Rear Steering Rack Bent?

[GTSBoy]

1st up - that shouldn't happen. If there is a HICAS fault (like speed sensor fail, or steering angle sensor fail) then the rest of the power steering should continue to work. It shouldn't become heavy.

2ndly, if you just rip everything out (including and especially the HICAS computer in the boot) then the steering will become heavy.

3rdly, you don't actually need a lock bar in an R32, because in the event of a fault, the HICAS hydraulics are designed to lock the rear rack in the centre position anyway. So this gives us the #1 trick to disabling HICAS (in an R32), which is to pull the smaller of the two loom plugs out of the HICAS computer. That will disable it without wrecking anything, and no light on the dash either.

I credit myself with discovering this trick, in about 1999. I drove my R32 until 2012 with the HICAS in this condition. Only reason I changed it is because I finally got jack of carrying all the extra shit and deleted HICAS entirely, right down to swapping out the rear subframe with a non-HICAS one. But the HICAS computer is still there, still connected with the larger plug only. Small plug hanging.

Edited March 30, 2014 by GTSBoy

[GTRPSI]

I locked it to save weight and complexity under the rear and because i could now use the steel Hicas lines as larger fuel feed lines and the old fuel feed lines as the fuel return lines.

Im very old school about the R32 GTR's, i loved Hicas, having a loose rear end it behaved like a RWD on dirt on tar and didnt bother me at high speed, i grew up Rally driving on a club level and i felt natural to feel the rear move around at speed and correct.

The change point for me was once when testing the car, i did a 4WD hard launch and threw it around while the 4WD Gauge was up and got her crab walking side to side, that time when hicas was correcting things it was virtually uncontrollable, the car was not doing what i wanted it to to correct things, from that point i saw the weak side of it and decided to remove it.

[89CAL]

1st up - that shouldn't happen. If there is a HICAS fault (like speed sensor fail, or steering angle sensor fail) then the rest of the power steering should continue to work. It shouldn't become heavy.

On R32's the power steering does go heavy when the speedo fails. I've known a few people that have had speedo cables fail and the power steering basically fails

[boobeedoobee]

On R32's the power steering does go heavy when the speedo fails. I've known a few people that have had speedo cables fail and the power steering basically fails

Yep thats exactly what happened.. as soon as the speedo cable failed the steering got heavy and at the same time the hicas light would come on..

[GTSBoy]

On R32's the power steering does go heavy when the speedo fails. I've known a few people that have had speedo cables fail and the power steering basically fails

Interesting. Mine didn't. Wasn't a broken speedo cable in my case but I did have no valid speed signal coming from the speedo head for a short while (whilst fiddling with wiring). But, of course, my HICAS computer was not fully wired at that time (per previous post), so maybe that's the difference.

[89CAL]

Yeah probably depends how the thing is wired. If you had yours unplugged (HICAS steering locked as you said) the pump/rack was probably on full. Cant remember if the rack or pump controls the flow, more then likely the rack like 33's. I dunno lol

[jiffo]

Yep, goes heavy.

[boobeedoobee]

Yep, goes heavy.

your attachment is spot on. If i turned the car off it would reset and the steering would feel fine for around a minute of driving before the hicas light would come back on and the steering went heavy again. Once i fixed the speedo cable it worked fine.

[jiffo]

This info plus bucket loads more is all in the workshop manuals.

The cars have complicated systems but it's all spelled out.

Just need to make time, sit down and read.