While we're on the subject of engine bays.. Can anyone tell me what this thing is? I don't have a picture of my engine bay at the moment, so I figured I'd take one from another post.. Hope nobody minds
Do you reckon you could remove it, pretty it up with some paint and whatnot, then put it back in, cos Damn.. that thing is Ugly..
You can totally remove it, and ditch the HICAS. Another controversial topic. That's what I'm doing however. To totally remove it, you need a bunch of NA power steering parts, and hicas lock bar or similar. Search for more details.
I've seen bits and pieces and arguments about removing HICAS.. In all honesty, I'm not sure if I've ever felt it kick in, but with the way people talk about it, I reckon I will when it does, finally, so I don't really mind it being there, except for the fact that it's so ugly.. Dull Brown Colour.. not very nice.. So yeah, we've established it can be removed, but in doing so, does it destroy anything so that it can't go back on again?
Could get messy, Some of those hose bolts can be difficult to take off/on and you would need to replace the power steering fluid.
Had a look at the Tech section this looks interesting. can anyone advise what the benefit of removing these is? What function do they perform?
I think one of the articles mention that they do Sweet F.A.. I could be wrong though.. could have made it all up
I didn't notice mine at all either, until I got new tyres. Then on the drive home I couldn't figure out why the back of the car kept moving around, until I remembered about the HICAS. Doesn't really bother me now I'm used to it and I doubt you'd notice it much at all just driving around the city, but if you swerve a bit or change lanes quickly you should be able to feel the back end of the car come around.
Is it meant to kick in at a certain speed, or will it kick in if you take a corner sharply too, or take a bend at a decent sort of speed?
It only works in a certain speed range, can't remember exactly what. Something like between 40kph and 100kph. You should be able to feel it if you have decent tyres and take a corner in this speed range, but like I said, I find it more noticable if you swerve or change lanes.
If your bored on friday, come over to my place and ill give you stuff to do, i have a shitload to do on my car but ill help you rip out all that shit you dont need.. safety boost etc etc
The way it works, I think, is at the first speed range, say 40 - 80 (example numbers, not sure of the actual) it will slightly counter-steer when you change lanes etc. to push the back end into line. Above 80, it will counter-steer then switch back the other way and then straighten up. And below 40 it doesn't do anything. I think that is how it works. We have super HICAS which is the switchback part. the normal HICAS only did the counter steer I think.
