Now I know I'm going to sound stupid but...

 

...What's all this about lifting your handbrake 'one' click and it 'stiffining' up your rear suspension?

 

Is it true?

 

Does it work on all Z's?

 

Am I asking a stupid Question? Probably!!

 

But I need to know as I can't sleep at night.....

 

Matty.

 

I find it hard to believe but...I recently removed

my rear shocks and to my surprize found out that they were adjustable!

They had an electrical adjusting thing on top of them as well!

 

My car isn't equipped with adjustable suspension, like the US models are.

 

Anybody else noticed this?

 

Maciej

 

Trust me when I say that this is gen. Put it this way, when I went to my local Nissan dealer and told the technician who was in my car at the time whilst hurtling rapidly along the A55 in de Wales...

 

"Hey mate, is it normal for these cars to crab at high speed when hitting a dead mouse carcass on the road. So badly that sometimes I think I'm going to do a Dukes of Hazard jump into the articulated lorry in the next lanes trailer???"

 

"Yeah, they all do that!"

 

Wrong, they shouldn't do that at all. If your car is doing that then it's either dodgey shocks or as some of you have suspected a problem with the HICAS itself. Also check wheel alignment, balancing etc....

 

When I went to someone who knew these cars inside out he told me that was not normal, and to pull the handbrake up one click. This activates the sport mode on the rear shocks. Hey presto, smoother, less scarey ride results immediately. If it doesn't then get everything else checked out.

 

CheerZ GeeZerZ

 

Tim

;-)

 

 

Matty,

 

Yup as the others said this is 100% correct the European models (according to the service manual) should have the Electronically adjustable shock absorbers, the actuators on the top of them are indeed connected to the Ebrake.

 

Interesting indeed. I suppose you could remove the actuactor control switch and reposition it on a cockpit button if you didn't want to risk driving around with it on, i have to wonder why it is where it is ? any ideas.

 

Z ya

 

Nico91TT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the autobox doesn't switching to power stiffen the rear suspension?

 

It is weird to have it in the first place, it makes me wonder if it was easier to just connect the wiring onto the handbrake circuit instead. This would make building the car easier in terms of not having to piss about on the production line everytime a US 300 came along in amongst a heap of Euro. ones. I used to work at Ford in Dagenham, not Ford directly but a supplier so I used to walk around the shop floor quite a bit. Mazda 121's were built in amongst Fiesta's and sometimes they were doing builds for Norwegian or Swedish post offices. So you have a complete jumble of cars being built together but always mixed up on the line.

 

My Supra Turbo might have had the same type of thing, in US Supra's came with T-bar roofs and TEMS...Toyota Electronically Modulated Suspension. This was same thing, a switch on the centre console...strange how UK cars never had this.

 

Tim

;-)

 

 

Do NAs have this feature as well even though they don't have HICAS (mine hasn't anyway)?

 

If my shocks are going should I drive around with the handbrake up a click?

 

Cheerz,

 

Andy

 

Andy,

 

I really don't know if all models have this, only thing you can do is try it out if you're experiencing problems. I noticed the crabbing to one side mostly when I hit a slight bump in the road.

 

Going round inclines fast on say a dual carriageway was scarey stuff if you hit a bump. Whole car would feel like it was about to leave the road...sideways!

 

I haven't had the chance to drive mine since the shocks have been replaced as it's having a shit load of other work done on it...e.g. engine rebuild etc. etc.

 

So I can only hope that the new shocks has sorted this problem out. I think it will have after doing the handbrake test, after all, that's how it was diagnosed as being the shocks in the first place.

 

Later

 

Tim

;-)

 

 

Just looked through the schematics and found it.

This is the strangest thing I've seen in this car.

 

The shock absorber actuators are controlled solely by

the handbrake switch (or low brake fluid level switch).

 

Conclusion is that when the brake warning light is lit

the rear shocks get stiff!

 

DOES ANYBODY SEE SOME LOGIC HERE! Mr. Spock where are you!

This does not compute...

 

@8*}=

Maciej

 

YES! I found a very logical explanation!

 

You pull the handbrake when you park, right?

And when you stay parked and make moves inside the car...

you don't want the car to move up and down...

 

Hm, right. ;-)

Maciej

 

 

spooky mulder or what my handbrake light is turning itself on and off with the hicas at the moment......it take it my brake fluid needs topping

 

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

I know know what to do and what to look out for and I will be able to sleep at night now!

 

TIme to bang out some...

 

....ZZzzzzzz's

 

Guys and Janine.....LOL

 

It does work!

 

Felt like a 'stiffer' ride today whilst I was cruising round today.....either that or I was cornering a bit quicker because the raods are dry!

 

:o)

 

Matty...

 

[http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gogetters/banners/betterjoin.gif]

 

Pah...am givin up with the logo's.....

 

.....(Sulk)......

 

[ http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gogetters/banners/betterjoin.gif ]

 

Lets try that......one last time and if it doesn't work someone mail me and tell me how to do it.....I even laugh at myself now!

 

:o)

 

 

 

Right, Now I think I have got it....

 

 

Well that's what Nico says......I'll blame him or thank him....LOL

 

:o)

 

As John said, does sport mode on an Auto stiffen the shocks?

Can you hear the actuators when they rotate?

 

 

once its activated how do you deactivate it ?

or is it like that for good? lol

 

sorry im so dumbe it must be my wig !!!

 

No one is mentioning whether this is applicable on Jap versions, I have a 1990 Auto TT 2+2, does mine have it ?? please say yes as it seems to be handling like a f'in dog !!!

 

Dan

 

The shock actuators operate only with the ignition on.

So when it's on and brake warning light is on, the shocks get stiff.

When ignition is on the the light is out the shocks return to "soft-mode".

 

As for the J-spec cars, I heard from the Australian forum, that

they don't have this option.

 

Maciej

 

 

the yanks only have adustable suspeny cos if u get two 40 stone wide assed yanks in the back of the Z (with a shoe horn) the the candles will be pointing at the moon and you would see even less lol

 

Out of curiosity, is every one suggesting here that Nissan built in a device on the HANDBRAKE that you you have to PULL 'ONE CLICK', to activate a 'Sport' mode which puts on the brake warning light.

 

And they didn't bother to put it in the manual - pull the other one, was this thread started on April 1st.

 

So just to make sure I'm not wrong here, Nissan engineers used a Cray X/MP Supercomputer (one of the most powerful in the World at the time) to design ground breaking suspension geometry that is altered by clicking your handbrake up one notch.

 

This feature was not supposed to be used.

The front shocks are not adjustable so this is not really a sport mode for the suspension.

 

My personal guess is that this is for protecting the car during transport.

 

I know that this sounds like 1st April joke but it's for real.

Just take a look at the schematics and you'll see it.

 

Maciej

 

It's for real - it's in the workshop manual. I checked mine and on page RA-26 it's under diagnoses. Therefore, it's an easy way of checking whether your adjusty shocks still work. Check the online version elsewhere in this forum.

 

I took a damn good look at my import and although I didn't have time to get down to the tops of the shocks to where the actuators should be, there was no sign of the appropriate wiring, no sign of any additional noises when the handbrake is pulled up (with the ignition on) and no sign whatsoever of the suspension stiffening. So they're either knackered or not there.

My guess is this applies to US and UK (& perhaps Aus) models only.

 

On the subject of suspension settings, does anyone know the difference in the spring rates between the UK and US models ? Typically US cars handle like articulated, wallowing boats - maybe their sport setting just brings it up to the same as the UK 'standard'.

 

I'm glad I have this little switch...so I don't have to take part in this discussion ;-P

 

The handbrake trick is for diagnostics. Its to check that the damn things are working - you bounce the rear when parked to check it.

 

The car does all kinds of things you dont know about - It is incredibly complex for such an old design.

 

It does seem to stiffen up when you floor it. Might be my imagination too - everything gets blurred!!

 

The shocks get stiff when the actuator input gets grounded by the handbrake switch.

This control input is NOT connected anywhere else, according to the schematics.

Even if it was, the brake warning light would light when this input was grounded, since they're connected together.

 

I'm afraid this doesn't serve any real purpose in everyday driving.

 

Maciej