dumped the clutch this morning and got a nice single line 

[pudding]

Most open diffs do behave as expected when there's no load on them, but VW's design is a bit quirky and can indeed cause confusion!

The single line should switch wheels when the ABS TC kicks in and brakes the spinning wheel, although that only works up to 25mph iirc.