Cruise Control

[mjb]

How does it work?

I've tried it a few times with success (after re-positioning the pedal switches) but I gave it a try tonight at 50mph and decided to test the switch sensitivity so I dipped the clutch slightly and immediately felt it decelerate. Cool. Lift the lever again and nothing! Turned the switch off and on, raised the lever again and still nothing.

Did some shopping at Asda (I'm going to a LAN party this weekend, so 30 cans of Stella, 2 tubes of Pringles and 6 Pot Noodles ), got back on the A500, tried CC again and nothing!

Is there a distance threshold you need to cover before CC will re-activate? Do you need to turn the switch off and on again? I've never actually managed to successfully re-activate it, yet when I've tried to use it since re-positioning the switches, it's always worked first time every time. Just not second time...

[STALLED]

Cruise Control is great when it works. On my old Commodore I could never work it out - I would press all the buttons to make it work etc....but it would never come on!

Mums car it works fine - and does a mighty good job of it (Calais - 4 door V6 Monaro to you geezers) and when you hold down the "accel" switch on the stalk you can get it to gain a fair bit of speed pretty quickly!

Never driven a car with cruise in Manual - 406 doesnt have it and I reckon it would be a tad too gutless to warrant having it!

[djp30djp]

The cruise on my Exec's are a godsend, I have a problem with my right knee & after a couple of hours with it in one position, like motorway driving, it stiffens up & gets very painfull. With cruise I can move my knee & stop it happening.
Two of them have stopped working in the past & both times it was the clutch pedal switch popped out of the plastic collar. A drop of super glue cured them. Oh & acceleration using the cruise switch is not much different to putting your foot down.

[steve_earwig]

Is there a distance threshold you need to cover before CC will re-activate? Do you need to turn the switch off and on again? I've never actually managed to successfully re-activate it, yet when I've tried to use it since re-positioning the switches, it's always worked first time every time. Just not second time...

Like everything else, it probably resets itself when the ignition's turned off, so you have to turn it back on again but if it's on it's on. They usually only work over a certain speed, distance doesn't come into it. I think your pedal switches are still buggering about

I've never driven a manual car with cruise either. I always wonder why they don't use the signal from the engine ecu on manuals, instead of the speed sensor, seeing as how the engine revs relate directly to road speed. This would get round being in the wrong gear, I presume they work this out when the revs get too high...

Cruise is nice but I sometimes found it a pain on GB roads; when it goes immediatly off yet again because someone else did something stuipd yet again, when the lorry I was overtaking on a dual carriageway decided to match my 75 mph and a queue formed behind me because I was too stubborn to fiddle with the cruise again, and the amount of cars I overtook 15 or 20 times, even though my speed never changed.

I've used it in the US a few times though, there it makes sense. The year before I came out here I went to the US with a mate, hired an suv and drove down from Virgina to New Orleans and back. You hardly even need to think, shove the cruise on, relax and listen to the stereo.

[DaiRees]

Cruise only works above 25mph, no distance limitations. If you touch brake or clutch (or press resume) it'll cancel, but press resume and it'll return to it's last set speed, or press set to reactivate it to a new speed. The only problem I ever get is if I change gear aggressively sometimes the car doesn't realise it's allowed to put the cruise on (it only works in 4th and 5th). Thinking about it this could be the clutch switch too, I dip the clutch and put the car into neutral then back to 5th and release the clutch and it works then, I always assumed it was some kind of gearbox switch telling the cruise when it's in 4th or top that wasn't giving the signal, but the clutch switch makes more sense now. Next time it happens I'll dip and release the clutch without touching the gears

Matt, how about lifting the clutch pedal with your foot next time it doesn't work to see if that does it?

[mjb]

press resume and it'll return to it's last set speed, or press set to reactivate it to a new speed.

Wha? As far as I know, I only have an 'up', 'down' and 'cancel' on the stalk, and on/off by my knee

Matt, how about lifting the clutch pedal with your foot next time it doesn't work to see if that does it?

Already tried that...

Ah well looks like I'm faffing with those switches again. Not in this weather though.

[DaiRees]

Ah see, that's the inferior D8 for you!

The "+" button is sometimes called "Set / +", on mine the "-" also sets the speed, you can use either.

Pause / Resume is done by pressing inwards on the end button of the controller on the D9 (the word stalk just doesn't do it for cruise control command centre of the superior model ). Can you press the stalk in, or pull it towards you or something? There has to be a way to do it man, absolutely must be I tell you!!!!!

[mjb]

Well it's not the pedal switches. Couldn't get it to work on the way down south Friday, but got on the A14 to come back this afternoon and it worked perfectly. Until I pulled it towards me to cancel it, then it wouldn't come back on

[DaiRees]

My mate had an intemittant problem with the cruise on his honda accord. One day he arrived to pick me up and I noticed that when he braked his sidelights were coming on Very odd!. I checked the rear lights for him and we discovered that some monkey had forced a single filament bulb into the stop / tail socket, with the result that the brake lights were making a connection to the sidelights.... and vice versa . So every time it was dark or even a bit overcast, he would put his sidelights on (which would also cause the brakelights to be on dimly), then spend the whole journey cursing that cruise wouldn't work, but he'd never made the connection between the 2 things . Anyway, we got the right dual filament bulb and problem solved .

An interesting story but prolly no help to you at all Matt, sorry!

[djp30djp]

Well it's not the pedal switches. Couldn't get it to work on the way down south Friday, but got on the A14 to come back this afternoon and it worked perfectly. Until I pulled it towards me to cancel it, then it wouldn't come back on

Sounds like maybe the switch? Try not useing the switch to cancel it, use the brakes instead & see if it works then.

[jameslxdt]

on a D8 cruise only works above 25mph in 4th or 5th gear, to set you reach the desired speed, turn the main switch on, by the headlamp adjustment, then on the control stalk push it up, then it will engage, if you pull the stalk towards, brake or dip the clutch it will cancel, to resume to the last memorised speed press up on the stalk, you have a pair of dodgy brake light bulbs then it will work intermittently, also check the brake light switch adjustment, does the speedo work?

[mjb]

As I said, it will engage fine the first time I use it (somewhere over 24 hours since the last time I try). It's not smooth how it pulls the accelerator down, feels like it does it in grainy steps - a bit like the feeling of a slightly corroded clutch cable I guess. While it's active, it works perfectly.

Disable it (pulling the stalk in, hitting the brake/clutch, or turning off the knee switch) and it won't come back on again for at least 24 hours.

While it's in this state, I can hear a relay switching under the glovebox when I'd expect to be enabling/disabling the cc via the stalk - pull up - click - pull in - click... Just no movement on the pedal.

I'm thinking something's broken. My guess is the ecu/relay (are they seperate or the same unit?) because 1) the clicks sometimes sound a bit dodgy 2) the stalk makes it click when it should be clicking and 3) when it works, it works fine so I'm doubting it's the pump...

you have a pair of dodgy brake light bulbs then it will work intermittently, also check the brake light switch adjustment, does the speedo work?

Brake lights work ok (now I've re-positioned the pedal switches... hmph) and the speedo's fine

[jameslxdt]

either pump, or servo, most likely the diaphragm in the servo has collapsed and the pump cannot sustain pressure for more the one setting and conks out
test the servo with a mitivac and see if it holds pressure, then put a direct feed on the pump and see if it shorts out or runs, gets very hot and promptly stops

[mjb]

either pump, or servo, most likely the diaphragm in the servo has collapsed and the pump cannot sustain pressure for more the one setting and conks out
test the servo with a mitivac and see if it holds pressure, then put a direct feed on the pump and see if it shorts out or runs, gets very hot and promptly stops

What's a mitivac? By 'servo' do you mean the pneumatic cylinder that acts on the throttle? Would an airbed pump in reverse work?

Powering the pump sounds like something I'm more at home with. Hows it run normally - voltage or PWM? The only trouble is I haven't worked out what/where the thing is yet ;)

[jameslxdt]

a mitivac is a hand operated vacuum pump with a gauge for checking for vacuum leaks, and checking if things hold pressure, as for the pump it runs 12v from a relay triggerd by the CC ecu behind the glove box, the relay is fed from the engine running relay