i do not know what is wrong with my cruise control, perhaps you masters of the maxima do, no matter what speed i am at, even over 50, my cruise conrol does not work, i press the button and the light near the spedometer does not light up, i thought maybe it was just a wiring problem, i opened it up and everything is fine, i do not know what is wrong, i have also tried just trying to set it, because perhaps the light had burnt out, but the thing does not work. please respond

 

"Have you tried the switch next to the foglight switch, it needsto be turnedon first before the cruise system is activated"

 

yes i have tried that, that is a DUHHHHHHH

 

you'd be amazed at how many people miss the duhh stuff.
you did check the fuses right?

 

I may be having the same problem you are. I just purchased a 1994 GXE. Cruise control didn't work when I bought it, so I don't know how long it's been dead. The idiot light comes on when I press the cruise switch on the dash. However, the cruise control will not engage and the cruise light will not appear. I've checked all of the fuses with a tester and they are all fine.

I've been trying to find a diagnostic procedure on the net with no luck. I bought the Haynes manual for my model year, but it has no diagnostic procedure for the cruise control. There are about a dozen parts (ASCD, Controller, Relays, Fuses, etc.) that could be causing the problem. I've found a couple of sites that suggest Nissan has specialty test equipment in their shops to diagnose the cruise, but I really don't want to pay $50 only to find out that one of the relays were bad.

I'm thinking about buying a 1 year subscription to AllData, but I don't know if they will have the diagnostic procedure either. I don't want to spend $25 for another strike out.

Does anyone else have suggestions for how to address this issue?

Thanks in advance...

 

nope but join the no cruise control club, ii tried a new switch and a new vacum pump and hose with a no go and gave up and said fudge it

 

normally I'd be glad to type in the procedures, but there are 5 pages of schematics and 5 pages of diagnostics.
Get an FSM , it has the info and is worth whatever price you get it for.
I've used mine quite a few times (though never for myself)
Someone here had it in PDF for the 94 But they shall remain nameless, as they are usually Gone way out there anyhow.

No, I don't have a scanner to scan the info in.

 

i had same problem, pull steering wheel off, there are 3 copper pegs sticking out of the column. these copper pegs are spring loaded and make contact to the steering wheel, if you pull wheel, look on the back of it and you can see three cirlcles where these pegs make contact to send power to the horn and cruise power. make sure all three pins are real springy when you push on them. my cruise contact peg spring was wore out and wasn' making contact to the rear of the steering wheel. separated the column, removed small box where all three copper pegs are located and replaced spring underneath the cruise copper peg with a simple spring out of one of those freeby ink pens from your local bank, had to cut spring just a little shorter, you can match it to one of the springs located under one of the pegs that has a good spring. cost nothing but time and has worked for the past 3 years

 

On mine the cruise didn't work and I took the whole actuator thing out of a junk yard car for $20, IIRC. Has worked fine ever since. Same problem, too. Button on dash worked, but cruise and light on instrument cluster wouldn't work.

Also, when it was replaced, it didn't work initially. After diconnecting the battery for a while, it did.

 

Thank you for your suggestion. The 1994 Maxima with airbag doesn't have the three copper pegs. Instead, it has a thing called a Spiral Cable. I checked all of the connections on the unit and had solid continuity on all connections. See my next reply for further details.

Again, I appreciate the reply.

lcm

 

Thank you for your reply.

I was able to find someone with the Alldata CD and printed out the diagnostic charts. After two days of work and frustration, here's where I stand...

I disassembled the steering wheel using the "service & repair w/ SRS" procedure. I found that the steering wheel/column didn't have the copper pins discussed in a previous post. Instead, there was a thing called a spiral cable that supplied pass-through power to both the air bag module and the cruise control buttons. I couldn't find a way to open the spiral cable assembly, so I tested it for continuity across each of the wires on the input and output side of the assembly. Everything tested OK.

I ran all 4 of the ASCD wiring harness checks:
(A) Power Supply Circuit Check (Passed)
(B) Cut-Off Circuit Check (Passed)
(C) Set Switch Circuit Check (Passed)
(D) Speed Sensor Circuit Check (Passed)

This suggested to me that the problem isn't in either the spiral cable or the res/accel, cancel, decel/set button module.

I then ran the Actuator Checks:
(A) Actuator Pump Motor Starts (Passed)
(B) Wire Pull Test (Failed) *
(C) Wire Return Slow Test (Failed) *
(D) Wire Return Immediately Test (Failed) *

* In test B, I applied positive votage to pin 1, and negative to 2, 3, & 4 simultaneously. Although I heard relays click, the wire did not pull and the pump motor wouldn't run.

* In tests C & D, no combination of applying negative to 2, 3, or 4 would cause the wire to move. Any attempt to apply negative to 2-4, 3-4, or 2-3-4 caused the pump motor to stop. When I applied negative to either 2 or 3 separately, I could hear what sounded like a relay clicking, but the wire wouldn't move.

My guess is that the actuator unit needs to be replaced. The only other thing I can think of is if I screwed up and got the positive and negative sides of the pump motor reversed. However, if I did that, I would have expected a huge spark when I combined 2-3-4 and then put the positive to the wrong "1".

Do you agree?

Now for the bad part....

After re-assembling the wheel, I was disappointed to find that SRS is not working correctly. When I turn the ignition key on, the SRS warning light will light up for 7 seconds and then will begin blinking. I took the whole steering wheel assembly apart again and re-checked all of the leads on the spiral cable. Didn't help. I disconnected and then reconnected the air bag module connector several times. No help. So now, I have an air bag that won't arm properly and I'm concerned that I either damaged something in the SRS or have a wire that isn't mating properly.

Yes, I disconnected the battery and waited 15 minutes (the book says 10) every time I either connected or disconnected the wire harness to the air bag module. That's why this adventure took so long.

Is there some trick to getting the SRS to reset itself properly?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide...

lcm

 

I ripped out my cruise option. I think shifting is watch kept me awake for 4 days, driving from Atlanta to San fran in 4 days. BTW is that a record? I sereously didn't sleep once.