You should be able to find that out on Stealth 316.

 

and what is the foundation of this suspicion???

 

about the only way to test the aws is to put the car up on jackstands on all four corners, and carefully accelerate to ~40mph. have someone stand outside and watch the rear wheels as you turn the steering wheel.

 

yikes that sounds dangerous! haha. anyways...aws doesnt really do much so who cares if its working. if its not working it would probably be flashing the aws sign on the dash. thats what happens when everything else on my car breaks at least

 

yikes that sounds dangerous! haha. anyways...aws doesnt really do much so who cares if its working. if its not working it would probably be flashing the aws sign on the dash. thats what happens when everything else on my car breaks at least

Running a car on jackstands is not dangerous, as long as it is properly supported. I've done it many times to diagnose problems. I remember getting my old Firebird to spin a single wheel (open diff) to 300 miles an hour on a lift once.

However, I do not believe that will work for diagnosing whether or not the system works. The change is VERY slight, on the order of 1.5 degrees,so I'm not sure you can perceive that from the regular wheel-shaking-because-car-is-shaking-because-engine-is-running movements.

Your best bet is to delete it, because it does'nt actually do anything on our cars anyway. Merely makes drivers THINK it is doing something. (and don't tell me you can feel it when you are changing lanes, b/c you can't). Yes, I am being somewhat sarcastic, you don't actually ahve to delete it. But if the light blinks on and off, then it works fine becuase they all do that on startup. Its purely mechanical so there isn't any system you have to test or anything . If there is oil in it, chances are, it works.

-- Henry

 

In a 120mph emergency lane change I can say that I deffinatly could feel it. I think it was part of the reason I didnt end up in the ditch, and for that reason Im leaving mine alone.

 

take a fairly sharp turn at 60mph......you should be able to tell then

 

I've taken any sharp turns at 60 and I can't feel any difference in my '96 than with my '94. There are so many other variables that would effect that more:

Relative tire pressure
Tire condition
camber
Toe
weight
Suspension condition
...

I have thrown my car around pretty hard, and at 150 when cracking the wheel the rear did not come loose as I would have expected, and thtas in a car without AWS. I suspect that the only thing all wheel steering does is make the car understeer a bit more and even that is marginal.

However this topic has been discussed at great lenght and I have nothing new to add, and maybe I'm wrong? I think that a 3500 lb 3s w/o aws will handle better than a 3800 lb one with aws. (please don't think I'm implying that AWS weighs 300 pounds, as it only was 36. I just believe that if you remove all the superflous stuff you get to 3500 pretty easily). But unfortunatelyI didn't have my car working for this track season, so I'll have more solid results to back my claims next season.

-- Henry

 

Dang i can feel my easliy. its like going warp speed...sometimes i cant stand it...but when im driving like a mad man weeeeeeeeeeeee....90 degree corners at 60+ RPM always makes my passnegers shit thier pants

 

I don't have a light on for mine in my vehicle and I know for a fact that its not functioning. The only reason the light comes on is for low fluid indication to my knowledge. There are testing procedures you can do for the system but they require some special tools sadly

 

Dang i can feel my easliy. its like going warp speed...sometimes i cant stand it...but when im driving like a mad man weeeeeeeeeeeee....90 degree corners at 60+ RPM always makes my passnegers shit thier pants

yeah i think i would shit my pants if my car started running @ 60 rpm . . .(we know u mean mph)

But how does AWS make u feel like warp speed? whats it have to do with acceleration and what would possibly be bad about it?

(PS- 92'ish model honda preludes came with optional all wheel steering, and also nissan skyline R33 and i THINK R34's had em, but it was called "Super HICAS" and was only for hi-speed junk)

 

Yeah but the Prelude's steering was not in-phase like ours.. was it? My AWS seems to work when it wants to - how can i control it? it feels like when i cut the wheel harder than usual the rear wheels turn in but then they go straight real fast and it feels like the back of the car is being slingshotted out of the turn... ?? normal??

 

yeah i think i would shit my pants if my car started running @ 60 rpm . . .(we know u mean mph)

But how does AWS make u feel like warp speed? whats it have to do with acceleration and what would possibly be bad about it?

(PS- 92'ish model honda preludes came with optional all wheel steering, and also nissan skyline R33 and i THINK R34's had em, but it was called "Super HICAS" and was only for hi-speed junk)

He was kidding a/b the warp speed.

AS to the Skyline, that is a MUCH more agressive system then ours, and it works very well.

My AWS seems to work when it wants to - how can i control it? it feels like when i cut the wheel harder than usual the rear wheels turn in but then they go straight real fast and it feels like the back of the car is being slingshotted out of the turn... ?? normal??

It is VERY unlikely that it is intermitten. Its also not something you are going to be able to feel by cutting the wheel. Even the motor trend test drivers who got a chance ot take these things on the race track said it was completley invisible. (which is why I suspect, much like they did, that it does not do anything).
If you feel like the car is being sligshotted around the corner, thats b/c of the body roll + relatively soft factory suspension and nothing more.

-- Henry

 

i don't know about your cars but take my car on a 60mph road with curves and you will feel the understeer
maybe some peoples dont work but mine definitely does

 

i don't know about your cars but take my car on a 60mph road with curves and you will feel the understeer
maybe some peoples dont work but mine definitely does

There are *SO* many factors that will cause that. Just changing your camer front to rear will cause hte car to understeer or oversteer more. You can not pinpoint that as proof that your aws works. I am sure it works b/c it always works b/c it is a very simple system and doesn't often brake. But if you go with much more negative camber in the rear, I'm willing to bet you can get yourself some oversteer.

How a/b slightly uneven tire wear? Your rears can be less worn than your fronts (which would make sense if you are driving hard). In which case you'll understeer by virtue of grip.

If Motor Trend could not detect the AWS on a race track, in which they were running much harder than any road course I've been to, I'm willing to bet all of us normal drivers are not going to notice the difference.

Hell even tire pressure could factor into the understeer.

Not to mention the suspension is designed to understeer from the factory anyway.

-- Henry

 

i understand what could cause it and i guess you don't have to believe me but the back wheels turn and you can feel it
the cars centerline is not as close to the path as it is with a non 4ws car
i don't know what car motor trend had on the track but i know if they felt what i did they would notice the system

 

i understand what could cause it and i guess you don't have to believe me but the back wheels turn and you can feel it
the cars centerline is not as close to the path as it is with a non 4ws car
i don't know what car motor trend had on the track but i know if they felt what i did they would notice the system

1.5 degrees is certainly not enough that you would actually feel the wheels turning. What are you using as the basis for what the car's centerline should be? These cars are hard to predict normally b/c of their front heavyness as well as under-equipped factory suspension, and so on?

Unfortunately neither of us have any facts to back anytihng up so this argument is now dead. However, I insist that if you drove my car you would not notice anything different. I wonder how much seat time you've had around a track in a Z15A. And you probably wondre the same a/b me (with a ZwhateverA) At some point, we should meet up and drive each other's cars or something.

-- Henry

 

is it just 1.5?
how many degrees do the preludes and skylines (and a few pickups have it too) turn?
no track time though i have driven both on a highway (test drives)
i do agree that there really is no way to know who is "right"
i'd rather hop in a skyline and really feel some serious AWS on a highway (actually i'd just like to hop in a skyline)

 

Warp speed as in it feels kind of floaty and feels like your being yanked. everyone describes it diffrently but we all agree the damn thing works when it wants.

 

Does it whine at all when you turn the wheel? I'd check to see if the rear rack is leaking..a fairly common prob with our cars. As someone said, you can lift it up on 4 stands and have someone accelerate past 31 MPH, and although very slight, you should still see them move a tiny bit, when the wheel is turned ALL the way to each side. Good luck, if the rack's leaking! Not a cheap proposition by any means.

 

floaty is a good word for it
even with aftermarket suspension on a flat road its floaty
kinda scary at the limit imho

 

I have a 96SL and a 91VR4 both with the same size 18"tires and I can tell that my" heavier "VR4 can take turns better than my 96SL.
Shawn

 

well that depends on the type of turn to me
sharp turns are harder for me with aws vs lane changes and s turns at high speeds

 

I have a 96SL and a 91VR4 both with the same size 18"tires and I can tell that my" heavier "VR4 can take turns better than my 96SL.
Shawn

That is simply not true. The VR4 weighs 3800 pounds to the SL's 3300. Off throttle the NA will handle better. The Vr4 has a slightly stiffer suspension, although it is not stiff enough to make up for the weight difference.

My NA defintaely did better off throttle than either of my turbos did stock. Now with my TT weighing under 3500, its better.

-- Henry

 

One question : How do the rear wheels actually turn?

I mean, is the system somehow connected to the steering wheel, or do they just "go along" with what the car is doing when they are unlocked?



-uli