Hi all!

New guy here. I bought a 1991 Honda Accord Lx about 8 months ago. I have an intermittent issue with the cruise control. I push the dash button in, I get the green light on the switch. I get up to speed, and push the set button. I get the green light on the dash. And all is good.

But if I hit a good bump, the cruise control turns off. I still have the green light on the switch, but the dash one goes out. If I push the steering wheel control button to set the speed (again) sometimes it will re-engage, other times it will not re-engage and seems to stop working till it decides to start working again.

The other day to try to do some testing I loosened the steering wheel lock that let's you tilt the steering wheel up and down. I got the cruise control engaged. I moved the steering wheel up and down slowly and gently. No issues it stayed working. As it seemed to go out due to hitting a bump, I did the steering wheel up and down thing again. But this time I let it bump or hit the end of its travel with a small bump. Bingo cruise control goes out. I tried to get it to come back on by moving steering wheel up and down, but no luck. About 20 minutes later when I tried it... It was working again.

All testing by moving steering wheel up and down was done at speed. About 40 to 45 miles per hour.

I'm sure I have a bad connection in the steering wheel. Could be a loose connector. Or a bad wire, or an issue with the steering wheel mounted switches.

But I have no idea where to start looking other then just pulling the steering wheel and digging in.

I have a Hayes shop manual but on the cruise control info it is worthless. Just says to let a professional look at it! No, that's what it says!

The horn honks reliably, so I don't think the issue is in the clock spring.

So any info or advice would be of great help.

I have a bad wiper washer switch that needs replacing so I need to go digging in that area (wipers do there own thing independently of where the switch is set.


As always, I thank all for the help!

 

Auto or manual? You should check the rubber stoppers for the brake and clutch pedal switches. A vehicle of this age they have likely turned to dust and are no longer fully seating the switches on those pedals. A little bump and the switch unseats and trips cruise control.

Clutch will have 2-3 switches, brake will have 1-2 switches. Check them all. They should all have rubber pads where the switch acts on the pedal.

 

It's a automatic transmission. I do understand about the brake pedal switch. But how would bumping the steering wheel cause the brake switch to disengage the cruise control?

 

It is all bolted to the firewall at the same place and the firewall is flexy. Easy to transmit vibrations from the steering wheel to the brake pedal assembly.

 

So.... Does anyone have information on the system? Like a wiring diagram. Components location and trouble shooting of components? Information on testing/ servicing components...

Thank you.