Over-active Cruise Control ?

[DaBoostCreep]

So here's what happens to me. I live in the SF bay area on the peninsula. Highway 280 for instance is nearly all up and down hill. I don't think there is a flat area that continues more than 1 mile. If cruise control is set, and the vehicle begins to ascend a slight hill, instead of allowing some drop in MPH, it will drop a gear and accelerate like crazy to maintain the cruise control preset speed.

In my little Honda Insight (yes totally different in every way) the car will allow some MPH drop, and accelerate slowly.

The 4Runner literally drops 1 or 2 gears and goes like crazy. I'm looking to calm it down a bit. Is there an ECU reflash or anything?

05 V8 AWD with 3/2 lift on 275/70R17's....Any Ideas?

 

[etom]

I'm also from the area and notice the same thing. At times mines will also drop a gear when making a sharper than regular turn. For example, going 280 NB where the 280 SB split is right before Cesar Chavez exit. The first time it happened to me it kind of woke me up because it was a late night drive back home.

 

[12guns]

My V8 does the same thing. Would save a bit of fuel if it didn't down shift so hard, but it does a good job of maintaining speed even on steep hills. Sounds normal.

 

[PTY507]

Mine do the same thing...

 

[ALLEGRO]

Mine too, must just be in the logic of the CC

 

[Nuke]

Between the lag in response of the cruise control and the low torque for a somewhat heavy vehicle, the 4Runner will reduce throttle on a downhill stretch and by the time it begins to respond on the upstretch it has lost enough speed that the only response to regain that speed is a 1 or 2 gear downshift. Mine does the same. I try to manually add some throttle before the cars' speed drops and most times I can either prevent a downshift or at least keep it to a 1 gear shift. It also plays hell on gas mileage.

My Mustang, on the other hand, is so light and has so much torque that I doubt going up a rockface would phase it.

 

[DaBoostCreep]

Mine too, must just be in the logic of the CC

Agreed. So my point would be, wouldn't it be nice to reflash and have the logic adjusted so that regardless of loss of speed, the cruise control will disengage if it cannot keep up by dropping one gear?

Many times it will drop from 5th to 3rd at 60mph to maintain its preset speed. Ridiculous.

 

[pipspeak]

As much to do with the sluggish transmission as the non-intelligent cruise control IMO. I've been unimpressed by both on my 4runner.

 

[MikesToy]

It is not good to use cruise control on uphill and downhill roads.

 

[DaBoostCreep]

It is not good to use cruise control on uphill and downhill roads.

I didn't ask for anyone to say when or where I can use my cruise control.

Ya think its a bit unreasonable that a person would have to drive 50 miles each way without using cruise control on a 4 lane each direction wide freeway, simply because it has some hills?

 

[Uneek]

My '06 4WD V6 does it as well. I find it majorly annoying that the cruise control logic is setup this way. When driving with cruise, even on steeper hills than the ones around 280, I can lightly touch gas putting it a mile or two faster than the set speed of cruise control without the transmission shifting out of overdrive. The logic of the 4Runner's cruise control isn't fuel efficient at all.

What's weird is my friend's tC the cruise will allow it to lose speed and it won't downshift out of overdrive.

 

[Uneek]

It is not good to use cruise control on uphill and downhill roads.

Care to enlighten us?

 

[MikesToy]

Care to enlighten us?

We all know that going uphill, your engine will drop a gear a two (same way if you just floor it) to maintain it's speed. Now when going downhill, unless if you don't care if your engine surges thus going over the set speed limit --just to maintain the speed. IMO, i would not use cruise control on a long stretch of uphills and downhills. I'd feel like flying a plane on auto-pilot going thru turbulence everytime i go downhill.

 

[MikesToy]

I didn't ask for anyone to say when or where I can use my cruise control.

Is there anyone in here who told YOU when and where to use your cruise control? I just said "it's not good to use cruise control on uphill and downhill roads".

 

[JB.]

Yeah, the cruise control is not very sophisticated at all. It feels like it has minimal communication with the electronic throttle control and feels more like a simple, speed reactive system. In a vehicle this modern, I think it should be able to handle hills better by monitoring the effect that throttle changes have on speed.

If the system is as basic as it feels, a re-flash might have no capacity to change it.

 

[DaBoostCreep]

Is there anyone in here who told YOU when and where to use your cruise control? I just said "it's not good to use cruise control on uphill and downhill roads".

Since you seem to have knowledge as to why "its not good to use cruise control on uphill or downhill roads," why don't you inform us as to why.

 

[MikesToy]

Since you seem to have knowledge as to why "its not good to use cruise control on uphill or downhill roads," why don't you inform us as to why.

Go back 1 page. In fact, i've done it here in Colorado. On I-70W from Grand Junction to Vail around midnight with less traffic. After i filled up @ Vail, my engine sounded like it had a "wild" (rpms going up and down from 1500-1000 constantly). So i just drove normally. The "wild" went away when i got to Denver. Took it to the dealer next day, and they said i got lucky i didn't ruin my speedometer, throttle spring, and prolly the cruise control itself if i cruised all the way thru Denver.

 

[DaBoostCreep]

Go back 1 page. In fact, i've done it here in Colorado. On I-70W from Grand Junction to Vail around midnight with less traffic. After i filled up @ Vail, my engine sounded like it had a "wild" (rpms going up and down from 1500-1000 constantly). So i just drove normally. The "wild" went away when i got to Denver. Took it to the dealer next day, and they said i got lucky i didn't ruin my speedometer, throttle spring, and prolly the cruise control itself if i cruised all the way thru Denver.

Ok, so your incident, with whatever it is your specific vehicle had going on, makes it alright for you to preach to others that "It is not good to use cruise control on uphill and downhill roads?"

The supposed "technicians" that told you that are first and foremost re****ed, and second hilarious.

To say your speedometer, throttle spring, and cruise control would have self destructed is :wtf:

Moral of the story: If you're in cruise control, and find your vehicle hunting for gears constantly, do the common sense thing and disengage it. Its a sure sign the vehicle can't accurately control itself, and you need to intervene.

On a side note: If these vehicles self destruct by using CC on hills, Toyota's about to get some more lawsuits.

Daboostcreep out. :fishing:

 

[MikesToy]

Ok, so your incident, with whatever it is your specific vehicle had going on, makes it alright for you to preach to others that "It is not good to use cruise control on uphill and downhill roads?"

The supposed "technicians" that told you that are first and foremost re****ed, and second hilarious.

To say your speedometer, throttle spring, and cruise control would have self destructed is :wtf:

Moral of the story: If you're in cruise control, and find your vehicle hunting for gears constantly, do the common sense thing and disengage it. Its a sure sign the vehicle can't accurately control itself, and you need to intervene.

On a side note: If these vehicles self destruct by using CC on hills, Toyota's about to get some more lawsuits.

Daboostcreep out. :fishing:

If you wanna use your cruise control on uphills and downhills, go ahead and knock your socks off. It's your 4R. I'm just posting my experience using the cruise control on a long stretch uphill and downhill hwy/fwy. If you're offended or upset what i posted in the first place, then don't bother. Sorry i bust your bubble. eace:

 

[VUI Guy]

Since you seem to have knowledge as to why "its not good to use cruise control on uphill or downhill roads," why don't you inform us as to why.

Listen there Mr Sensitive. If you post a question/comment people will give their ideas/suggestions/opinions. If you are not okay with that perhaps you should spend your time designing the flash that will fix the "problem."

:flamewar: