In my previous post dated 07/23/07, I talked about a problem getting my cruise control on my Honda Civic to work on the freeways. My only trick was to drive for 5-10 mebbe 15 minutes to get it to work. But that didn’t work all the time and was pissing me off. This time I figured it out. Before we go there, let’s get back to the initial problem.
The symptoms it showed were:
1. When the cruise button ON switch was depressed, the green light would come on.
2. Then when the SET CRUISE button on the steering wheel was pushed, nothing would happen.
While driving down to the cities the previous week to drop-off a friend to the Minneapolis (MSP) airport and talking to him, I realized something – my cruise had worked the second I pushed the 2 buttons. Then a nagging feeling hit me …
… My clutch! Ever since I had my clutch replaced, those mechanics didn’t bother to put in the right hydraulic pod and it doesn’t come all the way back up. Usually, I’d jus nudge it from below and it would pop-up all the way. Sometimes, it jus came up by itself but there’s that 1 inch of looseness in the clutch.
I tried it. I pushed down the clutch. My CRUISE disabled itself. WOOOT! With my clutch not all the way up, I hit the SET CRUISE. The cruise system didn’t take over. I nudged the clutch a bit and it went all the way up and then hit the SET key. SUCCESS!
And to think this whole time I was afraid it might’ve been an electrical issue. Had the “main relay” replaced and that didn’t fix it. Checked almost all my fuses under the dash and under the hood and no problems there either. So the answer was right there next to my left foot. Gosh!
Conclusion: If you drive a stick (or manual transmission) and have issues getting the cruise controls to work, try and see if your clutch goes all the way up.
jeeze, some mechanics cause more problems thasn they fix!
hope you didnt spent too much money trying to fix your cruise control when it wasnt broken in the first place!
Yea I didn’t spend any money directly tryin to fix the cruise.
Had my damaged clutch replaced by the crappy mechanics last winter and main relay (electrical ignition issue) last summer. When I told the mechanics about my clutch not going all the way up unless I nudged the pedal from below or smtimes it jus went up by itself, they said that was normal or smth.
But after finding out the cause to the cruise control issue, I thought of taking it back but then thought twice about it. They might break something else fixing this minor inconvenience.
Great tip. My cruise control on my 2003 Honda Civic also quit working, although the cruise button would light up, and I could not figure out how to get it going. Just tapping the clutch pedal very slightly gets it to work. I’ve had no work done on the clutch. Maybe next time I will buy an automatic transmission. THANKS again for the tip.