I just installed an aftermarket cruise control on my 00 2.2 4 cylinder sunfire. I thought I would post this as an FYI incase anyone was interested in the modification. I've tried searching on this forum for anybody else who did but couldn't find any posts.

I made the purchase online from http://www.mnrelectronics.com/roscruiscon.html for around $250 bucks and recieved it in 2 days ground (from somewhere in Michigan to Columbus, OH). With the purchase came a universal cruise module, a box with specific parts for the 00 sunfire and another box with the new OEM multifunction switch.

The first problem I ran into on the install was trying to figure out which box of parts to use for the throttle body assembly. I used mostly parts from the sunfire specific box with 1 or 2 from the universal kit (so now I have lots of extra hardware). There is a place for the cable to fit on next to the current throttle cable. Not too difficult.

The next step was to mount it, not a problem. I mounted it using a bracket from the universal kit and attached it to the passenger side strut mount. It does not interfere with the power steering resivor or the a/c. Very simple.

Next I installed the multifunction switch. Not a problem to install, easy to get to.

Running the wires was the real pain. There are 10 wires and they are connected to
1. 12 v power (10A fused)
2. ground
3. positive side of brake switch (4A fused)
4. negative side of brake switch
5. vss (vehicle speed sensor)
6. tach
7. an extra switch for another way to get your vss signal
8. neutral
9. enable output
10. and an auxillary speed sensor connector

Wires I ran inside:
I ran wires all the wires to the area above the brake pedal inside the car except for the 2. ground (connected it to the strut, verified I had a good ground with dmm), 5. vss and 6. tach. There is a 4 wire connector with wires 7-10 that mates directly up with the multifunction switch. The 12v power I connected to the fuse panel inside on another 10A accessory (cigarette lighter, I think). The positive brake wire I spliced onto the existing brake pedal switch on the positive side. That wire is orange. The negative side of the brake I connected to the negative side of the brake switch. That wire is white.
*be sure to reinstall the switch that is actuated by the brake pedal fully, other wise your cruise control thinks your brakes are on and won't engage. Additionally, your brake lights are on all the time and if you are working in a bright area you won't notice your brake lights on.

Wires I ran under the hood
The three wires connected under the hood are ground, vss and tach. Ground is a piece of cake. Finding vss and tach were hard for me. The instructions from M&R said to connect them to the PCM. Where is the PCM? The Haynes manual said that the PCM (powertrain control module) is under the air cleaner (driver side front). Ok, so I look and look and there is just a connecter there. I'm looking for an 80 pin connecter and I can't find it. Then my buddy finally notices that in one of the 3 manuals from M&R that is says the wires are located on the passenger side between the tire and the headlight on the ECM. So we take of the fender well cover and BINGO! There is the ECM! So we find the vss and using a ohmmeter figure out that it goes to over to the passenger side on this big connector where the PCM should be. Maybe that was the PCM, I don't know. So we connect it up there, put the airbox back and put the battery back in.

The tach isn't so easy. It doesn't go to the same connecter as the vss. The manual from M&R says it's on pin 26 and it's a white wire. But we can't find it. So we find another white wire on the same ECM and trace that. It goes to the transaxle actuator switch on top of the transmission. Almost impossible to get to. So we deceide to run the wire there, to the passenger side front where the ECM is and splice it there. The point of the tach wire is just for safety, in case you knock it into neutral it'll shut off the cruise. It is an over rev limiter. But that didn't work, so I just disconnected it. It should be there, but if anybody knows where I can find that to splice the tach signal in that would be ok. I don't know if I'll attach it anyway because the cruise works fine so far.

I did take picture and can email them to you, just post your email address and I'll send them to you.

Chris

Nice write up, I did an install on a old 70's Chevy and it was very straight forward.

You should post the pictures up here so that in the future, people can still acess them.

if you want, you can e-mail to me and ill post them. But you can just upload them at imageshack.us and then post them here....

Here are pictures to the aftermarket cruise control installation write up.

<embed src="http://img221.imageshack.us/slideshow/smilplayer.swf" width="426" height="320" name="smilplayer" id="smilplayer" bgcolor="FFFFFF" menu="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="id=img221/1606/1159232661eaa.smil"/>

Here is a permanent link.

http://img221.imageshack.us/slideshow/player.php?id=img221/1606/1159232661eaa.smil

By the way, it works great and was worth the effort! I think a remote starter is next.

C

umm yeah....

using a stock setup is about $40

all the wires you need to tap into are in the big huge plug under the air cleaner assembly

it was cheap and easy with parts from the wrecker


1998 Chevrolet Cavalier
5-spd

not meaning to thread jack... but how do you use a strut bar with cruise control installed? on a 2200 99 cavy

You have a valid point. In retrospect it probably would have been easier to grab something out of the junkyard and bolt it on, since in the process of taking it off of a wrecked car I would figure out where to mount the module, run the wires and so on. However, I wouldn't have a guarantee if the cruise control would work. There is a troubleshooting guide and instructions
that come with the aftermarket purchase as well. To the newb that is helpful. These are the reasons I went with the aftermarket purchase instead of shopping at a junkyard.

If I were to perform this modification on my ranger, I might be more
likely to pick something up at a junkyard, now that I've done this
installation once.

C