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All Possible Problems To Cause Heavy Steering

Kwyjibo

By Kwyjibo,
in General Maintenance

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Kwyjibo Rising Star

Kwyjibo

Posted
Posted

I bought my r32 about 3 months ago and ever since I have bought it I lose power steering and the HICAS light comes on. It is very random when it comes on, sometimes straight away, sometimes I've driven over an hour and its been fine. I've got a consult cable and even when the light comes on I can still read my speed off my lap top. The strange thing is I have tried to do a HICAS diagnostic and warning 5 came up(speed sensor), I'm not sure if I drove far enough forward though. Does anyone know how the wiring works, I always thought it went gauges->HICAS->ECU but if it goes from ECU to HICAS could it be a wiring problem? I would be almost certain that it is not receiving a speed signal but there are times where it works for ages.

I even bought another HICAS ECU off someone, although I am almost positive it was faulty as the steering became much heavier and it always happened very quickly with that one. Would different problems cause different variances in how stiff the steering goes?

Now all of a sudden my speedo is going bouncy below 45km/h, however the guage itself has never stopped working. Could this have been an underlying problem? Can you still lose power steering because of this even though it never showed up on the guage?

As soon as I bought the car I noticed the 2 wires coming from the power steering canister had been cut, does anyone know which way these were supposed to go. I did connect them up but I'm not sure if its the right way around, they are both black and even when swapped around I still get the HICAS light on sometimes. The fluid is always topped up but there is a slight leak from one of the hoses.

Could there be anything else causing these problems?

Cheers

mjones Collaborator

mjones

Posted
Posted
I bought my r32 about 3 months ago and ever since I have bought it I lose power steering and the HICAS light comes on. It is very random when it comes on, sometimes straight away, sometimes I've driven over an hour and its been fine. I've got a consult cable and even when the light comes on I can still read my speed off my lap top. The strange thing is I have tried to do a HICAS diagnostic and warning 5 came up(speed sensor), I'm not sure if I drove far enough forward though. Does anyone know how the wiring works, I always thought it went gauges->HICAS->ECU but if it goes from ECU to HICAS could it be a wiring problem? I would be almost certain that it is not receiving a speed signal but there are times where it works for ages.

I even bought another HICAS ECU off someone, although I am almost positive it was faulty as the steering became much heavier and it always happened very quickly with that one. Would different problems cause different variances in how stiff the steering goes?

Now all of a sudden my speedo is going bouncy below 45km/h, however the guage itself has never stopped working. Could this have been an underlying problem? Can you still lose power steering because of this even though it never showed up on the guage?

As soon as I bought the car I noticed the 2 wires coming from the power steering canister had been cut, does anyone know which way these were supposed to go. I did connect them up but I'm not sure if its the right way around, they are both black and even when swapped around I still get the HICAS light on sometimes. The fluid is always topped up but there is a slight leak from one of the hoses.

Could there be anything else causing these problems?

Cheers

if theres something wrong with ur speedo then that would be ur hicas problem,ur hicas runs off ur speedo!!

mudder Apprentice

mudder

Posted
Posted

I'd even suggest that you check your altenator is OK - if it's not outputting sufficient grunt and the battery wears down then it can have this sort of effect on your power steering . . . .

Keeper Experienced

Keeper

Posted
Posted
Now all of a sudden my speedo is going bouncy below 45km/h, however the guage itself has never stopped working. Could this have been an underlying problem? Can you still lose power steering because of this even though it never showed up on the guage?

Cheers

the speed sensor triggers high or low power assist for steering via the ECU from what i have read, when your steering wont return to normal does the speed sensor still show on the laptop? could be a intermittent connection

QWK32 Veteran

QWK32

Posted
Posted

as far i can tell those wires are for a float level for low power steering fluid. mine are broken of and my steering runs fine. i'd say your speedo cable is on its way out. i've had this problem before, bouncey speedo, hicas light and heavy steering. turned out the square drive on the end of the speedo cable was starting to round off and kept slipping. eventually it rounded off completey and speedo, hicas and power steering just stopped.

Kwyjibo Rising Star

Kwyjibo

Posted
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Posted

Thanks guys,

Yeh the speed sensor works fine on my laptop even after the HICAS light comes on. I can only glimpse at it once in awhile though so I don't know if it drops the signal for a split second and then HICAS decides to stop it working for good. Battery and alternator are fine, only thing I can think of is occasionally the car drops revs going up to lights. The steering always seems to go heavy when driving along though. Good to hear about the wires because I don't know which way they are meant to be wired since they are all black.

stealth32 Rookie

stealth32

Posted
Posted
Thanks guys,

Yeh the speed sensor works fine on my laptop even after the HICAS light comes on. I can only glimpse at it once in awhile though so I don't know if it drops the signal for a split second and then HICAS decides to stop it working for good. Battery and alternator are fine, only thing I can think of is occasionally the car drops revs going up to lights. The steering always seems to go heavy when driving along though. Good to hear about the wires because I don't know which way they are meant to be wired since they are all black.

hey mate. it sound like your talking about the float sensor wires for the power steer fluid reservoir.

if this is the case then i don't think it should mater what way you wire them.

arbess Experienced

arbess

Posted
Posted

I had the same problem as you. what i did to rectify the problem, after reading numerous threads:

1: Battery, I can't stress enough how important a healthy battery is for HICAS. do this change first.

2: Speedo cable. fix this if it boogies, not good for HICAS either.

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