Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Cruise Control.... Where do I start

My Cruise Control does not work and would like to know where I should begin. I plan on buying a service manual this weekend and would like a recommendation for this as well. Thanks in advance.

Start by identifying the year, engine, and transmission involved. No one here is psychic.

Buy the factory Helms or a Helms CD. It will have the correct diagnostics for your car. Aftermarket books such as the Haynes or Chilton's are not likely to be comprehensive enough.

Steve

Welcome onboard.

A recent post re manuals: click

Check the plastic clip that pulls the throttle. They tend to crack and fall off. It is snapped on to a ball joint on the throttle body lever.

Fuses....................

Thanks for the feedback. I apologize for not posting more info regarding the build of my contour. I figured that cruise control was general enough to omit.

I have a 96 Countour GL the engine is a Zetec and since I am a new DIYer I would not know what more to give you that could lend hand to resolving this.


I have checked the owners manual to try to find a fuse or relay but could not find a reference to which fuse that would be. I appreciate the referal of the cd/book to use and am confident that I will find much more help there than i did from the owners manual.

Thanks again and I certainly welcome more direction on this subject if any of you can add it.

Fuses 22, 23 & 24, interior fuse panel, are required to be ok for cruise to work.

Horn works? This is only a partial check of clockspring in steering column; no is significant, yes tells us nothing.

ATX or MTX may be relevant, depending on problem.

Visually check brake pedal switches at top of brake pedal arm.

Awesome.

It is an ATX

Will check tonight and return with the extra information.

Well I think I may know what the deal is with the Cruise Control... But I will need some electrical schematics of the CC before I can say for certain.

While doing an inspection of the break pedal switches I took some time to poke around and soon discovered two wiring harnes connectors, female ends, tucked behind something so I decides to look for the partner ends, although I do know that sometimes they just put unused connector in automobiles for the dealer to upsale for other convience items,

Any who... I soon discovered some cut wires near the firewall very near the point where the cruise control assy rest in the engine compartment. Eight wires in all. After making this discover I did a wire count on the cruise control mechanism and came up with 7 wires.

I have not had the chance to document the colors of the wires in question as of yet but an very confident that this is the cause of the problem. But would like to know if someone knows of a way to test the cruise control motor/mechanism.

I can't for the life of me come up with a resonable cause of the cut wires and am pretty confident that the car didn't come of the assy line like this.

I do not know exactlly when the cruise stopped work since this is my wifes old car and she doesn't recall the date at which is ceased to function.

I do know thaqt we did have to take the car in for a wireing harness recall or TSB but do noty know if the harness is connected or has any sort of relation to the cruise control system. Aside from this work the car has only had to go in to have some sort of resistor replace for the A/C fan system but I really couldn't see a relationship between those two systems but would appreciate some feedback on any of these findigs.

Thank you in advance and have a pleasant week.

While 8 cut wires vs 7 at c/c module plus location may seem an almost coincidence, unfortunately only 5 of the wires at module are destined for pass compartment, balance connect in engine compartment. Routing is via pass side entry to cabin, then behind glovebox and dash to driver's side.