First HPDE - Oh Nooo

Took her to her first of many HPDE events, bone stock with just Recaro and PP.

First session 3rd lap, not even driving hard, the center screen pops a warning message to the effect of:

Axle temperature is too high - Reduce speed

:eyebulge:

It happened a couple times in that session and another session.


I'm rather heartbroken as I bought the car new for the sole purpose of tracking it instead of my s2000 which had been driving me crazy with mechanical issues.

...First time out, (my particular?) car looks like it might not have the chops for what I bought it for. Bad deal. Pissed off atm.:rant:

What track? What speeds were you reaching?

GT_Roadcourse_Newb said:

Took her to her first of many HPDE events, bone stock with just Recaro and PP.

First session 3rd lap, not even driving hard, the center screen pops a warning message to the effect of:

Axle temperature is too high - Reduce speed

:eyebulge:

It happened a couple times in that session and another session.


I'm rather heartbroken as I bought the car new for the sole purpose of tracking it instead of my s2000 which had been driving me crazy with mechanical issues.

...First time out, (my particular?) car looks like it might not have the chops for what I bought it for. Bad deal. Pissed off atm.:rant:

Click to expand...

There is a factory flaw here. It shouldn't do that. Were you running with the traction control fully on? There are a lot of things that should overheat before the axles.

Running Thunderhill with Traction Control ON in Sport steering mode.

Top speed 125 MPH but most of the time closer to 90...

Im looking to run this weekend with Traction Control off BTW

how many miles on it?

650 miles

GT_Roadcourse_Newb said:

650 miles

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I was hoping you had more like 10 times that, and I was going to suggest rear diff fluid swap. Did mine at 9500 and it looked like 100k fluid.

At your mileage, I got nothing.

Competition Orange said:

I was hoping you had more like 10 times that, and I was going to suggest rear diff fluid swap. Did mine at 9500 and it looked like 100k fluid.

At your mileage, I got nothing.

Click to expand...

I appreciate the try

I had about 4700 miles before my first HPDE.
I pushed the car pretty hard towards the end. Reached speeds of 125-130mph.
I had about 10 sessions, total of 3.75 hours of driving. Never had any overheating issues. I had the Sport+ mode on the whole time. Definitely a factory flaw

[MENTION=22413]Optimum Performance[/MENTION] ......

Are you in Sport Mode or Track Mode? Makes me kind of happy the '15's didn't have this. Make sure your rear tire pressures are equal with an accurate gauge. We are working on a axle cooler. Try a better fluid from RP, Amsoil or our KIT

Ours is a 75W90 so it may do a better job of keeping things cool. With such low milege the Torsen might just be breaking in. The Not totaling your car at a track day nannies may/will drive the Torsen a little nuts so it will make it hot. A temperature gun (even a cheap one) might be a good idea to verify what temps you are seeing to make sure it's just a bad signal. I don't have the 2016 books yet to see what the parameter for axle temp is.

GT_Roadcourse_Newb said:

650 miles

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Your car is not even close to being "run in" yet. I didn't track until I had over 6000 miles. I am not surprised the cogs in the diff overheated.

If it was up to me, I'd change the tranny, diff and engine oil as soon as possible. Some to get rid of the metal dust, some to get rid of overheated lubricant. I hope you haven't FSU. Looking on the bright side, you probably took 2K off the run-in time.

I changed the tranny, diff and engine oil at 1100 miles after delivery.

I got the same message on day 3 of a track event at Circuit of The Americas. That seems crazy that it came on that fast. My traction control was completely off. I was running 295 Hoosier r7's and am a adanced group driver. I'd still need to figure out what temp the warning comes on at. That is a key piece of information that we don't currently have. I drove my car home 12 hours home afterwards so I would guess it didn't get to a danger danger will robinson level.

Thanks everyone.

Convert, whats FSU mean besides Florida State?

I was using Traction Control + Sport Steering.

The car drove great, btw. Nothing seemed wrong with its performance, except for a few moments when it seemed confused and I had slow throttle response, but I believe this is the traction control doing its best. I do not plan on using traction control at the track much more, maybe never again once I try Traction Off at the next event.

I should emphasize that the warning light came on in the 2nd session, first session was black flagged all and only got 2 laps. It came on in the third lap of the second session, and I had not gone hard on the car yet whatsoever.
So I suppose I can't rule out the signal / sensor having issues... However, after some admittedly hard-ish laps I was able to get the message to prompt again. I had even tire pressure and I know the course, was very gentle getting to WOT with all the newfound POWAAA, and steering inputs were ginger.

Its under warranty right? So worst thing that can happen is I burn out an axle and they replace it?

I have 2 more track days this weekend and was going to drop the car off at the dealership on Monday. I might be able to get the fluid changed before that... I wonder if it might be ideal to change it after one or two more HPDE days...:headbonk:

FSU f'd stuff up... to put it nicely.

Track mode is for track. Even novice drivers. It WILL save you, and is way easier on the rear brake pads and diff than TCS full on.

Change the diff fluid to something actually good. Even the manual says to change it after every track day or so, so may as well upgrade.

Also with that many track days, brake fluid swap while you're working on it.