Steering Angle Sensor - Which End Is Up? (hicas Related)

[mk2tmr2]

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.

[gts25]

hey mate

i have had this exact same problem. bought a bnr32 with an aftermarket steering wheel. when inspecting i didnt notice the blown hicas warning light on the dash

once i went through the car and replaced the globe, the warning light came on after exactly 10kms on the freeway.

did my research and noticed i had the wrong boss kit. fitted the right boss kit and still had the same problem. after coming across a thread on here about differences in the early and late model bnr32 steering wheels i noticed from the pics that my hicas clock was upside down. from memory the plug with the lead to the horn needs to be at the bottom ie 6oclock.

This fixed the problem for me. Also i found the steering wheel has to be dead straight. slightly off and the light comes on

hopes this helps

jase

Edited March 18, 2015 by gts25

[mk2tmr2]

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

[gts25]

i didnt pay any attention to which way i rotated it. i just rotated so that the horn wire was at 6 oclock

[mk2tmr2]

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.

[mk2tmr2]

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"

[gts25]

ah yes they do differ, my bnr32 is a late model and the positions are 12 and 6 oclock

your boss kit should line it in the correct postion

which boss kit do you have. is it a hkb one? from memory the hkb 110 is the boss kit for the early bnr32

[mk2tmr2]

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.

[gts25]

ok good luck

post up your progress/results

[mk2tmr2]

Thanks. I will!

[ErOR]

First boss kit I used on my 32 was a GTR variant as it had the tabs at 1 and 7 oclock as mentioned above, but on my gts25 they are at 12 and 6, with top being the horn.

It shouldn't matter which direction you turn it, it will know when it's in the right place.

Solution to all this, remove hicas

[mk2tmr2]

Solution to all this, remove hicas

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.

Edited March 19, 2015 by mk2tmr2

[ErOR]

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.

On a rwd skyline, no hicas is sooo much better, even when just gripping around corners. On a BNR that was designed for cornering, I will agree with you that it possibly a part of its 'spirit', I've never pushed a gtr so can't say.

Did you manage to fix the issue?

[niZmO_Man]

HICAS is annoying on the track. On the road, curved motorway ramps are a tad more fun. I think it's designed for sweepers/med-high speed corners.

[mk2tmr2]

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.

[gts25]

cool will be interesting to see the outcome

[mk2tmr2]

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.

[mk2tmr2]

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.

[niZmO_Man]

So... someone fked up the wheel alignment?

[mk2tmr2]

So... someone fked up the wheel alignment?

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.