my 02 VW Cabrio has the nasty habit of the cruise control disconnecting at random. A tech supposedly diagnosed a faulty Cruise Control Module, so $400. later for the parts and $180 for diagnostic and R&R, it still cuts out. Now the diagnostic is the vacuum pump for $250. He did a throttle body alignment, the steering column switches check out, brake light circuit checks out, vacuum hoses all good, electrical connectors all tight and sealed with goop… so what could the problem be? It seems to work when cold and at lower speeds, but after warming up and doing freeway speeds, it’s dead in the water and won’t reset… any ideas?? thanks
Throttle body alignment? What is that?
Who is this “tech?” Where are you taking this car for diagnosis and service?
There is no VW service shop in Yuma AZ, but there is an import car service shop and the tech said that he did an electronic throttle body alignment… what do I know…
The next time this happens, take your left foot and place it under the brake pedal and pull up on the brake pedal. Now try resetting the cruise. If the cruise works the brake switch is the problem.
Tester
I didn’t think of that, but Tester is right, as usual.
Always check the simple things first.
Brake light switch.
OK, I’ll try that again, but we proved that the BL switch was functioning and releasing OK… thanks… f
The point behind hooking the foot behind the pedal is that it may check out fine. When the car hits a bump, expansion crack, etc. the jolt of the pedal may disengage the cruise on a borderline switch.
Many times the fix is something very simple and it’s easy to skip the preliminaries and go to the major stuff.
that sure would be nice… I’ll try it… thanks.