Cruise control broken on every vehicle I drive?

[The motor guy]

Is it a common thing to break? Occassionally I'll drive other peoples vehicles as the designated driver and the **** cruise control never works or they refuse to allow me to use it. What's the deal? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to use it, so I assume it's broken most of the time.

 

[supton]

Might have to give more details here... they tend to be pretty reliable in my experience, even in the bad old days, they didn't have many moving parts--and today, none.

Any chance you drive with both feet? One for gas, one for brake? Any time the brake light switch is activated, cruise disengages.

On most (all?) cars cruise has a separate switch to allow it to be used. An on/off switch that has to be put to "on" before the "set" button will do so something. [My old VW had a slide switch for it, and the only times it was off was after the few times I took it to the dealer for anything. But every other car I've had, darn thing has to be turned on each time. Hard life I know.]

Few years ago I tried using cruise in a Prius in a 40mph zone, and the foolish thing had the nerve to warn me about paying attention! nearly did an LCD delete right then and there--but it did engage.

There might be a min speed for cruise to work, like you have to be doing more than 30mph.

 

[The motor guy]

Might have to give more details here... they tend to be pretty reliable in my experience, even in the bad old days, they didn't have many moving parts--and today, none.

Any chance you drive with both feet? One for gas, one for brake? Any time the brake light switch is activated, cruise disengages.

On most (all?) cars cruise has a separate switch to allow it to be used. An on/off switch that has to be put to "on" before the "set" button will do so something. [My old VW had a slide switch for it, and the only times it was off was after the few times I took it to the dealer for anything. But every other car I've had, darn thing has to be turned on each time. Hard life I know.]

Few years ago I tried using cruise in a Prius in a 40mph zone, and the foolish thing had the nerve to warn me about paying attention! nearly did an LCD delete right then and there--but it did engage.

There might be a min speed for cruise to work, like you have to be doing more than 30mph.

It's possible I forgot to turn it on, but they usually admit after a while it's broken lol

 

[supton]

It's possible I forgot to turn it on, but they usually admit after a while it's broken lol

Ah. Possible that's a switch failure (from being ham-fisted) or a blown fuse? Sometimes automakers put the oddest things onto the same circuit, like anything with the cig lighter--drop a coin into that, and then something else quits.

Maybe brake light switch failure?

 

[The motor guy]

Might have to give more details here... they tend to be pretty reliable in my experience, even in the bad old days, they didn't have many moving parts--and today, none.

Any chance you drive with both feet? One for gas, one for brake? Any time the brake light switch is activated, cruise disengages.

On most (all?) cars cruise has a separate switch to allow it to be used. An on/off switch that has to be put to "on" before the "set" button will do so something. [My old VW had a slide switch for it, and the only times it was off was after the few times I took it to the dealer for anything. But every other car I've had, darn thing has to be turned on each time. Hard life I know.]

Few years ago I tried using cruise in a Prius in a 40mph zone, and the foolish thing had the nerve to warn me about paying attention! nearly did an LCD delete right then and there--but it did engage.

There might be a min speed for cruise to work, like you have to be doing more than 30mph.

They don't want cruise control on when the torque converter isn't locked I bet.

 

[The motor guy]

Ah. Possible that's a switch failure (from being ham-fisted) or a blown fuse? Sometimes automakers put the oddest things onto the same circuit, like anything with the cig lighter--drop a coin into that, and then something else quits.

Maybe brake light switch failure?

Messed up from a bad temper you mean? Lol

 

[John105]

That’s interesting to have all 3 cruise controls not working. Dare I say it? Could it be user error , perhaps? For example, my cars are older so none have radar cruise. If 3 cars had it and I couldn’t get it to work, I would see if I am attempting to use it correctly (seriously).

When I was new working in a call center, I opened a ticket with the headset mfg to tell him we have multiple reports of users being unable to hear with these brand new headsets. He told me no offense, but you seem to have an older workforce and it’s possible it’s not the headsets, they just don’t hear well….

But no, others things have broken on my cars, not the cruise control…

 

[PWMDMD]

I've never had one fail in the past 25 years.

 

[Nukeman7]

I have never had one fail in over 30 vehicles owned by our immediate family during the past 40 years.

You know what they say about coincidence and a common denominator!

 

[fsdork]

...

On most (all?) cars cruise has a separate switch to allow it to be used. An on/off switch that has to be put to "on" before the "set" button will do so something. ...

This is my guess as well. Both of our vehicles require the cruise control system to be enabled before "set" will be permitted. Cycling the ignition automatically disables it.

 

[SC Maintenance]

All my vehicles have working cruise control. All vehicles I have ever owned the cruise control always worked. I have driven most over 200K, and the Xterra in my signature is almost at 400K, cruise still works.

Strange?

Do other things not work - like the horn? I know clock springs are a bit failure prone?

 

[dumkid]

My cruise control switch broke so it's always on and I can't turn it off (but it's not always set so it doesn't matter)

Other than that I've never had broken cruise control except for once when I forgot to plug the vacuum line for cruise control back in

 

[marc1]

Is it a common thing to break?

Not in my experience. On my very old cars that have had cruise control, they sometimes "hunted" around the set point and that was the worst thing that happened. Everything I have owned that is "modern" (my 1985 GMC) with cruise control has worked perfectly until the vehicle was sold. For me, cruise control is as critical as AC for long driving enjoyment.

 

[Jetronic]

Is it a common thing to break? Occassionally I'll drive other peoples vehicles as the designated driver and the **** cruise control never works or they refuse to allow me to use it. What's the deal? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to use it, so I assume it's broken most of the time.

How old are these vehicles? Pretty much anything that can disable the cruise will have the Engine malfunction light come on

 

[LongTime_Lurker]

I've noticed that the switch seems to go bad on a certain manufacturer's steering column stalk (mostly older models).

 

[wander2039]

4 of our 5 vehicles have a tire balance issue but the cruise works good on all of them. I'll trade you! If you swap tail light to LED's in most vehicles the cruise won't work, I found out the hard way.

 

[levi]

Through the years I've been surprised at how many people dislike/hate cruise control. I love it. My wife hates it - won't use it - ever. Says she wants to be in control of the car, not the cruise control.

Don't know why you've had so many units that weren't working, though. Makes me suspect some are intentional. Dunno. But all they have to do is not turn them on.

 

[supton]

Liked cruise in my stickshift cars. Disliked in my autos (not sure in our hybrid as I rarely drive it). Toyota has poor programming, they tend to have lag, drop speed, then double downshift. Then hunt. My right foot doesn’t cause that, so I think I get better mpg when I don’t use it.

But I like having it all the same.

 

[The motor guy]

Transmission slips on my truck, so it doesn't get used like I used to. Time to stop again by the time it gets up to speed lol

 

[Just a civilian pilot]

Never had it fail , and I have always been a high mileage owner.

Current Honda Civic has over 300,000 miles, and it works like new ( everything, including the cruise control ).