OK.... I was bored driving home from work and I though to myself.... "I wonder if my cruise control will work when Im in neutral?"
Well... the answer is yes and no..... somehow the car either knows what rpm range it should be in for the gear.... or the cruise will only work in a certain rpm range..
If you just put the car in neutral while coasting and hit the cruise set or resume button... nothing will happen.... but if you apply throttle to raise the rpm up to where they should be for your speed and hit the button.... the cruise will kick in.... the rpms will start climbing... and the cruise will shut itself off shortly after (about 1500 rpm higher than it would be in gear).... also... if you take the car out of gear with the cruise already set (without pushing in the clutch) the rpms will jump up... tap the rev limiter... and then the cruise will shut off.
I just thought it was interesting that GM programmed to car to know better.... Useless information I know..... but interesting.
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I just thought it was interesting that GM programmed to car to know better.... Useless information I know..... but interesting.
Could you imagine if they didn't have that? How many idiotic people would blow their engines when they pushed the clutch with the cruise on, or bumped the shifter with the cruise on? More of a liability thing than a vanity thing, they are just covering their asses.
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Along the same lines, it's always amazed me how agressive the cruise programming is on the automatics. Those things will willingly thrash the car at WOT to maintain speed on hills. I guess it's still within the expected parameters of the car though, so they wouldn't bother trying to program in any subtlety.
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I did it with my 92 SHO back in the day. The car didn't "know better". The RPM would start to climb slowly, and when the car didn't speed up it would apply more throttle. Eventually it would just take off and hit the rev limiter.
Ya.... I had that happen in my old VW once..... (86 Volkswagon golf)
I was cruising with at 70mph on the freeway with the cruise control on.... and the person in the passenger bumped the gear selector (automatic tranny) into Neutral withought me noticeing.... and all off the sudden the rpm shot up to like 2.5 or 3 grand above redline (no rev limiter)..... it scared the living crap out of me.... it took me a full second to fiqure out what was going on before I reached down and put it back into drive...... although I found it interesting that the Mechanical limit for the engine was 8.5 grand.... god that couldtn't have been good for it.
There's a switch on the clutch pedal too... so as soon as you depress the clutch, the cruise should disengage.
Interesting information , I just got an '03 5-speed with cruise and was wondering these things,
Thanks for the info!
John Lenko wrote:There's a switch on the clutch pedal too... so as soon as you depress the clutch, the cruise should disengage.
I find the clutch sensor takes an extra half to whole second to disengage over the brake one, so the revs will climb up for a bit before it actually disengages the cruise.
Yup... the clutch sensor is longer and usually out of adjustment. You can change the positioning of it to be more responsive if you so wish
My cruise shuts off if I barely even bump my clutch pedal..... Maybe mine was adjusted that way....... I just assumed they where all like that.
Is this an option on J-bodies or something, I did not know a 5-speed could use cruise control.
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- putting the pieces back together -
my rpm never climbed when taking it out of gear, well it went up like not even 500rpm and then went down but can't say i ever tried ot set it in neutral
you must have been bored when you were coming home. next time time how slow the windows are on a 2 door if you press both buttons at the same time see how much slow the window comes down
JBO since July 30, 2001
I just pulled CC out of my car because it will start boosting it if I use it.... generally at such a low throttle it has the potential to lean it out (damn alpha N).
