Hi, I have a 1995 Camry, ~145K, and the cruise control gave out yesterday. The car still works fine except for that-- and the brake light is always on, but the brakes are behaving fine too, and my mechanic says it’s likely not worth worrying about. I had him look at it and fix it once before.
Can you give me an idea of a. whether this is indicative of The Beginning of The End, and b. about how much it costs to fix the cruise?
Are you talking about the brake system warning light on the dash, or the brake lights at the back of the car?
If the former, it is never good to ignore a warning light, especially that one.
If the brake lights are on, if the brake warning light is on, if the rear light out warning light is on, or if there’s a burnt out brake light the cruise control won’t work.
Tester
I think you need a better mechanic, especially one who does a better job with brakes. If your brakes are fixed properly I think your cruise control will start working normally again.
With a car 15 years old you can fix the cruise if you want, but mostly I live with minor problems like this in older cars. If it is a fuse, or just a bad switch or connection fine, but don’t spend too much money on a repair of a non critical part.
I did have my mechanic look at it, and I do trust him; he has been in business for decades and has an excellent reputation and a very clean shop. It’s a bad switch (yes, it’s the dashboard light-- the first time I took the car in the same day I noticed it), he said, and at the age this car is, he said not to keep fixing stuff like that so long as there are no other problems. He said my brakes are fine. He knows this car well. Really I’m just wondering if it’s time to really get thinking about a newer one. I hate to do it, if I don’t really need to. But I don’t want to keep repairing stuff that just keeps breaking, especially if it’s expensive. It’s become a strictly around-town car.
Check the battery connections.
the cruise control gave out yesterday. The car still works fine except for that-- and the brake light is always on
Have you noticed that when you press on the brake, the cruise control shuts down? The switch that does that looks at the brake light switch to tell it to turn off the cruise control. Your car things the brake pedal is pressed and turning on the light and turning off the cruise.
Time for a new brake light switch.
Properly maintained Camrys have been known to run for 250,000 - 300,000 miles. Replace the bad brake switch, the light will go off, and the cruise will work again.
I think your mechanic has a very strange attitude about repairing things.