To Hicas, Or Not To Hicas

[Stealthed]

Hey all,

My car Currently Needs a Power steering Issue Fixed and im talking to the guys at tenagah, But they suggested i should Scrap HICAS..

So Should I get the Cars Back to Full working standard or Scrap it?

So yea I like Hicas But Peoples Experiences With it and so forth Let me Know, Pros with it, Cons with it Vice Versa

THANKS

Benson

[NA_Goodness]

Just scrap it. Everyone I've talked to who's got rid of it was the best thing they've done. Can't remember why it's so good, but no one has complained!

Plus you'll save about 10kg or something without the lines. Any weight saving is good in my book.

[R DIRTY 3]

Rhys, 33 hicas is electric so there are no lines. Any weight saving is negligible. 32 where the hicas was hydraulic if you disconnect it at the front of the car and pull all the lines etc then the weight saving can be 25kg from what ive heard.

Everybody hates Hicas however another way to look at it is, Nissan spent millions designing the system to work....so it cant be that bad.

Having said that, i took it out of mine

[racegtst]

Hicas was designed to be a sort of 4 wheel steer.

Great for parking, BUT

if you are on the track it will try to correct your opposite lock until you spin off trying to correct being corrected and so on

Ditch it only if you put a locker bar in, just in case you hit a kerb and knock the wheel out of alignment.

[R34P3R]

so what does hicas do? friends are telling me to get rid of it.

[bubba]

HICAS does not work for parking.

HICAS only operates over 80kmh and only about 1deg either way when 'X' amount of steering lock is applied.

It is a safety feature for people that don't know how to drive, the theory is if you come too hot into a corner it induces understeer as Nissan figure that was a lot safer for novices drivers than oversteer.

The problem I found with HICAS is the unpredictable snap oversteer when pushing my car hard.. it was also quite hard to change directions when doing 2nd gear burnouts on the brakes as the car just wanted to crab down the road with all wheels pointing in the same direction.

So, im summary: it is not a turning or parking aid, it is a safety feature.

When pushing my car to the limits I want only me in control, not some computer that thinks it's doing the right thing. Best $80 and a couple of hours I've spent on my car!

[NA_Goodness]

Rhys, 33 hicas is electric so there are no lines. Any weight saving is negligible. 32 where the hicas was hydraulic if you disconnect it at the front of the car and pull all the lines etc then the weight saving can be 25kg from what ive heard.

Everybody hates Hicas however another way to look at it is, Nissan spent millions designing the system to work....so it cant be that bad.

Having said that, i took it out of mine

My bad . Now that I think about it, I did read that on an R32...

Either way, ditch it.

[bubba]

+1 ditch it

Edited November 11, 2008 by bubba

[Stealthed]

Hmmmm Looks like im leaning towards Ditching it

[GWP021]

streetwise i really didnt notice the diference of removing it but on the track the car was far more managable no little wobbles in the back as the hicas tried to corect things i didnt want corected

[Dunno]

on the 32's depending on the bar you use you will save 7.5kgs im not to sure what you save on the 33's ill let ya know when i remove mine.

You should definatley get rid of it its nothing but trouble

[Magic]

heres my experience with it...

Was going through Safety Bay roundabout in Rocko, the roads were still wet from rain earlier but it wasnt raining anymore. No one else was on the road and I know this corner like the back of my hand. I had 2 chicks in the car with me and I gave it a boot just as I was exitting and straightening up the roundabout so it was safe, it lost a fraction of traction but didnt slide or anything like that, just a tiny skip. HICAS thought I was losing control and it reangled my wheels to (supposedbly) counter this.

Anyways, what it actually ended up doing was swing me literally lane to lane. As I was in shock and never experienced it before I was trying to counter the HICAS which made it swing back into the other lane again. My friends in the car just both looked at me with a blank stare because they knew the car was what made it switch the lane first.

I didn't wana experience that ever again, was pretty scary especially with 2 box curbs on each lane, not to mention im lucky no other cars were around. Next day I went to J-Shop and got them to fit me a lockbar in and I havn't had the problem again.

And I think in the 34s you can lose close to over 30kg if you remove everything with it, but apparantly its a big job to do that.

Edited November 11, 2008 by Magic

[s13rb20pplater]

for some reason i lol'd^^ i can imagine the look on the girls faces....

*WTF your car is alive!!*

does hicas only work when the speedo works?

[Haunter]

heres my experience with it...

Was going through Safety Bay roundabout in Rocko, the roads were still wet from rain earlier but it wasnt raining anymore. No one else was on the road and I know this corner like the back of my hand. I had 2 chicks in the car with me and I gave it a boot just as I was exitting and straightening up the roundabout so it was safe, it lost a fraction of traction but didnt slide or anything like that, just a tiny skip. HICAS thought I was losing control and it reangled my wheels to (supposedbly) counter this.

Anyways, what it actually ended up doing was swing me literally lane to lane. As I was in shock and never experienced it before I was trying to counter the HICAS which made it swing back into the other lane again. My friends in the car just both looked at me with a blank stare because they knew the car was what made it switch the lane first.

I didn't wana experience that ever again, was pretty scary especially with 2 box curbs on each lane, not to mention im lucky no other cars were around. Next day I went to J-Shop and got them to fit me a lockbar in and I havn't had the problem again.

Oh man that would scary as hell... Would only be worse if there were more cars around...

I have a Hicas Lock bar installed. I don't believe the system was removed.

Edited November 11, 2008 by Haunter

[Steve]

HICAS works in two ways - at lower speeds (above 25 or 40kph from memory) it steers opposite to your front wheels, at higher speeds, above 80?kph, it steers in the same direction as your fronts - total steering is only around 1mm, but it enough to make the steering feel more lively when cruising and going a bit harder, but not when you go really hard.

As you change speed through corners, the steering can either kick in (at lower speeds) or swap from opposite to steering the same direction as the fronts - this is really, really bad for hard driving.

You will feel that the steering is slightly heavier at first once you remove it (only slightly), and you will need to remove the HICAS light bulb from the dash (or it will give you the shits)

If you just cruise around and go for the occasional 'light' punt - HICAS is fine

If you drive hard (track, MC, or similar) piss it off - all race cars remove HICAS, even back when they raced 32s at bathurst - for good reason.

It would generally be cheaper to remove HICAS than to replace it.

And lastly - any weight saving is good, even a few KGs.

My thoughts (and I have driven both with and removed and driven without)

[-Dukes-]

I'm not a fan, because no other car I drive has it so it make driving the skyline weird when I corner with my foot down.

plus when it is wet, and your trying to turn at a t-junction quickly because there is busy traffic... it's dangerous.

[Mr. Keets]

It blows.

Had mine removed and saved a lot of weight...probably 23-25Kg. On the 33, as written, you wont save that much weight as its an electric deal but in my experience it gives you more confidence in the handling.

[bubba]

HICAS works in two ways - at lower speeds (above 25 or 40kph from memory) it steers opposite to your front wheels, at higher speeds, above 80?kph, it steers in the same direction as your fronts - total steering is only around 1mm, but it enough to make the steering feel more lively when cruising and going a bit harder, but not when you go really hard.

As you change speed through corners, the steering can either kick in (at lower speeds) or swap from opposite to steering the same direction as the fronts - this is really, really bad for hard driving.

You will feel that the steering is slightly heavier at first once you remove it (only slightly), and you will need to remove the HICAS light bulb from the dash (or it will give you the shits)

If you just cruise around and go for the occasional 'light' punt - HICAS is fine

If you drive hard (track, MC, or similar) piss it off - all race cars remove HICAS, even back when they raced 32s at bathurst - for good reason.

It would generally be cheaper to remove HICAS than to replace it.

And lastly - any weight saving is good, even a few KGs.

My thoughts (and I have driven both with and removed and driven without)

Pretty sure it does nothing at low speeds, it's not like the 4WS systems of other cars (such as the mazdas etc)..

[Stealthed]

Ok, Going to get Rid of HICAS

Thanks for the Advice all.

[Rucker34]

it does work at low speeds because if i slow down for a turn and then gun it round the bend quickly it brings my back end round nicely, sometimes im not sure if it is the HICAS or me losing traction. i quite like it but then i have not had the car going hard round a track or a skid pan yet. am booked in to take it on the skid pan at AHG next month so i will have a better idea then and make my mind up wether i still like it.