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#$@$%&& cruise control

Last week I relocated my cruise control actuator away from my intake using the Racing Beat bracket. When I test drove it afterwards, the cruise control would not come on at all. Since it was too late already to do more, I left it for the week.

So today I went for it using the Workshop and Enthusiast manuals. Lots of worming below the dash. Yes, there. The same idiot who thought up the location of the oil filter also thought it would be funny to put almost every electrical component in the inaccessible area below the dash. Thus, with the doorsill in my side, trying to do with one hand what requires two, I managed to note that there was no continuity between the actuator and the controller, which turned out to be faults in the cheap leads I had to use on the multimeter. With soldered leads, the wires to the actuator seemed to be fine though. So did a visual inspection of the unwrapped wires themselves.

Since these wires seemed to be the only thing I could have messed up by installing the actuator, I was starting to believe that maybe the failure was unrelated to my relocation and just happened to occur at the same time by coincidence. I also checked the cruise control switch as the Enthusiast manual tells you to do when the unit does not come on at all, and it did not test out right. However, checking the Workshop Manual, the continuity for my 96 is different from what it says in the Enthusiast Manual, and it worked OK according to the Workshop Manual.

It being too late to go on, I decided that since my work was apparently not the problem, this was something to let someone else worry about. So I put things back and did another test drive. As expected, even with the engine running, the cruise control indicator light did not come on. To my surprise, however, on the test drive, the unit seemed to be keeping speed anyway. I may have tested the workings last week with the switch off, or maybe I never tried testing operation when I saw no light. Whatever it is, it appears that I may have wasted the entire day trouble shooting a cruise control that was not broke.

Leon :(

Reply to
Leon van Dommelen
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Damn electrons. They won't behave like *real* matter when it makes life easier.

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

I've had to beat it into my head - after experiences like yours - to question my assumptions that led me to believe there's a problem before I "fix" it. It's almost as if we expect a problem so we bend over backwards to find one. You're in a club with many members.

Reply to
L&J Welch

Thus, with the doorsill in my side, trying to do

Any Video of this?

-- SM

Reply to
McMahon

Leon,

The indicator light went south in the '90 a couple of years ago. I don't know how long I used the cruise control before I actually noticed that it no longer indicated. Apparently, it must be a bulb that died of old age.

Yours likely went out before you did the relocation work. Then you noted that the light wasn't on and, therefore, the cruise must not work. In this life, everyone gets to troubleshoot something that is good and, in the process, continues to believe it is bad and is humbled when the truth is revealed. I think it is a derivation of Murphy's law.

As for how to fix the bulb: haven't even thought about that yet. Since you made the most recent journey under the dash, what do you think? Is it something that looks straightforward, or did they build the car by suspending that assembly in space and putting a Miata around it?

One other comment from past trips under the dash: there are a lot of sharp edges down there.

Ken

Reply to
Ken Stoorza

yet. Since you

Is it

by

it?

Just checked the Enthusiast's Shop Manual and can't find any mention of how to replace that bulb. Probably have to replace the whole damn switch to do so.

lot of sharp

Amen to that! Thought I was gonna need stitches a couple times.

Iva & Belle.) '90B Classic Red.) #3 winkin' Miata

Reply to
Iva

There's an indicator light? Where, in the main switch? Mine must have burned out before I bought the car.

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

Unfortunately, no. It is quite unbelievable what dexterity one can develop when one is desperate. ;)

Leon

Reply to
Leon van Dommelen

I think so. Relatively recently probably, since it certainly worked on my summer trip.

Also, the Enthusiast Manual tells you to check the fuses but not the light itself. In fact there is no mention of replacing it.

The switch was easy to remove from the front of the dash with a tiny screw driver. I did not see any obvious way to open it up, though. Now that the thing works, I do not see a particular need to fix the light which is hard to look at when you are driving anyway.

This time I came out fairly unscratched. :)

Reply to
Leon van Dommelen

Somewhat unrelated is the death of the multitude of light bulbs in the factory radio. They went out in a random sequence until the radio indicator no longer indicated as well.

I pulled the radio and trekked on down to Radio Shack to see what they have. Radio Shack is sort of like a small parts junk yard where you pay retail for stuff. I found some bulbs that sort of approximated the ones in the Miata radio. I think they were either 12 or 15V. Now I haven't a clue as to how the bulbs in the Miata are rated. The smart thing to do would have been to get it playing in it's disassembled state and read the voltage across one of the bulbs.

Never one to willingly do the smart thing, and since it appeared to be more work than I wanted to take on at that time, I bought the aforementioned bulbs, soldered them in and replaced the radio.

Good news: the lights were back on. Bad news: not quite as bright as before. Annoyingly so, at times. The consolation prize is that if they are actually being run under voltage, they will likely last a lot longer.

Ken

Reply to
Ken Stoorza

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