Super HICAS, Please Help
Super HICAS, Please Help
Hey Guys, I have a 1992 240 w/ Super Hicas and I have a dilemma. I'm a drifter. I used to own a 1989 240 w/o VLSD or Super Hicas and minus the lack of HP I was very satisfied with the handling and moreover, the drift capabilities. While I have a fair amount drift experience, the Super Hicas makes my car oversteer terribly, and almost cost me a hood and fenders when it almost sent me into a brick wall. This oversteer is obnoxious, drift is one thing, but over-reaction with the car is another. Does anybody know anything I can do to correct my Super Hicas, is there a chip or something and if so, where can I buy it. Please Help me out!!
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yeswepromise
- Posts: 1853
- Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2002 10:12 pm
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hyb force soldier
- Posts: 91
- Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2003 3:31 pm
- Car: 1981 Datsun 210, 1987 Toyota Supra, 1989 Toyota Cressida
SPLparts.com sells a HICAS eliminator bar, but it's fairly pricey ($336) and I think they can only get it via special order. Dori picked one of those up recently IIRC. There is also Autoimaging.com that lists an eliminator kit, however theirs appears to be backordered. Finally, some Aussie S13 websites have kits listed also, but I don't have any further info on that source, as it was months ago I spotted it and I don't remember the name of the specific sites. You'll have to search for those.
It does seem odd that HICAS oversteered your car that severely. I assume you were in a mid speed drift and threw the steering wheel over to one side. When the system senses an abrupt shift in the front wheels, it steers the rear wheels - how it does that depends on vehicle speed. Low and high speed turns, the rear wheels are in phase with the fronts. Mid speed turns, rear wheels turn out of phase THEN in phase with fronts. Mid speed turns give HICAS drivers the most problems because of that shifting phase.
It does seem odd that HICAS oversteered your car that severely. I assume you were in a mid speed drift and threw the steering wheel over to one side. When the system senses an abrupt shift in the front wheels, it steers the rear wheels - how it does that depends on vehicle speed. Low and high speed turns, the rear wheels are in phase with the fronts. Mid speed turns, rear wheels turn out of phase THEN in phase with fronts. Mid speed turns give HICAS drivers the most problems because of that shifting phase.
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96_S14_SE
- Posts: 973
- Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2002 11:10 am
- Car: 96 S14 SE - 05 VW GTI 1.8t - 89 S13 coupe "gold on brown"
Weld it solid 
Its free fix that we did on my best friends 400+ down Z32... Eventually youll want to replace the intire unit as its a pig, but it works like this till the money comes in.... Which in his case, Itll be a while as he tossed a rod or two. It was a day to celebrate as it was the first tossed rod between the crew.
Oh and besides the bar, you can swap out spindles and the likes to totally remove it.
Its free fix that we did on my best friends 400+ down Z32... Eventually youll want to replace the intire unit as its a pig, but it works like this till the money comes in.... Which in his case, Itll be a while as he tossed a rod or two. It was a day to celebrate as it was the first tossed rod between the crew.Oh and besides the bar, you can swap out spindles and the likes to totally remove it.
First of all, all you have to do is pull a fuse to disable it. Actually, any bad/false reading the hicas gets will shut it off and throw on the big red light on your dash. There will still be slight movement under hard cornering, but the hicas is not trying to do anything...it'll just feel like bad bushings (slop in the rear).
Second of all, your oversteer is probably not because of the hicas. When my car's hicas was/is enabled, it's much harder to get the car sideways b/c the rear wheels are fighting oversteer efforts. If anything, maybe you are having a hard time getting used to the much larger rear swaybar and quicker steering. Also, if your struts are blown (like mine were), your rear end will be impossible to predict.
Third, there are different hicas eliminators out there and different was to get rid of it. I have a hicas eliminator bar that I purchased from japanesemotorsport.com.au Cost me around $130usd shipped IIRC. It only took a couple days to get here fyi. What it does is get rid of the hydraulic box in the rear and replaces it with a bar. The toe links (more like rear tie-rods) slide into holes on either end of the bar. It also comes with a fluid return kit for the lines. Essentially, it'll do the same thing as the suggested welding (which I've never heard of until now), but that hydraulic box is heavy...and nobody likes uneccassary weight. Plus, if you change your p/s pump to a non hicas pump, you can pull out all the old lines and parts.
The border racing hicas eliminator kit that spl sells looks really cool and all, but the price is very high and I have one design concern with it. What it does is removes the bar and replaces it with brackets that hang down (from what I can gather from the pictures). Connected to the brackets are the new bars (one per side) that bolts onto part of the old bar (to retain toe adjustablity i think). The bad thing though is that I can see those brackes shifting under hard cornering load. If the brackets had a brace or something that would connect the two together, I wouldn't have a problem with it. I'm sure something can be welding to it as well. Still, it seems like a waste of time/money/effort to me.
Your other option is to swap the entire rear subframe from a non hicas car. I thought about this one, but since I work with floor jacks and jackstands in a garage, I said bah! Too much trouble to go through. If I had a lift and a couple of buddies to help, I may have gone this route.
Second of all, your oversteer is probably not because of the hicas. When my car's hicas was/is enabled, it's much harder to get the car sideways b/c the rear wheels are fighting oversteer efforts. If anything, maybe you are having a hard time getting used to the much larger rear swaybar and quicker steering. Also, if your struts are blown (like mine were), your rear end will be impossible to predict.
Third, there are different hicas eliminators out there and different was to get rid of it. I have a hicas eliminator bar that I purchased from japanesemotorsport.com.au Cost me around $130usd shipped IIRC. It only took a couple days to get here fyi. What it does is get rid of the hydraulic box in the rear and replaces it with a bar. The toe links (more like rear tie-rods) slide into holes on either end of the bar. It also comes with a fluid return kit for the lines. Essentially, it'll do the same thing as the suggested welding (which I've never heard of until now), but that hydraulic box is heavy...and nobody likes uneccassary weight. Plus, if you change your p/s pump to a non hicas pump, you can pull out all the old lines and parts.
The border racing hicas eliminator kit that spl sells looks really cool and all, but the price is very high and I have one design concern with it. What it does is removes the bar and replaces it with brackets that hang down (from what I can gather from the pictures). Connected to the brackets are the new bars (one per side) that bolts onto part of the old bar (to retain toe adjustablity i think). The bad thing though is that I can see those brackes shifting under hard cornering load. If the brackets had a brace or something that would connect the two together, I wouldn't have a problem with it. I'm sure something can be welding to it as well. Still, it seems like a waste of time/money/effort to me.
Your other option is to swap the entire rear subframe from a non hicas car. I thought about this one, but since I work with floor jacks and jackstands in a garage, I said bah! Too much trouble to go through. If I had a lift and a couple of buddies to help, I may have gone this route.
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96_S14_SE
- Posts: 973
- Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2002 11:10 am
- Car: 96 S14 SE - 05 VW GTI 1.8t - 89 S13 coupe "gold on brown"
Yeah but if the auto-x is comming up in a few days and the rear end is wagging theres no other fix
It is a pig of a unit on the Z32, cant say ive weighed one on the s-chassis though. Hell even the pumps weigh twice as much.
But the Z tossed a rod so itll be a while Im sure before removing the rack comes to the list again.
It is a pig of a unit on the Z32, cant say ive weighed one on the s-chassis though. Hell even the pumps weigh twice as much.
But the Z tossed a rod so itll be a while Im sure before removing the rack comes to the list again.
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EastCoast240
- Posts: 64
- Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2003 5:20 pm
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sileighty_91
- Posts: 24
- Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2003 3:26 pm
I haven't replaced the Hicas box yet. I just have it disabled. I just haven't had the urge...with it disabled, it's not bad. I will do it soon though...
About swapping a non hicas subframe...it's not really the better way to go. The only thing that really changes is the toe links...on the non-hicas car they have bushings on both ends. On your car, you have none, and you get toe adjustability. It's your choice though.
As for the fuse, I'll have to double check my FSM, but IIRC, it's the lower right fuse in the fuse box under the dash. I'm pretty sure that's the one though...you'll know it's disabled when the red light is on.
About swapping a non hicas subframe...it's not really the better way to go. The only thing that really changes is the toe links...on the non-hicas car they have bushings on both ends. On your car, you have none, and you get toe adjustability. It's your choice though.
As for the fuse, I'll have to double check my FSM, but IIRC, it's the lower right fuse in the fuse box under the dash. I'm pretty sure that's the one though...you'll know it's disabled when the red light is on.
I recently bought the eliminator bar from GP Sports. It looks like a pretty decent unit. The unfortunate thing is that I have no idea how it performs as no shop will put it on for me. I've taken a look under the car and I think I could do it if I had the strength to loosen those undercarriage bolts which are always super seized in there. Is it really as easy as it looks? And where exactly do those plug caps for the lines go?- Too bad I can't read japanese.
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EastCoast240
- Posts: 64
- Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2003 5:20 pm
Finally took the time to do some work on my car today. Not the stuff I wanted to do. While taking out the CD chnager from under my driver's seat, I was around the fuse box so I took a look. The fuse on the lower left, marked "Electronics," (How elusive those Nissan people are!) turned out to disable the HICAS. I just hope that it doesn't disable anything else.The GPSports unit probably isn't on their website, but its basically a steel tube with threaded holes in each end for the tie rods and two tabs welded on to attach to the same mounting points as the steering bar uses. Haven't weighed it yet but it feels like @3 pounds. As soon as I have enough time I'm going to install that as well as all the other goodies lying around.
Hey Dori Dori,When you replaced the rear steering rack, did you just need to cap the two hoses running back to the rack or is there more that I'm missing? My instructions show two different capping methods but it is also labeled rps13 and whatever the skyline code is. Do I only need to use one of these methods?I'm almost back to good running condition- all I need is the hicas taken care of, the rear eccentric bushings installed, the T/C rods swapped, the wheel bearings replaced, the wheels aligned, and the brake hoses reworked. Then I can think about getting new tires...
Like I said, I haven't installed mine yet.
Mine comes with fittings to sent the fluid back to the p/s pump though (that way you won't trigger the hicas lock). Did yous come with any fittings?
Also, IIRC, there is a way to 'cap off' the fluid at the pump, so you can remove all the lines. You'll have to search around for that one though.
Mine comes with fittings to sent the fluid back to the p/s pump though (that way you won't trigger the hicas lock). Did yous come with any fittings?
Also, IIRC, there is a way to 'cap off' the fluid at the pump, so you can remove all the lines. You'll have to search around for that one though.