Hicas Dying? Wats Wrong With My 32 Gts?

[ANut]

I dunno whats wrong. Driving well one day. Not starting the next morning.

Here are the symptoms. mind you i dont know what everything is under the bonnet.

Cant start the car. at this point it seems like a typical battery failure. not enough voltage. and seems to need replacing.

Hicas light is on once i jump start the car. Power steering seems to be off.

Hicas light flickers and then goes away when i accelerate enough and power steering then returns

When i brake the Voltage on the battery Goes from 12 volts to about 4-6 volts and power steering goes off.

When i accelerate the Voltage on the battery goes back up to 12 volts and power steering goes back on.

This mind boggles me. please help me figure out whats wrong. otherwise ill just have to head to the mech. tho i prefer to fix my owns problems... when i know what they are!

Help!

[unarmed_skyline]

mabye a grounding problem in the hicas unit, have you touched anything reacently?? has the hicas ever been played with if so mabye a grounding nut or bolt wasnt tighetened enough and has vibrated off?

im just guessing i have no clue just something to check

[TurboX]

Check ALL the front belts, FAN, ALT, Power Steering, sounds like they are slipping bad and maybe battery is stuffed as well?

LOOK CLOSELY AT YOUR TERMINOLOGY AND CLARIFY your symptoms.

[blind_elk]

Skylines are EXTREMELY sensitive to voltage. If you sudeenly lose voltage to any of the ECUs floating around in the car, they will start to misbehave.

Replace the battery. And check the alternator and the fan belt.

[Dantay]

Hey dude sucks about the issue.

your HICAS light might be coming on because you are running low on power steering fuild, they used a shared resivour. what you need to do is get some power steering fuild from super cheap or repco and top up the fuild level.

your power steering fuild is located towards the front of the car just next to your front passenger side wheel. its like a medium sized can looking thing with red fuild in it.

in regards to the voltage issue, because of the high reving nature of the RB engines the alternator wont start turning over until you hit 2000+ RPM so give it a solid blip and see what volatge is carries maybe?

good luck.

[Tassie Devil]

Had the exact same fault last night in my car.

Threatened to not start this mornig but did go so being the lazy unadventuruos type

I took it straight to the auto-electricain.

Turns out it was the alternator worn bushes or some such thing.

Alternator to be serviced no major dilemma or cost.

Hopefully it's nothing more sinister in your case.

[GTR32GUS]

If u dont know what anything is under the bonnet it going to be very hard for u to fix , if the hicas light is flickering at u it means u got fault , run the diagnotic on the hicas ECU see if that tell u anything

[Dantay]

don't be deterred by you assumed lack of knowledge, when things go wrong its a great time for you to learn about your car!

[WazR32GTSt]

check your battery terminals - they should be very tight. simple thing and can easily catch you ot

[iseekool]

Definitely check your battery first, then the grounding (negative terminal), and then your alternator - one of the diodes could be busted (problem happened to my Bluebird - the only way i got it home was too keep the engine revving as it suddenly failed) - the best solution is to buy a reconditioned or a new alternator.

[ceedub]

I have had similar problems - turned out it was the wiring to the battery was corroded. There are a multitude of connectors on the positive cable going to the battery. touch them to see if they are warm - if so probably a bad connection, disconnect and clean them out.

good luck

[ANut]

Hey everyone. thanks for the replys and all the help.

here's what i've found so far.

I've checked the belts and even spray a 'belt grip' spray on them and it doesn't look like they're slipping.

I found that when the jumper leads were still connected to the 'other car's' battery, the car worked fine without revving.

so i replaced the battery ($15 for a used but still good 480 battery)...

Problems fixed. or so i thought. it was running normally again. the voltage remained at a constant 12V. then a few days later. voltage goes to about 9V and the hicas light comes back on. Yep. same problem.

Im either going to source a used & working alternator or just get my current one fixed.

does anyone know how much it costs to get my alternator reconditioned... or bushes fixed?

[jeffworld2]

if you need to jump the car every time to start it, the battery is not charging. Make sure all connections are tight and jump it, drive for 30 min or longer, and that should be that. find a new alternator if that doesnt work, or a reco, either way you wont be installing it the auto electrician will

[ANut]

Finally got a used replacement alternator like a week ago... and i put it in myself. That was a lil tough, only because its a bit of tight place to get to under the bonnet but it wasn't too hard. I could do it again, easy.

Problem's fixed. been driving for a few days now, its recharged the 2nd battery that i ran flat, All good! and costing me a total of $40 for alternator, and $15 for battery. battery was a good condition used 470 CCA. =P im happy again