mk2tmr2

EDIT: Found what I need on another forum. Feel free to lock thread. Thanks. I recently got my hands on some R33 Brembo calipers (fronts) as an upgrade for my BNR32. They didn't come with the hard lines. I'd love to get my hands on an OEM set. PM or email durmans (at) gmail if you have a lead on some for me. Thanks!

For those who are interested, I ended up posting a more concise version of this whole ordeal here: http://www.jdmr32.com/hicas-aftermarket-steering-wheel-error-light/

No. Not at all. When I swapped steering wheels I lost track of exactly what position the steering angle sensor was at. The fix was to use the Nissan Datascan program to find the neutral position for it again.

I think I fixed it. All that's left to verify the fix is to take the car for a long drive - which will happen this weekend. Sorry for the dark photos - it was night time and I was clearly taking pictures with a potato. Last night the stars aligned and I finally had the chance to spend an hour or so in the garage tooling around with the steering angle sensor. I downloaded the Nissan Datascan application to a spare Windows laptop (I'm a Mac guy) that I had laying around and was pleased when it worked quickly and easily with the Consult-compatible USB adapter I bought several weeks ago. I paid the ~$42USD to register the software and unlock the HICAS diagnostics features and was instantly in business. With the laptop sitting in the passenger seat I took a drive and was able to determine that, when the front wheels were straight, my steering angle sensor was reading 12° to 14° in the clockwise direction. This is what was causing HICAS to throw an error after 10 or 15 minutes of relatively straight-on highway driving. This is what it looked like when the steering angle sensor was at 0° on the HICAS readout. At first I thought it was because I used my MOMO steering wheel boss with my NISMO wheel and their bolt patterns are not clocked in the same direction. But the more I looked at the steering wheel boss, the more I realized this wasn't the case. Fortunately, the HICAS compatible boss has 4 possible positions for the steering wheel sensor "notch" and, in addition to that, 6 possible orientations for the boss itself on the splined steering shaft. Somewhere in all that math explains how I was able to simply rotate things around a bit and eliminate the 14° off-center issue I had. When I buttoned everything up last night my steering wheel was straight up and down and the HICAS readout in the Datascan software was telling me that the steering angle sensor was at 0°. Success! Interesting note: Scroll back up and look at that photo of the HICAS readout screen in the Datascan software. Underneath the gauges there is a red rectangle that indicates the "Neutral Signal" is on. This is what needs to be active in order for HICAS to register the car as going "straight". Keen eyes will notice that the steering angle sensor is actually reading 4°. HICAS has some leeway for off-center steering due to deviances in alignment settings. It gives you 4° in either direction. So if your steering is off-center by up to 4° your HICAS system should still work as expected.

So I have a duplicate of this thread over on GTR.co.uk and a member there was kind enough to provide these photos of his '89 GT-R's steering angle sensor orientation. I took the car for a ride yesterday to my paint/body guy for some touch-ups. On the journey I noticed that when I had put the steering wheel back on with the angle sensor matching the photos above (with the horn connector in the 8 o'clock position), the wheel is off center by what I think is 1 spline. It's just slightly to the left by 2-3 degrees. The HICAS light did come on during that highway trip. So my hope is that once I try it one spline to the right it will be fixed. I also have a CONSULT setup now. So theoretically I should be able to read the steering angle sensor output. I haven't tried yet as I've been short on time. But hope to do so next week. Will continue to report in.

I have rotated the steering angle sensor to the next logical position given what options I have with the steering wheel boss. There are only so many angles it can clock to given the splined steering column and the pre-tapped holes for the wheel itself. I have the horn connector in the 2 o'clock position. Since I rarely drive the car, it will probably be a couple weeks before I know if the light will come back on. I also got my Consult adapter in. So I may fiddle with that the next free evening I have to see if I can get a live read of the steering angle data.

Yeah. I know that's a popular solution. Unfortunately, I'm one of those guys who thinks that HICAS is part of the "spirit" of the BNR32. At least...that's my story for now. I reserve the right to change my mind.

Thanks. I will!

I don't know what the boss kit is. It came with the car and had a Momo wheel attached to it. I've now got an old-school NISMO wheel on it. Whatever the boss kit, it worked fine with the Momo wheel and HICAS had no issues for 2,000 miles or so. So I'm sure I'll figure it out. I'm going to go by the above photo and see if I can get that alignment with the boss. I've also ordered a CONSULT adapter so I can use a laptop to monitor the steering angle sensor output if I need to.

This is what I believe is the back-side of an early BNR32 steering wheel. Mine is serial number 796 - so I'd consider that "early"

So...doing some more research reveals that early BNR32's have the steering angle sensor at 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock with the horn connector at the top (I think). I may give that a shot. Does anyone know if you can measure the sensor output using a volt meter somehow? I would imagine it has a "center" signal that should be measurable in some manner. That would probably make my life a HELUVA lot easier.

Thanks, guys!

Thanks, jase. Now the question is whether to rotate it clockwise or anti-clockwise 180 degrees.

I'll start this post by admitting I made a noob mistake. And now I'm trying to fix it. My BNR32 came with an aftermarket steering wheel that already had a HICAS-compatible steering boss. I got my hands on a vintage NISMO steering wheel that did not have a HICAS-compatible steering boss. However, the boss it had fit over the "nubs" on the steering angle sensor. So I drove it like that for a day. Then, when my HICAS light came on and my turn signals wouldn't cancel, I did my research. This is what's known as putting the horse behind the cart. Anyway - now I've corrected the physical error. I have the HICAS boss on, the steering angle sensor is turning with the wheel. Turn signals cancel once again. However, my HICAS light still comes on. Yes, I've reset trouble codes. I literally had the battery out of the car last night for about an hour (doing other things). 1) It will come on after 15 minutes of normal driving (typically highway) 2) If it's not already on from #1, it will come on immediately after an aggressive turn It stands to reason that this is related to the steering angle sensor. I'm guessing it somehow became un-clocked and is in the wrong orientation now? The nubs are at 12 and 6 o-clock with the horn connection at the top. I cannot, for the life of me, get the car into HICAS diagnosis mode by turning the steering wheel left-to-right more than 20° 10 times and pressing the brake pedal at least 5 times all within 10 seconds of turning the key to the "ON" position. I've tried so much a crowd almost started gathering to watch me dance with my car. Is my only hope to find someone with a CONSULT to verify there's something amiss with the steering angle sensor? Is there a way to re-clock it? Thanks in advance.

Happy to be a new part of the forum. I've already gotten to know several of the local Skyline owners and it's a great crew over here. Looking forward to learning more on the forums - from people who know what they're talking about. The car is VIN #796 - so it's pretty early. In great shape, though. I picked it up just after Thanksgiving from Japanese Classics LLC in Richmond. Drove it back to Dallas by way of Deals Gap. That's a story for my build thread, though. Look for it to be featured on egarage.com next week. A pic or two to whet the appetite: The car is in excellent condition, like I said. Respray within the last few years was done at a very high level of quality. Engine and transmission were rebuilt about two years ago to factory specs with the exception of a set of Tomei cams which are complimented by the Tomei ECU. The rest of the modifications and a bunch of maintenance info were provided by a previous owner and translated into Engrish for me. Anyway - I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can from this community!