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R32 GTR HICAS Refresh - Recommended Parts?

accel junky
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accel junky Explorer

accel junky

Posted
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I'm in the process of doing a full suspension refresh and would like to keep HICAS working as best/tightly as it can. I have no intention of deleting or locking it.

I have the ball joints already in hand and I'm looking at the tie rod ends L/R, inner rods L/R, and 2x boot kits. Are there any other parts subject to wear that I need to refresh at the rear to do this right? Would replacing the tie rod ends or inner rods even be necessary? I figure the ball joints are a no-brainer.

Thanks!

accel junky Explorer

accel junky

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Appreciate the thoughts on the tie rod ends. At this point HICAS has not caused me any grief and I do very much like the idea of keeping the car in the original 80s tech-wonder configuration (twins, ITBs, RWS, 4WD). The car is not track-ready yet and won't be for a while thanks to my oiling issues so I can't say I won't scrap HICAS after the first track day...

joshuaho96 Veteran

joshuaho96

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Any tie rod ends in the HICAS are more likely to be f**ked than any other part.

HICAS sucks balls though, and there is no reason beyond nostalgia for keeping it. Or don't you care how the car actually drives?

Is HICAS really that bad in the R33 and R34?

niZmO_Man Grand Master

niZmO_Man

Posted
Posted

If you don't understand how the HICAS works at a track day (i.e. how it responds to each corner and your inputs), you're going to have a fun time. I disconnected the controller in my car, so the rear end is a bit loose due to old bushes, but it's more predictable than the damn thing connected.

Dose Pipe Sutututu Grand Master

Dose Pipe Sutututu

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, GTSBoy said:

HICAS is a bit better in the later cars, but it's like being anally raped with a slightly smaller toiletbrush than the R32's large toiletbrush.

R32 GT-R with HICAS = go into trees
R33 GT-R with HICAS = hit gutters
R34 GT-R with HICAS = annoying

I drove like a knob around Hakone, Japan in a R34 GT-R in the rain. I can tell you my R33 GTS-t shit box drives better.

Duncan Grand Master

Duncan

Posted
Posted

Properly functioning HICAS is not a death trap, Nissan's GTR engineers were not a bunch of dickheads.  There will be increasing numbers of people looking to own an unmolested original setup as they increase in value.

Anyway, the key thing to change is those ball joints in the hub, they are a bastard to do but a really bad wear point. Both inner and outer tie rod ends can also wear so you may as well change them at the same time. The rest of the system is just the power steering pump providing pressure, the HICAS solenoid that controls the pressure and the ram next to the diff, all that stuff will either be working fine or not at all.

GTSBoy Grand Master

GTSBoy

Posted
Posted

Bah! My car was 6 years and 23k km old when I got it and there was no appreciable wear in any of the suspension/steering and HICAS was f**king frightening. It would saw away at the back wheels in response to any vigorous steering inputs intended for the front wheels. HICAS was always intended by Nissan to make the car feel really good at 7/10ths. Go above there and it starts to react poorly to the type of driving inputs required to cope with mid corner understeer, etc etc.

You can bet your last razoo that no one running the GTR as a Group A had active HICAS. Gibson probably didn't even receive cars with it fitted!

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TXSquirrel Community Regular

TXSquirrel

Posted
Posted (edited)
15 hours ago, accel junky said:

I'm in the process of doing a full suspension refresh and would like to keep HICAS working as best/tightly as it can. I have no intention of deleting or locking it.

I have the ball joints already in hand and I'm looking at the tie rod ends L/R, inner rods L/R, and 2x boot kits. Are there any other parts subject to wear that I need to refresh at the rear to do this right? Would replacing the tie rod ends or inner rods even be necessary? I figure the ball joints are a no-brainer.

Thanks!

I just went through this with mine as well.  You only need new ball joints, inner rods, and boot kits.  The outer rod is a simple piece of metal with threads, don't need to be replaced.  Glad I took mine to a shop to get done though, that ball joint was an absolute PITA.

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Edited by TXSquirrel
joshuaho96 Veteran

joshuaho96

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Bah! My car was 6 years and 23k km old when I got it and there was no appreciable wear in any of the suspension/steering and HICAS was f**king frightening. It would saw away at the back wheels in response to any vigorous steering inputs intended for the front wheels. HICAS was always intended by Nissan to make the car feel really good at 7/10ths. Go above there and it starts to react poorly to the type of driving inputs required to cope with mid corner understeer, etc etc.

You can bet your last razoo that no one running the GTR as a Group A had active HICAS. Gibson probably didn't even receive cars with it fitted!

What's bizarre to me is that nobody at Nissan considered disabling the system as the car reaches the limits. The wheel sensors were all there, the lateral g sensor was there, the yaw sensor was there. Why didn't anyone write a bit more code to disable the system if any sensor value suggested the vehicle was at dynamic limits? I know the Porsche rear axle steer system has this logic present for exactly these reasons, to make the vehicle more predictable at the limit.

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