Cruise control broken on every vehicle I drive?

[eljefino]

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

Funny story time...

Wife took her Chevy HHR to a fancy hotel with valet parking. The valet, apparently (and out of sight), slammed it from reverse into drive while rolling backwards at a decent speed. Chevy decided to set a code, but without a MIL, and it disabled the cruise control even several key cycles later!

I cleared this mystery hidden code with my scanner and CC started working again.

 

[Snagglefoot]

It was a broken wire inside the turn indicator on my 2008 Suburban.

 

[BrendanC]

i had to repair the woman’s honda when we got together. the brake switch had come out of adjustment thanks to a little rubber pad falling off. i just replaced the switch and calibrated it without the pad. she had never had cruise control before and now can’t live without it. she gets on the freeway every morning and sets it at 80 for 45 minutes. i also use it any time possible. one less thing to worry about when trying to dodge todays drivers on their phones.

 

[Nukeman7]

i had to repair the woman’s honda when we got together. the brake switch had come out of adjustment thanks to a little rubber pad falling off. i just replaced the switch and calibrated it without the pad.

The missing pad/button is so common on older Hondas that Dorman (and others) sell it as an aftermarket part at all of the national auto parts stores.

 

[hpb]

I'm confused by "...they won't allow me to use it...", meaning what, you ask if you can use CC and the owner says no? That seems odd!

 

[PF52]

I've owned one car that would occasionally drop CC, which was annoying, but it didn't happen very often.

More typically though, I will drive a family member's car and I'm pretty sure its the first and only times those cars EVER have the CC used.

 

[ls1mike]

I've never had one fail. Still works on the 2000 WS6 and 2005 Buick.

 

[thastinger]

Have only had CC stop working on 1 vehicle in the past, it was 20 years old and the problem was the switch on the brake pedal had failed, it was a 2 part switch, one side made the brake lights work(they worked) and one side turned off the CC if you hit the brakes, but it failed in a state where the CC thought the brake pedal was always depressed.

 

[KrisZ]

Never had one that didn’t work correctly. I suspect most of the issues are probably brake switch related.

 

[Chris142]

My Jeep never had cruise. My f250 does and its a manual transmission. Kinda odd imo.

 

[The motor guy]

My Jeep never had cruise. My f250 does and its a manual transmission. Kinda odd imo.

Not really. I'd imagine it kicks off anytime you hit the brake pedal or clutch

 

[andrew_j]

I own Honda , never a failure in 30 years of ownership….

 

[The motor guy]

I own Honda , never a failure in 30 years of ownership….

Maybe they're just being ***** to me. They were always you don't need cruise control anyways

 

[bdcardinal]

I never use it outside of just checking to see if it works occasionally.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

You sound like @ARCOgraphite , but instead of a wide trail of blown engines, that you’ve simply destroyed the electronics rather than the motive force of the vehicle. Only car I’ve ever had that the cruise failed was my ‘02 Forester, around 215k.

Sold it to my brother for $1200; he sold it to one of his laborers for $2500. When the subframe snapped in half from a nasty pothole 200 miles in and my brother forked out $1200 for a subframe, rearend and labor to make things right, I felt that was the gods of used cars keeping my brother honest from doubling what he paid at mine and his worker’s expense. I shed no tears.

 

[brages]

I had one fall on a 1986 diesel Jetta. Vacuum operated, and the rubber for the vacuum actuator tore.

 

[Bladecutter]

Is it a common thing to break? Occasionally 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.

Maybe I missed it, but what are these 3 different vehicles?
Year, make, and models, please.

 

[D60]

IME parking brake "switches" can cause problems. Most modern vehicles won't allow cruise if it thinks the parking brake is set. That said, you usually know based upon a BRAKE light

 

[Kurtatron]

cruise control works on my 1991 Toyota Previa manual transmission. I use it all the time.

 

[CharBaby]

I’ve had them not work on a few cars that I kept into their teens.
One was a Buick LeSabre another was a Honda Accord and the other was a Lexus RX