Need info on diff replacement

[Wardvette]

Hi guys and girls, we have a 96 318ti auto. The diff sounds awful and we plan to replace it with an e30 diff (or anything else that will work). I've read all the threads in this section and did some research on other boards. I got pretty confused on what I need because most people seem to do a swap because they increased their power so they want a stronger lsd. However, we just want to replace ours with something cheap and easy that will have about the same ratio. Hers isn't an lsd so we don't need to pay extra for an lsd. So,

1. Is hers geared 4.45? (auto)

2. Would a diff out of any 4 cyl e30 be a direct replacement?

3. Which e30 diff would be geared the same as hers?

thanks for any help you can give me

[Dredder]

1. yes
2. no you'll need to use e30 axle if you find one that fit. most likely you need to modify
3. find on that has same gearing. prefferably auto e30. most of them are 4.10

check out the notebook section of this site.

link can help you determine your ratio http://www.368s.com/tools_rpm.phtml?PHPSESSID=5af159a2085f1fcb93f620dfc2944bf3