Cruise Control System

[king_panther]

Hi everyone,

Due to high demand for information, here is my thread about the cruise control system I've just had fitted to my white '97 Legnum.

Thanks to KRudd's stimulus money, I finally had the chance to enquire about getting cruise control fitted to my Legnum. With the amount of kilometres I accumulate & the high percentage of freeway cruising I do, my leg was begging me to find out what I could install in terms of cruise control systems.

I found a business that is practically just down the road from where I am living in Newcastle at the moment. They are called Nova Car Systems - http://www.novacarsystems.com.au/
They got back to me the next day to confirm that the system they use was able to be fitted to my car. So I booked it in. At the same time, I've had a new stereo sitting in my unit for months waiting for me to install it, so they installed that as well in the same booking.

So I've now got my car back with a brand spanking new cruise control system, new stereo, new reverse camera & new antenna. There is no actual brand name on the cruise control system, just the words 'Cruise Control' on both the controller & the information leaflet. I will call Nova up & get more information about the brand of system it is.

The installation itself required the moving of the alarm siren to the centre-rear of the engine bay. The cruise control box is tucked away at the very rear driver-side corner of the engine bay as can be seen in this picture ;

Within the cabin itself, the controller has been fitted to the right-hand side of the steering wheel as can be seen in the following picture ;

The controller communicates wirelessly to a small dome that is fitted on the dash which is coloured purple & can be seen in Dimi's pic from our meet at Penrith ;

The controller itself has 3 buttons - ON/OFF will turn the system on or off, SET ACC will hold the current speed once the system is on & once held down afterwards will gradually increase your cruising speed, RES DEC will slow the speed down when it is held.
Also installed is a small light. In my car this has been installed in the same space as my alarm light which is next to the TCL switch & can be seen in the following picture ;

At all times when driving, this light will be a faint red colour. When you press the ON/OFF button, it will turn to a bright green light. When the system is on, pressing the SET ACC button will the turn the light to a bright red colour. If you brake while the car is cruising & the light is bright red, this will disengage the cruise speed & the light will go back to a bright green colour. Pressing the ON/OFF button again will return the light to its usual faint red colour. These lights are easily seen in nighttime driving, less so in the daytime.
You are given a two-sided leaflet explaining how the system works. I have taken pictures of this & here it is. First the front side ;

& here's the reverse side ;

I have used the system numerous times now, & I can say it's a GODSEND! All up it cost me $720 to buy the system & have it installed. I think that's money well spent considering the amount of time I will be using it. The only niggle I've noticed so far is that if you are cruising & you are climbing a steep hill, it will drop gear to maintain speed. Of course, with our cars being twin-turbo & boost coming on really low in the rev range, be prepared for a bit of boosting!

Finally, here is a video I took the other night when going home. It was absolutely pitch black where I was so please excuse the darkness but you should understand what I'm talking about if you have read all the above. No comments about my voice either !!!! PLEASE NOTE: Forget what I say about the dash visibility being reduced, stupid me forget about the brightness dial on the dash !! It's all fixed now hehe...

Youtube has decreased the framerate a fair bit. It was super smooth when I processed it on my laptop. So sorry about that !

Any questions, please ask away !

 

[king_panther]

EDIT - The rattling noise you can hear in the background for a while was a small glass bottle that was in the cup holder compartment. The vibration at idle was causing the bottle the rattle hehe... so NO it's not something wrong with my car!

 

[Kitty's VR4]

Thats awesome Brad, thank you. On my mod's list.

 

[VR-04-TT]

+1 to being awesome. Definitely on my to do list when the car is fixed

 

[Nitephyre]

Is there any reason why cruise couldn't be installed on a manual for highway driving as it's the only thing I miss from driving a slushbox.

 

[VR-04-TT]

No reason at all. The auto-off feature would just be connected to the clutch pedal as well as the brake pedal.

My g/f's SP23 is a 6 speed manual with cruise control and that's exactly how it works.

 

[Buckas]

cruise control in my mates mum's manual forester, set it in 5th, yank it outa gear (no clutch) and it just free revs until it hits limiter and hovers there. quite amusing really ....silly subarus

 

[frozen]

i wouldnt mind getting something like this ... would stop me speeding so much

 

[bradc]

I dislike the control unit on the wheel, I'd mount it on the dash somewhere a bit more hidden.

 

[king_panther]

I dislike the control unit on the wheel, I'd mount it on the dash somewhere a bit more hidden.

You don't want it hidden though Brad ? You want it easily accessible. It's about as close as you'll get to a factory standard cruise control system. They are normally accessed WITHIN the steering wheel itself if you buy a new car these days. My 1994 Mazda 929 had the cruise control buttons on the steering wheel.

 

[frozen]

could you salvage a cruise control system from an auto mitsu that has it in the wheel or something like that and have it worked into it? or is that all through the ECU if it came standard..?

 

[naughtika]

how about getting the steering wheel from a TJ magna/verada some of them do come with cruise control.. and from memory someone here compared our nardi torino oem steering wheel with a verada and it is the same..

 

[bradc]

I don't mean hide it, but just mount it flat on the dash below the contrast adjust or something like that.

 

[Tom]

Is there any reason why cruise couldn't be installed on a manual for highway driving as it's the only thing I miss from driving a slushbox.

My parents old magna, their current mazda3 and my liberty all had cruise control.. Could set it to any speed above 50kmh.. and they are all manual! On the magna just for kicks my mum decided to set it at 50kmh to see if it'd work, and it did LOL..

Until my Liberty one of my mates thought cruise control wouldn't work on manuals either.. Tap the clutch or brake and it switches off, you can hold the accelerator lightly to increase speed, let it go, and it will slow back to the cruise speed.. accelerate too hard and it'll switch off..

I assume that's the same with autos and your set up Brad?

 

[Macca]

I use to work as an auto electritian we used "Command Cruise Control" systems. From memory they had a lifetime warranty on the system. There are 4 button setups. A pannel you can stick on your dash, a stalk that is bolted to your steering columb covers, one that goes on your steering wheel and one that goes on your gear shifter

You hook a switch up to your clutch that cuts the circuit when pressed. As an auto elec its illegal to install a cruise control without the clutch switch.

 

[Macca]

By the way it looks like a command cruise control system you have

 

[Nitephyre]

Awesome, I'll look at getting it done once I get a car