[Sharpey]

Before anyone flames me, I've done about 1hr of trawling through the search results and found many suggestion/solutions, but would like a personal response to my findings. I could very well answer my own question here, but hey...that's what the forum's for eh?

Firstly Happy New Year to all - here's to a good years motoring.

Right, issue is as per title, I was driving in a straight line, 70mph, not accelerating and the car wobbled like there was a massive gust of wind. This happened again a further 20 secs later - then, never again.

Some info on the car related to posts I've read and obvious questions you may ask;

- HICAS still present and never had problem before

- Tyre pressures all good

- After market MOMO steering wheel with HICAS boss, and like I said never had a problem before

- Tein Superstreet coilvers fitted

- My battery is just a pikey Micra one which to be fair doesn't fully charge now and could probably do with replacing (cue everyone going, "Ah there's ya problem mate - stop being a cheapskate!). Because this did happen while I was listening to some music in the car, which I've not done for a while because I love the engine note so much. The system has an amp and 6.5" speakers in the rear, and fronts fed off the headunit. I put two and two together when I first felt the twitch, so I quickly turned it off, but the 2nd twitch still occured - coincidence? Can a voltage drop and/or a half-dead battery cause this?

I don't really want to go through the hassle of removing the (working?) HICAS and the paying for 4 wheel alignment, when the problem could well be elsewhere. I *think* I'm going to go the battery route first, but any further input would be appreciated :bigthumb:

Cheers,
Carl.

 

[R33JONO]

Hi mate.
Not personal experiance but have read a lot of cases of loud music effecting the hicas and making the car twitch and steer on its own. The computer has an accelerometer,
wich picks up the vibrations from the music the sensor thinks the car is turning/ sliding and activatos the hicas to compensate. The later twich could have been the rear going back to straight?

Just another thought when the engine is running the car eletrics will be running off the alternator. so unlikley to be battery problem.

 

[Sharpey]

Hi Jono, cheers for the reply. The second twitch was a good 30 secs after I turned the stereo off though.

 

[splinter]

Sounds like hicas to me..

Ok have you played with any electrics ???
Has your battery gone flat ???


And make shore all rear bushes are ok.

If so reset hicas, I didnt know you had to reset it and crashed mine as i was fitting a new amp in the boot and took old amp out.

To reset hicas..

Make shore your front wheels line up with the rear and are straight.

Disconect battery leave for an hour or 24 hours.

Then reconnect battery .. job done.

 

[ru']

Lock the hicas out (although worth checking all bushes etc. for play first and then lock it out, lol).

 

[Sharpey]

Lock the hicas out (although worth checking all bushes etc. for play first and then lock it out, lol).

I said I didn't wanna go that route :nonono:

Ok have you played with any electrics ???
Has your battery gone flat ???

Not touched anything on the car for a long while.
The battery wasn't flat, but the engine turned once and then didn't start, so I had to boost the battery last week. But it's been worse than that in the past and this is the first I've seen of this issue.

And make shore all rear bushes are ok.

Will have to check these.

 

[ru']

I said I didn't wanna go that route :nonono:

So you don't want it fixed then? Fair enough.

 

[Sharpey]

So you don't want it fixed then? Fair enough.

Yeah I know this'll fix it, but it's just my nature to try and diagnose/fix instead of botch/fix

But I can see this leaning towards BYE-BYE-CAS soon.

 

[Wolf]

Lock the hicas out (although worth checking all bushes etc. for play first and then lock it out, lol).

have to agree

i always liked the hicas and is dam good on track, but with the 2 i have had they dont like going in a straight line for a long period of time ( motorway etc) when mine went wrong i locked it out (alot cheeper than fixing it) and had no mor probs. and tbh i can now feel what the rear is doing much better than i did before

 

[Sharpey]

Do you guys just have the lock-out bar, or the full £200 kit that's available?

 

[Wolf]

just lock out bar and electrics and in my case hydrolics removed (yours wont have hydrolics)

 

[R33JONO]

Ive got the full kit on mine from conceptua.
They did have an offer on £170 not sure if its still running.
If its only done it a couple of times i wouldnt give in on it yet.
I would just not have the sterio on too loud whilst on motorrways first.

 

[Skylin33]

It will more than likely be the little sensor in the steering wheel mate. mine did exactly the same and i trawled through every possibility. It could be either dirty or one of the teeth on the plastic wheel that senses the light. please excuse the plain explanation. i changed mine and its never done it since. (8 months ago) I may even have a spare one if you can diagnose it as that. id give that a check first though!

 

[MAD MAXD]

Sub and amps

Hi

I have not had this problem myself but several people I know who have sound systems with amps and subs in the boot have had the same problem as you are discribing. One guy didn't listen to my suggestions and totalled his car on the M1 when his amp/bass took the Hicas into its own hands and he lost it! :timebomb:

I have had no probs cus I listened to people who had suffered and learnt from their mistakes and kept my HICAS on all 5 of my cars with no probs at all.

hope this helps

cheers

Martyn

 

[Sharpey]

I've just come back from a 1.5hr drive, where I maxed 70mph +/- 10%, and I didn't experience it this time at all. I totally agree that it is the HICAS, but what caused it? Only thing I did change from any other time I drive the car, was the turn on the stereo/amp. I need a new battery anyway, so I'm going to start there.

If it continues, I may as well eliminate the steering wheel part Skylin33 (thanks for the offer).

I drove the car hard as I could (weather permitting) at Silverstone and was happy with the way HICAS performs.

Tbc........

Edit: Tried several times to get the car into diagnostic mode too, no joy.

 

[ru']

I used to like hicas, even got proper UK clocks so it got a true speed reading etc. When excessive play reared its ugly head I got it locked out (much cheaper) and really prefer it locked now.

It feels much more 'true', if that makes sense, and I'm now 100% sure if the rear is slipping or not which makes it easier for me to drive.

 

[Skylin33]

I've just come back from a 1.5hr drive, where I maxed 70mph +/- 10%, and I didn't experience it this time at all. I totally agree that it is the HICAS, but what caused it?
If it continues, I may as well eliminate the steering wheel part Skylin33 (thanks for the offer).

No worries. nothing caused mine to go. I took it out and could see the pcb had a scorch mark on it. it may not even be that obvious but could still be the problem! Got a new one from one my mate was breaking and it solved it immediately. I will see if i have a spare one and if i do and you want it let me know and ill pop it in the post. No garuntees though cant remember what i did with it!

 

[Sharpey]

Nice one buddy...I'll update this thread as 'n' when. Intend to get a battery tomorrow as long as the local motor factors is open.

 

[Sharpey]

I said I'd update the thread, so here I am. Snow's all gone, car's been hibernating most of the month so haven't had a chance to check it with the new battery.

Had a good day's driving today in the sun, did an entire tank with a big smile, and I'm pleased to report the problem is no longer there (even with the stereo on LOUD). Hoping that was too much of a coincidence before to not be the reason.

 

[Darth_Stinky]

If the hicas activated during your twitch, the warning light on the centre console would have illuminated.

GTST did this to me, turned out to be a totally feck bush on the rear.....(no dash illumination). I know you car been in storage for a bit but if you've not done so already I'd get your bushes checked Check should take 5mins per side, worth it for peace of mind .....

There is a HICAS diag mode & its a ***** to activate (you'll be shuffling your wheel LOTS before its finally works).

Adrian/DS