R32 Hicas Removal

[ThePimp]

Hi All

I saw some people asking for HICAS Removal Tutorial on the R32 whilst looking at the one for the R33. Here it is and hope it helps. I also hope I'm posting it in the right section as this one is on handling. Please move it to the correct ones if the Mods think fit.

Removing the HICAS on an R32 is actually quite an easy job (as long as you have the right tools). I used a guide taken from the NissanSilvia.comforum. I chose this method because it means there is no capping of the hydraulic lines and no need to take the power steering pump apart - you simply need to get hold of a length of rubber hose and some jubilee clips.

If you have an aftermarket exhaust (and maybe a standard one) you'll need to take off the piece that passes over the hicas bar at the back, otherwise it's impossible to get any movement with the 32mm spanner you need to use to undo the bar. It is recommended to WD40 the exhaust bolts some time before you start to save shearing any bolts!

I haven't had the rear wheels aligned yet, but spent quite a while doing it by eye. Getting the wheels aligned properly is on my to do list...

Needed:

HICAS lock bar

50cm of 10mm (or 3/8" is a bit more common) ID hose. Transmission cooler hose works nicely

2x hose clamps

1L powersteering fluid

Tools:

2x big shifters for tie rods or 32mm open ender

17, 21mm open ended spanner

10,12mm ring spanners (ratchet spanners really helpful)

14, 19, 21 and 24mm sockets.

Hacksaw

PS. Power steering fluid leaks everywhere, keep this in mind and keep some buckets, trays etc to catch it all - it makes cleaning up A LOT easier.

Fitting the lockbar

Firstly, put the lock bar on. To do this, take the tie rod boots off both sides (cut the wire/cable ties) and get your shifters onto these. Crack them and then start undoing the one that came loose. Keep going until you can slip your 17mm open ended spanner into the gap between the tie rod and the hicas rack. You will see a little stub between them, this stub has flat surfaces, get the spanner onto this to hold it by tightening the loose tie rod back onto it. You can now undo the other tie rod. Inside the hicas rack is a hollow bar that the tie rods screw into, if you just turn one without holding the other, both turn.

Now that both are cracked, undo the rack from the car via the 2 19mm bolts above and the 2 brackets for the hicas lines (10mm). Once these are off, you can pull the rack away from the subframe a little and it makes getting the tie rods out of the rack a bit easier. Now just unscrew the tie rods.

Get your lock bar and screw the tie rods into this while it is off the car. when both rods are all the way in, mount it back onto the car with the 19mm bolts and then tighten the tie rods (dont have to hold anything this time). Then slide the tie rod boots back over and use cable ties/wire to secure them.

The HICAS is now locked mechanically and YOU WILL NEED A WHEEL ALIGNMENT.

Removing rear-wards lines

Now we have to worry about the hydraulics.

You will currently have a big heavy rack dangling down, if you follow the lines to the front of the car a little you will see a small solenoid. Undo the 2 lines from this (21mm) and then you can remove the rack from the car.

Next unbolt the solenoid from the car, there is a 10mm and a 12mm bolt holding it on. Follow the piping all the way up to the front of the car, removing the 10mm bolts and the piping from the clips on the way. Once you get to where the chassis rail curves up, you will see 2 high pressure connections. Hold onto one end (21mm) and undo the other end (17mm) and then you can pull the lines and rear solenoid from the car.

At this stage, most of the stuff is gone, there is only the big solenoid at the front resting underneath the intake plenum and the problem of what to do with the power steering lines that used to go to HICAS.

Looping lines

If you look just in front of the engine cross member, you will see a few power steering lines (steel pipes). one of these goes into a high pressure fitting and then into the hicas solenoid. get a hacksaw and cut through this steel pipe, connect your hose onto it, hose clamp it and feed it up through the car.

Now put the car down/get out from under it and look in the engine bay and find the solenoid (behind the battery and under the intake plenum, on your inner guard). In front of the radiator you will see a loop of aluminium on the left. this is your power steering cooler. Follow the two lines back into the engine bay and you will see that one goes into the solenoid and one goes back under the car (and back to the resevoir). On the line that goes back the solenoid you will see a short ~15cm long moulded rubber hose held on with hose clamps. take this off and then put your other hose that you just put on from the bottom onto the aluminium pipe, not into the solenoid, then hose clamp it.

Now the rear stage of your power steering pump, which used to feed into the hicas and pump into the cooler aswell, only pumps into the cooler and then returns as normal. As there is no restriction from a solenoid or rack, only low pressure fittings have to be used.

If you have any trouble getting the hoses onto the steel/aluminium pipes, just put the hose in boiling water and then try, should work.

Now you can rip the solenoid out and the remaining lines. there are 2 14mm banjo bolts on top of the solenoid, undo these so you can seperate the lines from the solenoid which makes removal easier. You may also want to undo the 21mm banjo bolt on the bottom to disconnect the inlet to the solenoid, but you can just wiggle it out with it still attached. The solenoid then has 12mm bolts holding it in, 1 at the top and 2 at the bottom on either side (pain in the arse to get to). When they're off, wriggle the thing out. The remaining lines are held on by 2 10mm bolts and a 12mm nut at the bottom. Undo these and then wriggle them out again.

HICAS warning light

Many people have said that locking HICAS causes your steering to get heavy, but they simply haven't done it properly. There has been NO change in steering feel with any of the cars that I have done. The only problem is the fact that the HICAS warning light comes on (because it's not there...). This can be solved by cutting the warning sender wire on the HICAS computer or removing the warning light's bulb from the dash. I prefer to cut the wire as it's quicker, easier and if you for some reason lose power steering fluid, it will tell you when your resevoir is low.

The HICAS computer is underneath the parcel shelf, it is to the right of centre (when looking in from the boot). Unplug the smaller of the two plugs in the back of it and then cut the green with white trace line wire. You can also just leave the smaller of the two harnesses out and it does the same thing, no ill effects and no HICAS light.

All done

There you have it, you have just removed your HICAS setup. Look in awe at all the useless weight that you just removed from your car. Of course, you could've just looped the lines at the back, but you will only save a bit of weight, or you can block the lines off but once again you wont lose any weight and you can destroy the rear stage of your pump which means new pump. CAN happen, not will, a lot of people have gotten away with this.

Now fill the resevoir up with fluid and start the car, powersteering pump will probly make funny noises as its pumping a bit of air as well. Just keep turning the steering wheel lock to lock until the noise stops and have someone watching the resevoir and making sure it stays topped up. Any air that is left in there will come out over the next couple of days as the system gravity bleeds itself (resevoir is the highest point).

Here's the pics I took from my own install...

The HICAS lock bar installed :

Remove the bit that was here (solenoid of some sort?) :

You can see where the 2 hydraulic pipes have been removed along the length of the car :

Bottom pipe here is the one that needs to be cut, that shiny bolt is the sump bolt :

Taken from underneath the car, you can see the new hose being routed up to where the solenoid in the engine bay was :

From the top of the car, this is where the hicas solenoid was. oil filter changes will be easy now!:

And this is where the new hose fitted at the bottom should be routed to:

This is in front of the rad behind the front bumper. doesn't look like much but that loop of pipe is the power steering fluid cooler :

[GTR_JOEY]

Hey mate, cool thread...

Probably should have posted it in the DIY/tutorial thread but meh

Any idea how much weight is saved when removing all the HICAS gear?

Cheers

[0zhiph0p]

Great write up, very helpfull!

[GTSBoy]

Not much weight saved. Solenoids from engine bay are a few kg. Rear solenoid about half that. HICAS rack is a few kg. Lines don't weight much.

It really really declutters the place though. I did all of the above by ripping out the HICAS subframe and putting a non-HICAS one in so I didn't have to use a lock bar. Between tidying up the back end, pulling all the lines out, getting the solenoids out from the oil filter changing area, swapping to a non-HICAS power steering pump and getting rid of all the surplus hard lines and brackets under the engine, there is so much extra room than before.

[OBSESSION]

Nice Guide. Was a messey job with all the fluid, but not to hard.

[clip14]

Did this in the weekend -

very messy - make sure you buy new powersteering fluid, and lay something down

3/8" hose is fine - you only need half a meter (i bought 1m to be safe)

see the pic for the two lines you need to connect, can't have too many photos!

Edited October 23, 2012 by clip14

[Spurdo]

i've managed to acquire an actual non-hicas rear subframe.. has anyone done it that way? if so is there a tutorial for that?

[GTSBoy]

It's piss easy. Just rip out the old subframe, install new one with new subframe to body bushes. Job done.

Of course, that sounds easier than it really is. You will want to clean any rust and paint the new subframe before putting it on, and you will have to transfer all the suspension arms over, and handbrake cables and hubs and rotors and calipers and all that shenanigans. But seriously, if you need a tutorial to tell you to "unbolt item A from subframe X and bolt onto subframe Y", then you probably shouldn't be doing it.

The other trap is the new subframe will need to come with the toe control arms (to replace the old HICAS tie rods) and you will need to push the HICAS tie rod ends out of the hub and install bushes.

[Spurdo]

yeah sweet. i guess its just the same job only it gets real simple at the rear end, just out with the old in with the new, then make the changes to the p/s lines and done.

[Spurdo]

hey those bushes i have to install in place of the old hicas tie rod ends.. does anyone know exactly which bushes to install there? a part number/link to product would be great!

i replaced the subframe over the weekend and forgot to organise those beforehand. we jimmied up some makeshift bushes just so i could drive the car home but i need some proper bushes asap

Edited December 5, 2012 by Spurdo

[Spence_R32]

Ill give giving this a go in the next few weeks. Cheers for this.

[dark.sky]

After snapping 5 lock bars (apparently I drive my car hard) I changed to an entire non-hicas rear subframe. It is a very simple job, but spend the time and money getting some quality subframe bushes installed in the new subframe before putting it in. I know people say just put solid bushes in, but Im really not a fan of the road noise that often comes with doing so. So I have Whitleline bushes now (polyurethane). Use a rattle gun to change the hubs over, makes life much easier. The subframe I bought had driveshafts but no diff (obviously driveshafts were useless to me as they were 6 bolt), so to get the driveshaft bolts off I used a chain and shackles from my engine crane and did them up through the bolt holes that would normally go to the diff, and loop the chain around the subframe. This allowed me to take the driveshaft bolts off with ease.

Edit: I've gone much more extreme with the removal of the power steering lines than the OP. Now my power steering lines go; pump -> front rack -> reservoir -> pump. Removed probably 5 metres of power steering lines from the equation, haha.

[Spurdo]

yeah me and my mechanic friend did this and we removed a shitload of lines from it too. feels good getting rid of redundant equipment.

for anyone else replacing the whole subframe in the r32.. here are the bushes you need to replace the tie rod ends.. nissan oem 555152-35F00.. obviously, you need two of them. they are just under $12usd each when i ordered mine from amayama.

[GTR_JOEY]

Just finished using this guide to pull my HICAS out of my 32, very Helpful mate.. made the job alot easier

[iruvyouskyrine]

I've gone much more extreme with the removal of the power steering lines than the OP. Now my power steering lines go; pump -> front rack -> reservoir -> pump. Removed probably 5 metres of power steering lines from the equation, haha.

I am about to do this too using an R34 P/S pump. I should also be able to run my setup like this shouldn't i as the 34 pump wont have any extra hicas bullshit haha. Is the p/s fluid cooling loop near the radiator required?

[GTSBoy]

Yes, it is. Well, not really, not for an exclusively street driven car. But if you thrash it through the hills or track it, then definitely you need some cooling in the PS circuit.

But in fact I deleted it when I did my car. I used the auto trans cooler from the donor R34 engine and plumbed that into the low pressure side of the PS circuit. Work a treat. it's much more cooling than it needs. If you don't want a cooler that big (they're not big, but bigger than you need) then you can buy proper, smaller PS coolers.

[iruvyouskyrine]

Where did you mount your cooler, in the front l/h guard where the standard SMIC would be?

[GTSBoy]

No, that's where my colad air intake bellmouth is. So I hung it from the same spot on the driver's side. Just ran the hoses across the front of the car. If the spot is open on your car, then go for it.

[R.3.2.G.T.R]

ppl that have done this, how long did it take? Thinking of installing my elimination kit today

[GTSBoy]

Took me ages. But engine transplant and replacement non-HICAS rear subframe going on at the same time kinda muddied the waters. I wouldn't want to do the plumbing under the engine without the engine being out, but I'm sure it's possible. The rest of the job would only take a few hours.