Instrument Clusters

[Roy]

Just curous to know if anyone has tried to drive their car with the instrument cluster unplugged and removed. Obviously she has a few inputs from ecu for rpm etc etc, but do they have any outputs that are used for any function?

I know when my speedo cable failed and the speedo on my dash didnt work, it caused drama with the HICS computer as it wasnt geting its speed reading...though i suspect this was an issue as i imagine it talked to the ECU not an output from the cluster.

So anyone know, i cant try as i dont currently have my car and need to know so i can make some changes to one

[JGB33]

I had my cluster out once to get fixed ,and noticed that when i drove it without it ,my hicas or power steering not sure ,made the steering very heavy and weird.Soon as it was plugged in again every thing went back to normal.But i do know that having the cluster out seems to make a few things funny.

[Duncan]

yeah i drove the gtr without the cluster in seemed ok.

I think not having a seat was a much bigger issue.

[predator]

yeah.. my r33 didn't care.. and i drove around for a day or two.

Indicators didn't work from what i remember.. small hassle

[Dahtone Racing]

R32 - steering went really heavy and had an tendancy to stall every now and again

[Roy]

So it would seem that the speedo cable into the cluster actually gives an output to the ECU for road speed and hence the HICAS computer, which even if yo have the rear sterring disconnected, still upsets the normal power steerign operation.?!?!? as i noticed the same heavy steering thing when my cable failed.

Hmmm, butchering cars is never easy.

[GTRgeoff]

Skylines, or 33's at least have the most wonderful speed sensitive steering settings but it does get heavy at low speed without the speedo input.

[predator]

Thats I think that is what I was noticing with no cluster in my r33.

I was just putting around the suburbs so probably didn't kick too much past 80km/hr or so, but at low speeds I didn't notice any funniness with the HICAS or power steering. It was driveable anyway. "Guessing" the speed was a bit of a gamble as well but made things interesting

Also disconnecting the hazard button means the indicators won't work on an r33 - so I assume its probably very similar for r32. So make sure you keep the switch plugged in if you want to indicate.