DEAD Cruise Control '04 Base, Fuses are fine. What now?

[OcalaFlGuy]

I've searched the forum and I don't see any general issues with the cruise other than people adding them when their Vibe didn't come with it installed.

Mine is DOA. No Cruise dash light at all.

I checked the fuses with a continuity check. They are fine. It appears Pontiac actually has the Cruise wired to two different fuses, the 1st and 4th ones
on the middle row of fuses. (I actually figured ahead of time the fuses were OK as none of the OTHER functions on those two fuses Besides the Cruise were inop.)

I think it's pretty screwy that they have the Cruise stalk connected to the steering wheel such that they both turn together. I've never seen that before and they didn't do it with the Other 2 stalks. It's just a SWAG on my part but I'm wondering about that connection that has to stay correct for a full 360 degrees of rotation.

What should I do next?

Thanks in advance,

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[beemerphile1]

Simplest thing I would start with is check the brake light circuit. The brake light switch disengages the cruise. If there is a problem it could prevent from activating.

[joatmon]

Until it's fixed all possibilities are open, but I wouldn't immediately suspect the brake circuit. On my o3, I can get the cruise light in the dash to light stopped with my foot on the brake. It won't try to regulate speed then, but it should at least turn the cruise light on.

The cruise light isn't one that illuminates as part of the light test when you first turn the vehicle on, so although unlikely, it may be possible the light is burned out. Have you tried turning it on and setting it to see if it will regulate speed even though the light doesn't light up?

The wiring from the cruise control stalk is run through the same clockspring mechanism that also carries the wires for the horn and the steering wheel airbag, so while it could fail, it is not necessarily unreliable. We count on that airbag being able to work if we need it to, so I imagine Toyota put some reliable design into it.


I haven't looked into the cruise control system much yet, but I guess I need to. I attached the two docs I could find from the 03 matrix service manual. On my 03, the system behaves normally, for a while, and then after some variable amount of time, the cruise light int he dash will blink off for a split second and the car will coast. I can then hit set, and it will continue to regulate speed, but after a shorter amount of time it will blink off again. Each time I hit set, it blinks off sooner, and will get to the point where it will blink immediately when I press set. Not sure what might cause that, not looking forward to trying to figure it out. Odd electrical issues that can only be tested at speed are hard to troubleshoot with a multimeter

[lannvouivre]

Could it be that the cruise control throttle cable has some slack, or there's a worn part? I mean, I THINK your '03 has to be drive by cable with a second cable for the CC...

[03GTMatthew]

This happened to a neither car of mine.. check all the vacuum hoses under the hood. Mine was a VERY small guy about 1" inch that looked on but wasn't. So double check it all... If this doesn't work then i would also try to disconnect the batter for about 20 minutes.