42210 Nissan Skyline Front Axle Rolling Resistance Problem

[thekoRngear]

Hi,

To my horror, when the entire chassis/mostly built car is driven there is a significant rolling resistance from the front axle. When the chassis is driven backwards it's completely fine! This is annoying because when the body is put and the Engine is installed the resistance becomes more visible. The Engine refuses to cycle the pistons move smoothly. I have to push the car hard to drive it forward. I have seen YouTube reviews and videos and none seem to have such bizarre rolling resistance.

Please note that, I have tested it when the car was in completely stock build. No full time AWD or other mods. I detached the front axle part from the chassis and removed the engine and crankshaft setup and it still happened. I tried completely removing the differential and double bevel gear, and it still happened! I rotated the front axle without the wheels on the hubs and the differential moved just fine either way. Problem becomes noticeable when the wheels are connected to the wheel hubs. 

Below are the pictures and a video

 

I noticed when the front axle is moved forward the wheels are spread

As said above, when driven backward the wheels are in normal orientation and no resistance

Just in case, here are the pics of the front part of chassis/axle. From the top and bottom:

Also, from side:

Kindly help me out!

Edited September 14, 2025 by thekoRngear

[MangaNOID]

.

Edited September 16, 2025 by MangaNOID

[thekoRngear]

Sadly I don't have such dimension tyre's spares. But I did use the tyres and wheels [of the set] randomly. Those are used in the rear axle and the rear axle runs just fine. I am at my wit's end.

Also, please don't keep doubting whether my set has faulty parts are not. It is a new set with no faulty parts. Period. Technic sets have problems that cannot be observed immediately. Sets come, reviewers review them. Only thru extensive play they become visible. For example, the 42126 Ford Raptor's rear axle is a joke. If it is moved frequently the wheels can fall off. The 42156's [the same designer behind Nissan Skyline] front axle diff has very weak left shaft connected by a 2L cross axle connector. Nobody talks about that.

Edited September 20, 2025 by thekoRngear

[Zerobricks]

I think the issue lies in the steering rack design which is a bit like a letter C. Because the steering rack uses beams and connectors to attact to the steering arms, it's very prone to being bent/stretched out. Once that happens you get a lot of toe out and friction.

[thekoRngear]

5 hours ago, Zerobricks said:

I think the issue lies in the steering rack design which is a bit like a letter C. Because the steering rack uses beams and connectors to attact to the steering arms, it's very prone to being bent/stretched out. Once that happens you get a lot of toe out and friction.

You mean this, right?

I have removed the wheels and with a little pressure, as you can see, it is possible to spread out. Sadly, I think the red perpendicular connector is not a strong guard as the black parts underneath are only directly connected by one point to the steering gear rack. I swear, when I was building the car I just followed the instructions, just like any casual builders; no in-the-process overthinking or modding   The set is new, the parts are in all good condition. Maybe, it is a problem/limitation which was planted. Many may get away with this. Some may fall for this. I unfortunately happen to be in the latter group

Also, take a look at that all hole 2L beam. They can be disoriented too!

 

Also, the red beam holding the Engine pistons has a very loose attachment to the chassis. The front axle parts had too many challenges for Lego designers I think.

Edited September 14, 2025 by thekoRngear

[Zerobricks]

1 hour ago, thekoRngear said:

You mean this, right?

Exactly, the rack assembly is just not stiff enough. What you could try is extending the steering arms by a stud or two and therefore creating a stronger, simpler steering rack.

[Timewhatistime]

I propose to turn the red perpendicular connectors. Fix them to the steering rack by a red 2L axle each and by a black 2L pin to the quarter-ellipses each.

Moreover, a grey/blue half-pin in the quarter-ellipse's pinhole on each side beneath the steering rack should fit into the steering rack and provide additional stability.

This little mod should minimize the slack in comparison to the "official" setup.

 

And another idea: Control the lengths of the new black 4L balljoint-links by just mounting them directly onto a liftarm. Maybe they are a little bit too long...

Regarding their quality control, we should't rule out any flaw in 2025's LEGO...

Edited September 15, 2025 by Timewhatistime

[Timewhatistime]

16 hours ago, thekoRngear said:

Also, take a look at that all hole 2L beam. They can be disoriented too!

This is a normal and unavoidable effect and no reason to worry. If necessary, the stability in this example is achieved by additional parts which hold the blue liftarm in place.

[thekoRngear]

@Timewhatistime thanks! I'll update soon

[Milan]

Some posts have been hidden.
Let's keep the discussion constructive.

[Stereo]

Is there enough clearance above to replace the red connectors with a 7l beam or second gear rack?  I don't know which of this space the engine occupies, but linking those side to side would reduce flex a lot.  Another gear rack with 2l axles connecting them would probably be the stiffer option overall but for testing you could use a plain one (even a half thickness...)

Edited September 15, 2025 by Stereo

[thekoRngear]

Guys, first of all thanks to all of you 🙏🏻 I have taken all of your advices and the result is that resistance is now hugely reduced; to the point where I would not panic and create a thread at EB.

@Timewhatistime

You meant this, right?

Sadly, the 1/2 grey/blue pins cannot fit thru the pinhole of the ellipse part. As you can see the cross axle hole takes up space for that [ironic]

Quote

And another idea: Control the lengths of the new black 4L balljoint-links by just mounting them directly onto a liftarm. Maybe they are a little bit too long...

I think so but, you had me lost there. I am not expert at customizing the steering arm lengths. A bit more elaboration could be useful!

Then, I got another idea.  I used couple of spare [Cada] T beams and they seem to be very very stiff with this setup. By far, it's my favourite one as it seems efficient and looks good. I can use the red 1/2 pins and the black pinhole connectors provide additional stiffness. However, I could not use it as I cannot seem to understand how to make up for the length adjustment as the tow ball steering arms are 4 studs long 😥

 

@Stereo you mean this, right?

Interestingly by the time you posted this I already worked with 7L flip flop beams. Luckily I got bunch of them and it seems no brainer. I used 3 of them and now am using it as final solution.

As you can see, this reduced the friction significantly. For experimentation purpose, I have modified the Engine setup and also removed front diffs and the double bevel

Now, if I slightly push either of the wheels with my finger, as you can see, either one or both can still spread yet, the resistance is nowhere near as bad as it was with the official steering rack solution. See, one is straight while other is spread.

Both are spread.

Sorry for picture bombing. That's all for today.

At this point, I think as veterans/experts here already pointed out it is the 4L ball joint steering links that just cannot seem to keep themselves straight. I take a look at the parts and to me they don't not seem defective or deformed or any such [maybe I still can be wrong given TLG's Quality Assurance has fallen]. As the steering rack solution is now stiffened up, they behave better but, they are not supposed to spread at all [okay, maybe a little bit]. Any more suggestions and insights can be helpful.

Edited September 15, 2025 by thekoRngear

[Timewhatistime]

@thekoRngear

Yes, that was exactly what I meant.

I'm sorry that my advice with the half-pins doesn't work... I overlooked the axle holes.

One final idea for ultimate rigidity: Use the flip-flop beam with two 3x3 T-shaped liftarms (connected by two black 2L pins each) - not in the manner you used the Ts in the image! You have rotate the Ts by 90 degrees. So the outmost pinhole of the T will sit where once the ellipse's pinhole was - and so you may use the original 4L ball joint steering links. (I imagined a similar solution before, but didn't think of the mighty flip-flop beams. Once again, they are a gamechanger!)

Sorry, my fault: By "control the length" I meant "check the length" (not: "adjust the length"). As you already might have concluded, I am not a native speaker of the English language.

Edited September 15, 2025 by Timewhatistime

[thekoRngear]

19 minutes ago, Timewhatistime said:

@thekoRngear

Yes, that was exactly what I meant.

I'm sorry that my advice with the half-pins doesn't work... I overlooked the axle holes.

One final idea for ultimate rigidity: Use the flip-flop beam with two 3x3 T-shaped liftarms (connected by two black 2L pins each) - not in the manner you used the Ts in the image! You have rotate the Ts by 90 degrees. So the outmost pinhole of the T will sit where once the ellipse's pinhole was - and so you may use the original 4L ball joint steering links. (I imagined a similar solution before, but didn't think of the mighty flip-flop beams. Once again, they are a gamechanger!)

Sorry, my fault: By "control the length" I meant "check the length" (not: "adjust the length"). As you already might have concluded, I am not a native speaker of the English language.

Gotcha! On it!

[Stereo]

1 hour ago, thekoRngear said:

@Stereo you mean this, right?

Interestingly by the time you posted this I already worked with 7L flip flop beams. Luckily I got bunch of them and it seems no brainer. I used 3 of them and now am using it as final solution

Yeah, exactly that.  Should be pretty stiff, 3 with the rack on top is even better if it fits, I thought the differential was in the way.

[Timewhatistime]

3 hours ago, Stereo said:

Yeah, exactly that.  Should be pretty stiff, 3 with the rack on top is even better if it fits, I thought the differential was in the way.

Yes, the differential will interfere with the second flip-flop beam, so the setup shown in the image will be the right one as soon as the differentials are put back into the car.

The space needed for the differential is the initial reason for the weird construction with the quarter-ellipses mounted to the steering rack.

Edited September 16, 2025 by Timewhatistime

[gyenesvi]

It's interesting to see this, even in retrospect, since a nice solution has been worked out. When the 4L link came out, I was wondering how they would solve this problem of going around the differential, which is always an issue due to lack of parts in the right sizes; this is exactly where having proper part selection that work well with each other matters. A 9L steering rack could have provided a fairly straightforward solution (not just here but in some other sets as well), but they continue to hack around with those 2 existing rack lengths, often building convoluted steering assemblies, and here is the result.. And the stiffest solution would need a 9L rack and the 4L links with perpendicular holes..

[thekoRngear]

Indeed.

So guys, here it is. The final steering rack solution which is actually a brilliant crossover by @Timewhatistime. I wanted to use 3x3 T beams because they are a life saver when it comes to steering rack. On the other hand, @Stereo came up with using 7L beam connecting the both end of the gear rack. Now we got both!

It works so well

Looks good too

Look out Lego. You may have a team with a lead designer but, here, at EB these guys just selflessly poured in their highly efficient ideas that work so well.

Now, another elephant in the room is the Engine. I won't ask for continuous help. The Engine, as I have built it officially in the beginning, is very wobbly. In fact, is the 2nd worst Engine after the 42128 HD Tow Truck. Is not liked by people over Technic Group in Facebook. Situation worsens as soon as the less liked pistons are put on those camshafts. Now, take a look in the official designs

Since we have modified the steering rack we cannot use these connectors in that fashion. Moreover, I have seen the blue gear does not need one more stud support as they did with a 5L axle with stop. The foundation to mount the Engine from the front side [top to bottom] is very cartoonish. They stick out a 3l brown stop axle, put on a red perpendicular connector. Then a blue 2x1 thick liftarm sits on it. Provides poor support for the mounting.

The 5l stop axle would tend to stick out from the bottom🤦‍♂️

Keeping in mind all these, I have come out with this solution. I used #44809 red part. Even after this, as you can see, the red beam tends to stick out a bit, but it stays that much as more and more time the car is moved. I also want to inform that the red beam's end point [connected by the 3L black bush pin] would also tend to stick out due to poor choice of using tan 4l axle they have used on the dashboard mounting. I have removed them with 3l hybrid pins and it does not stick out at all. Personally I think poor alignment of front and rear blue biscuit parts are to mainly blame for these issues. Cannot put blame on the 11L beam all alone.

Also, note that I still did not install front diff yet. I want to finalize this design. So, any suggestions and insights are much appreciated.

Edited September 16, 2025 by thekoRngear

[Timewhatistime]

I see a lot of possibilities to strengthen the fake engine...

Dashboard end: Maybe a connection on each side to the grey connectors attached to the blue biscuit part...

Axle end: Maybe some more connection to the yellow No. 6 connectors or to the black 13L beams...

Depends on the available space which is restricted in the next building steps...

 

The official way the engine is mounted is truly not the way I'd prefer personally. However, maybe the wobbly mounting is kind of intended for the Nissan. One could speak of realistic motion of the engine when it unfolds its high performance in this sports car... just a thought...

I don't like it, too. (And we all know, the real reason is half-baked engineering and saving costs...)

Thank you very much for the praise. You're welcome. I like this kind of tasks.

[thekoRngear]

2 hours ago, Timewhatistime said:

The official way the engine is mounted is truly not the way I'd prefer personally. However, maybe the wobbly mounting is kind of intended for the Nissan. One could speak of realistic motion of the engine when it unfolds its high performance in this sports car... just a thought...

Thanks 🙏🏻 I'll try them.

Interesting...

[Zerobricks]

I still recommend extending the steering arms, so that slack in the links has a lower effect on the tow out.

[gyenesvi]

1 hour ago, Zerobricks said:

I still recommend extending the steering arms, so that slack in the links has a lower effect on the tow out.

Actually, that sounds like a really good solution, because then the links would be 1 stud higher and forward, and they could be directly connected into the 7L flip-flip beam, or even the steering rack itself if it was moved 1 stud back, in case the engine mounting is revised (hopefully there would be enough space above the links, because the suspension does not move too much up I guess).

[thekoRngear]

Okay, I will do it too and let you guys know but, can you please explain/walk me thru as to how to extend the steering arms? Is it changing position or so? I'm kinda lost in there!

Also, guys I have two of those Audi Q e-tron parts (72008 Technic Connector 2 x 2 with 1 x 1 Cut-Out with Axle Holes) in black. Just in case...

Edited September 16, 2025 by thekoRngear

[gyenesvi]

I think this should work, takes roughly the same amount of space in the middle as your current version, but it has a straight rack between the links. Note the 7L liftarm under the rack, to allow it to sit and slide on the beam underneath. The extension gets a bit close to the tires, but as I checked it does not seem to rub them.

Edited September 16, 2025 by gyenesvi

[thekoRngear]

That's mahoosive! 🙏🏻

I'll do that and let ya know guys!