87 Accord, Standard Transmission. The cruise control finally called it quits on me last night.
I engaged the CC and the light on the dash was on, but the gas pedal didn’t “catch it” when I let off it and the car just gradually slowed down. So I stepped on the brake to disconnect the CC and then tried to re-engage it and got nothing. Is this something that would be worth checking out or would the investment of $$$ not be worth it on a car this old?
I’d at least open the hood and look around. The problem may be something simple, like a broken or disconnected cable. Check the fuses and circuit breakers, too.
I would look for a disconnected or leaking vacuum line.
When you are driving on the highway, and with no other traffic, and on a straight stretch of road; try engaging the cruisecontrol. While you are “set”(ing) it, use your left foot to slightly pull up on the brake pedal.
In a car as old as yours the brake pedal tension spring gets weak, and lets the brake pedal ‘droop’ a little bit. If the brake pedal is sitting down on the brake light switch it will turn off the cruise. (also your rear brake lights will come on,) So this could be something as simple as the brake light switch.
I second Joe’s theory. Sounds like the electronics are working, so it sounds like it wants to move the throttle but can’t. The cruise control uses the engine vacuum to move the throttle, and if it’s leaking vacuum somewhere it won’t have enough oomphf to move the throttle. Your car has many feet of vacuum hose, especially if its the carbureted version, most of which are probably 21 years old and have potential cracks. A good mechanic should be able to find the leak pretty quickly and it probably ought to cost you a couple of bucks in tubing, although there are some expensive components that can leak vacuum too.
Thanks all for the advice. It is going in the shop soon for a choke service so it will be a good opportunity to have this looked at as well, even though I don’t really use the CC in this car very often.