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Cruise Control On 1.4 Titanium Automatic


eyemdee
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This is my first ever car with Cruise Control so I have been trying it out thinking that it may help fuel economy. Is it usual for it to keep changing down a gear, even when set to 70mph, as soon as a slight incline is encountered? Also on leaving a village at 30mph and pressing Resume (Cruise set at 60mph) should it be revving to 5,000 rpm in each gear? It appears to be set to achieve the preset speed as quickly as possible with no consideration of fuel economy!

I am thinking that it will probably be more economical to get to the desired speed normally then flip over to manual to hold top gear before engaging cruise.

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This is my first ever car with Cruise Control so I have been trying it out thinking that it may help fuel economy. Is it usual for it to keep changing down a gear, even when set to 70mph, as soon as a slight incline is encountered? Also on leaving a village at 30mph and pressing Resume (Cruise set at 60mph) should it be revving to 5,000 rpm in each gear? It appears to be set to achieve the preset speed as quickly as possible with no consideration of fuel economy!

I am thinking that it will probably be more economical to get to the desired speed normally then flip over to manual to hold top gear before engaging cruise.

I think you have answered this yourself. The cruise control is set Up to get you back to the set speed as quickly as possible and In an auto that's using the gearbox to best effect. In the manual car the gear changes cancel the CC so you get to the gear first to pick the speed range. As for the changing down a lot when encountering hills etc, I was warned about this when I Looked at a Focus auto with CC basically the CC is not much use with an auto on any road that isn't very flat and free of traffic so probably that's Lincolnshire and parts of Norfolk in the uk only. I went For a manual fiesta titanium in the end.

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I think you have answered this yourself. The cruise control is set Up to get you back to the set speed as quickly as possible and In an auto that's using the gearbox to best effect. In the manual car the gear changes cancel the CC so you get to the gear first to pick the speed range. As for the changing down a lot when encountering hills etc, I was warned about this when I Looked at a Focus auto with CC basically the CC is not much use with an auto on any road that isn't very flat and free of traffic so probably that's Lincolnshire and parts of Norfolk in the uk only. I went For a manual fiesta titanium in the end.

As I thought, it is working as it should. To me the automatic box is more important than the cruise control as my last 4 cars have all been autos. I haven't yet tried selecting manual mode then cruise resume but I am guessing it will remain in top gear like a manual box does.

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Hi,

I have a Fiesta auto with CC too. After several months of ownership now when I'm on longer motorway drives and decide to use the cruise control, I always cancel it on steep inclines and drive manually. (Or as much as I can do in my auto lol - i.e having to use my feet - I know I know, its a hard life isn't it) - this is so when the speed starts to drop I can apply pressure to the accelerator gently to ease the car back up to 60/70mph, otherwise as you both mentioned the CC thinks I must get back to watever speed ASAP - and in the auto this leads to the gear box performing 'kick down' (changes down a gear) for more revs/power.

So basically I'd cancel your CC on steep inclines, use your feet, then resume the CC when the road levels out.

Hope my waffling makes sense.. :-s

Paul :)

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As I thought, it is working as it should. To me the automatic box is more important than the cruise control as my last 4 cars have all been autos. I haven't yet tried selecting manual mode then cruise resume but I am guessing it will remain in top gear like a manual box does.

Now that's one I had not thought of I wonder how that works if indeed it does. If you do try that let us know what happens. If it does work it should solve the problem and fast roads at least.

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So basically I'd cancel your CC on steep inclines, use your feet, then resume the CC when the road levels out.

Hi Paul, Yes that's what I have been doing as I don't like thrashing the motor and/or gearbox and it cannot be very economical. I will try the manual mode next time I use cruise and see if it holds on to the high gear. I can't see why it shouldn't

Cheers

Ian

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  • 4 weeks later...

Now that's one I had not thought of I wonder how that works if indeed it does. If you do try that let us know what happens. If it does work it should solve the problem and fast roads at least.

Sorry for the delay answering this but I haven't been far recently and wanted to test it properly. The cruise control does indeed work as I hoped in Manual mode, i.e. it DOES hold the selected gear, which is a great improvement over the constant gearchanges in auto mode. Set to cruise at 70mph when in 4th gear manual it stays in 4th but does drop out of "lock up" when accelerating back to the set speed causing a slight increase in revs. It also allows changing between manual and auto mode without the cruise control cancelling.

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Sorry for the delay answering this but I haven't been far recently and wanted to test it properly. The cruise control does indeed work as I hoped in Manual mode, i.e. it DOES hold the selected gear, which is a great improvement over the constant gearchanges in auto mode. Set to cruise at 70mph when in 4th gear manual it stays in 4th but does drop out of "lock up" when accelerating back to the set speed causing a slight increase in revs. It also allows changing between manual and auto mode without the cruise control cancelling.

Ah good to know, thanks for this info. I completely forgot to try it.

_________________________

While I'm in this topic....

I often travel on the A1 from Newcastle north to Alnwick and there are several steep inclines and decents, so I imagine sometimes when my cruise control is on it would have to gently brake to keep the car from rolling away faster than the set speed. And I was thinking I hope the brake lights don't come on when this happens as the driver behind may wonder why I'm braking when the road ahead is clear, (when really its not me touching the brakes, its the CC holding the car at 60/70 etc when heading down the hill)

Can anyone confirm the CC doesn't operate the brake lights?

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Ah good to know, thanks for this info. I completely forgot to try it.

_________________________

While I'm in this topic....

I often travel on the A1 from Newcastle north to Alnwick and there are several steep inclines and decents, so I imagine sometimes when my cruise control is on it would have to gently brake to keep the car from rolling away faster than the set speed. And I was thinking I hope the brake lights don't come on when this happens as the driver behind may wonder why I'm braking when the road ahead is clear, (when really its not me touching the brakes, its the CC holding the car at 60/70 etc when heading down the hill)

Can anyone confirm the CC doesn't operate the brake lights?

Yes, I can definitely confirm that as the CC doesn't operate the brakes at all, only the throttle! It will go into overrun during a descent but if the speed increases more than you would like then you would have to brake thus cancelling CC. I guess you would not need to do that if the CC has been behaving itself OK on these descents.

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I find that once cruise control is activated,

further acceleration by pressing the accelerator is not as responsive,

as pressing the + button on the controls.

i think the car accelerates faster by pressing the button than pushing the pedal to the floor, does anyone else find this, :)

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I find that once cruise control is activated,

further acceleration by pressing the accelerator is not as responsive,

as pressing the + button on the controls.

i think the car accelerates faster by pressing the button than pushing the pedal to the floor, does anyone else find this, :)

To be honest I have not tried using the accelerator with cruise on but the perceived lesser response may be due to the cruise control operating the throttle directly and not by moving the pedal. The first few cms of pedal movement may do nothing until it "catches up" with the cruise position. Only a theory of course!

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To be honest I have not tried using the accelerator with cruise on but the perceived lesser response may be due to the cruise control operating the throttle directly and not by moving the pedal. The first few cms of pedal movement may do nothing until it "catches up" with the cruise position. Only a theory of course!

i think your rite, feels like im in Fast and Furious though when im on the motorway cruize control on and hit the button, rear of the car sinks and were off :lol:

its like pretending you have nitrous in the car.

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Yes, I can definitely confirm that as the CC doesn't operate the brakes at all, only the throttle! It will go into overrun during a descent but if the speed increases more than you would like then you would have to brake thus cancelling CC. I guess you would not need to do that if the CC has been behaving itself OK on these descents.

ah good to know, thanks Ian. I didn't know that the CC didn't operate the brakes at all, so I take it theres a chance the car could roll past the set speed on a descent and speed through a camera? :-s

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