Aftermarket Cruise Control

[simoncraythorn]

Does anyone else have problems with their aftermarket cruise control?

I had one fitted by the dealer before I collected the car, it looks just like the one on the "Cruise Control" thread elsewhere in this forum.

But. It's unuseable. It works fine at first, but if you get to a slight incline and it needs to add accelleration to maintain the speed it's like it's got lead boots on. You feel the car start to accellerate, then it realises something's wrong and slows up. But it slows up too much, so it accellerates and the loop repeats. It never gets it right again. It makes you feel quite sick after just a few minutes.

I know the dealer's going to come up with some excuse so before I take it back does anyone have any ideas what the problem may be, or can someone else confirm that their cruise works OK.

Many thanks.

Simon.

 

[ping]

You've probably got a vacuum actuator on the throttle - a boosted car needs an electronic actuator.

Here's why - when you turbocharge a car, you don't have a continuous source of vacuum. Worse, when the turbo spools up, "vacuum" turns to "pressure", meaning the vacuum-operated actuator lets off the throttle.

When the actuator lets off the throttle, a few things happen simultaneously:

The car slows down, gets "off the boost", which creates vacuum again.

The cruise control notices that the car has slowed, calls for more throttle and, there being some vacuum now, the actuator pulls the throttle open, presumably to "accelerate" the car...BUT...

when the cruise opens the throttle, this calls up some turbo boost! This again de-activates the vacuum actuator, closing the throttle, when it goes back to being "vacuum" again.

The Cruise Control again notices, says "hey this car's going too slow, need to speed up", opens the throttle, spools up the turbo, creates pressure, which again lets off the throttle. This vicious cycle continues, but the car gets slower and slower until the cruise cuts out or the car bogs down.

Solution is an electronic actuator (I think). UNfortunately, t're usually more expensive.

The above IMHO, YMMV, etc, but the shop that did the install should know it's a turbo car and should have installed the cruise for that kind of car. Bring it back to them, or to the dealer. Somebody screwed up which actuator is needed. Don't let them charge you more for THEIR mistake! The cruise module is probably fine, just the actuator that needs changing. Oh - and make sure that the cruise control cuts OUT when you depress either the clutch OR the brake - had a friend get a little scare when he took the car out of gear and the engine zinged to redline... no damage though (he shut it down in time)

Good luck!

 

[Stormtrooper77]

...I had one fitted by the dealer before I collected the car, it looks just like the one on the "Cruise Control" thread elsewhere in this forum...

So you just got the little stick control sticking out of the column hey?

 

[simoncraythorn]

Re: Re: Aftermarket Cruise Control

So you just got the little stick control sticking out of the column hey?

Yes, that's the one.

I'm still waiting for the dealer to get back to me about the missing stereo remote. I'll bring up the CC problem then.

 

[simoncraythorn]

Just to let you all know, it got fixed.

Spent 3 hours at the place that fitted it on Friday, it wasn't the dealer that did the work. Apparantly the cable didn't have a strait line to the throttle and he needed to re-mount everything.

It all works just fine now.

 

[ping]

Got any pics, esp of the underhood??

 

[simoncraythorn]

Got any pics, esp of the underhood??

Sorry, I don't have a digi camera yet.

The inside looks just like this one found in a nother thread.... http://www.mazdamp3.com/vbb230/attachment.php?s=&postid=348520

 

[Hercdriver]

How much should a guy expect to pay for one of those? Are they MSP specific or are they generic?

 

[monkeymsp]

You what I have been thinking about. Going to a junk yard and collecting all the parts off of an ES which should come standard with CC. Then just put them in the MSP... I bet it would be a plug and play operation and when you are done, no one (besides us) would know its not stock. I bet this could be done on the cheap.

 

[simoncraythorn]

How much should a guy expect to pay for one of those? Are they MSP specific or are they generic?

For me CC was a selling point for the car. I was about to walk out of the dealer and he suggested that they fit it before I collected the car. That was fine by me because I bought the car the day before I flew out to Britain for 2 weeks so was in no hurry to pick up anyway.

The page he showed me in the book showed a price of $900, but "he would let me have it for $200". I think it was a mickey-mouse price in the book to make me think he was doing me a big favour.

It's a generic unit. It was fitted by a general audio/auto-start/alarm dealer type dealer.

 

[simoncraythorn]

You what I have been thinking about. Going to a junk yard and collecting all the parts off of an ES which should come standard with CC. Then just put them in the MSP... I bet it would be a plug and play operation and when you are done, no one (besides us) would know its not stock. I bet this could be done on the cheap.

I'm no mechanic, but I don't think that will work.

The guy who fitted mine had a hard time getting it to fit in the MSP. I haven't actually taken a look at it personally, but he told me the space behind is *very* tight. He had to modify the generic mountings to get it to work right. It's because the generic mountings don't fit well in the MSP that the cable was too tight and it didn't work properly when I first picked it up.

All due to the guy, he did spend 3 hours working on it while I waited the other day to make it work as advertised. He said afterwards he would never agree to do another MSP, so I guess it wasn't easy.

 

[House]

Hercdriver,

I've been quoted $300 to have an aftermarket cruise control installed. The dealer quoted me $400. I have not had it done yet.

monkeymsp,

When I did some research in some older threads on the board there where several people who said that the stock Protege cruise control will not work on the MSP. I don't remember the reason, but I think it had something to do with the strut tower brace being in the way of some under hood cruise control module.

 

[jersey_emt]

Yes, the strut tower brace on the MSP goes right where the cruise control module in the regular Proteges is.