For a while now, my cruise control hasn't worked. As soon as you turn the switch on, the "CRUISE" light starts flashing quickly and doesn't stop until your turn the switch back off. If I step on the brake, the light will go away for as long as I hold the brake down. The same behavior is exhibited when pressing any of the cruise control buttons on the steering wheel - press/holding will make the light temporarily stop flashing.

I've Googled this problem only to find a handful of threads (some within the .ORG), but no one ever actually stated if and what fixed their problem. The only thing I saw was some people mentioned some vacuum lines.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? If so, what was the fix? It's been doing this for over a year now and I miss my cruise control...

 

FWIW - I have a '97 GLE/Auto.

 

There are a lot of things that can keep the cruise control from working. Nissan calls cruise control ASCD - Automatic Speed Control Device.

Fuse # 12 (7.5 amps)
A mis-adjusted brake light switch and/or the cruise control cancel switch on the brake pedal.
The ASCD hold relay under the hood by the battery.
The inhibitor relay under the hood by the battery.
The ASCD control module inder the dash.
The switch on the dash.
The switches on the steering wheel.

And in the category of "what genius designed this?" -
If the car's horn doesn't work, neither will the cruise control.
If you have a burned out tail/brake light bulb or you put led's in, the cruise control won't work.

So check the easy things like light bulbs, fuses, brake pedal switches, horn and see what happens.

 

Thank you! That's a very helpful start and I'l definitely start checking those things. The one thing that concerns me is the fact you mentioned LEDs in the brake lights. I have aftermarket tails lights w/ LEDs in them, but now I can't remember whether the problem started before or after I installed them. I'd like to think the cruise control still worked for a while after I installed the LED tails. I'll double check those fuses/relays and update this thread on what I've found. Again, thanks.

 

Because led's use so much less electricity than regular bulbs, the car thinks a bulb is burned out. You can add a resistor in parallel with each led bulb to use more power. Some of the places that sell led's can give you exact details on that.

 

Well, I just checked the 7.5A fuse inside the car and it's not blown. I removed both the ASCD and Inhibitor relays, but they look fine visually. How do you test a relay/know if it's bad?

 

The easiest way is to swap it with another one. Nissan uses color coded relays which means that you can swap relays that are the same color. What the relay is used for doesn't matter. You have two relay boxes to find "donors", the one by the battery and the one by the power steering oil reservoir.

Otherwise you need an ohmmeter and a voltmeter, battery with jumper wires and the internal contact arrangement so you can check if the contacts inside are opening and closing. Much easier to swap.

 

I swapped relays and it's still a no-go. I can hear the relay clicking on and off when the cruise button is switched on/off, so it's not the relay or the fuse(s). I checked under the brake pedal and saw the two plugs, 1 for the brake lights themselves and 1 that leads to the ASCD. I pushed them in firmly, but still no dice. Any ideas on what should be the next logical check?

 

and 1 that leads to the ASCD. that switch is prolly bad the tend to wear out after awhile

 

If that is true, how would I go about replacing the connector? Or are you talking about a switch/sensor and NOT the connector? I may be confused between the two... Would I have to trace that wire harness and replace the entire thing? If so, does anyone know where it leads to?

 

The thing with the pedal switches is that it works. Making a click or whatever is not a 100% indication. The brake light switch is pretty easy to check - step on the pedal and watch reflections of your brake lights coming on and going off. For the ASCD switch you probably need to unplug the wires and use an ohmmeter to verify that the switch contacts open and close as the pedal moves. But I don't think this would give you the blinking dash light.

I would suggest as the next step that you swap in some regular incandescent lamps for the tail & stop lights. Otherwise, if you know someone with a same-year max that you can swap the ASCD control module.

 

Thanks, I was thinking of trying that (using bulbs in place of the LED harness). Do you happen to know where the ASCD control module resides?

 

I think it is between the steering column and the radio. I know its mounted on its side, not flat like the ecu. the fsm says it is (and I quote) "behind driver side instrument cover". Based on that very descriptive explanation, I kinda think I can rule out looking on my garage floor under my scrap wood pile.

I would go look in my car but my wife took it because hers is low on gas. She'll be back in maybe 45 min and I can look then.

 

LOL - I suspected it might be there somewhere. I'll have to try the bulbs first to see if that fixes the problem. If not, I might have to hit someone up in the classifieds section for a used ASCD module/computer/whatever. Thanks for everything so far!

 

OK, I looked up under my dash and the ASCD control module is on the left side of the steering wheel, about an inch away from the center console. Mine is a silver colored box and has a wire harness connector that is easy to access.

 

I really appreciate your help through all this. I'll have a look later tonight and see if I can spot it. I'll try to take a picture and circle it so that everyone can have a point of reference in the future!

 

It's easy enough to spot - take a look below... Keep in mind, this is looking from the pedals towards the back of the car, so it's actually to the right of the steering wheel, above where the ECU is by.




I tried positioning the camera around but I couldn't get a good look as to how it's mounted under there. There definitely isn't much space to work with, so you probably have to remove that lower plastic cover to gain access to whatever it's mounted to...

 

Figured it out - the solution was pathetically simple. All I needed was a rubber shim to be wedged between the cruise control switch behind the brake pedal and the switch itself. Stuck it in there and the light is no longer flashing and all cruise control functions have been restored to fully working condition. I hope others that look this problem up will look here; the fix is so easy, it's unbelievable.

 

Great! Love to hear of fixes that don't cost an arm and a leg.

 

Actually you don't need a shim. You just need to adjust the switch.

 

I just read all of this thread, very hopeful this will fix our problem also!!

 

Me too, thanks!