Dec 10, 2021

BNR32 vs BCNR33 Transfercase Differences : R32 vs R33 ATTESA

By Sean Morris December 10, 2021 ATTESA, bcnr33, bnr32, Featured, transfer case, transfercase

R32/R33 transfer case

I have been around these cars a long time now. More than 20 years. Driven and worked on hundreds of them. From nearly new R32, to new R33 and R34. In the automotive world there are a lot of "myth's" that come about. Some is wrong information just repeated over and over. I have seen it from the manufacture down to the individual consumer level.

The R32, R33, and R34 ATTESA system are different from each other in the control. There are even some differences in the Vspec versions of the ATTESA control. Especially in the R33 and R34 Vspec as they have an electronically controlled rear differential.

So a lot of people talk about a "pre-load" or other difference in the R33/R34 transfercase. I think this is a myth because of the way the ATTESA system works in the R32 vs the R33/R34. In an R32 you can get away with pulling the ATTESA fuse to make the car rear wheel drive. In an R33/R34 if you do the same thing, there is backup power that sends pressure to the ATTESA actuator to lock the center/ transfer case up partially. Ed documented some of the things he saw on SAU here.

So I have been looking at the parts according to FAST, to see if I could see any actual mechanical differences. So far I haven't found any, but I am still looking.

R32 transfer case exploded view.

The following are some part numbers and the crossover, or what other vehicles they are used in. You can see they cross over R32 to R33 and R32/R33R34 in some of them. As a base chassis number to search for parts I am using a Nismo R32 GT-R. Which is a 1990 aka Early car.