Cruise Control on Wet Roads - True or Myth

[normxb]

The Mrs has an ED Fairmont Wagon with Cruise Control , and a guy told us "Never use cruise when it has been/is raining" .

Another guy say's "Naaa, BS"

Who do you believe ? :

Reason given for not using it :-

"If you're going up a hill , especially if there's a curve , the car will will give it's self a "bit more gunt" to compensate for the decrease in speed , rear end loses traction and you find yourself off the road or doing 360's up the middle of the freeway."

Never heard of it myself , the guy swears he knows 3 people it's happened to. He also swears that we would have lost WW2 if he wasn't there AND he built most of Warragamba Dam all by himself , so that's why I'm a little sceptical of what he says . :

Idea's anyone ?

Thank's

Norm

[XR8 Uterous]

Meh, i use cruise control in the wet all the time. Havn't had any troubles and will continue to use it until i have troubles.

[Nikked]

Driver still has to steer and break, whilst the computer does accelerate around hills, i've never had it happen on corners, doesn't te break cancell it?

[The Monty]

I have heard the XR6T's having a little trouble with cruise in the rain, Hill, cruise gives it a poke, boosts, sideways.
But other than that, Id say its plausible, and possible, so I always keep my finger on the button ready if something goes wrong, so I can just turn it off in a split second.

[elusiverunner]

Hey Normxb - the guy you spoke to, his name wouldn't be Gil Barrow would it?

[jabba]

The myth is true for hi powered cars with auto transmissions.

[Pedro]

This is an old chestnut that's done the rounds of this forum and others for years.

[Full Noise]

Cruise control in trucks can cause quite a few problems in the rain, especially if the truck’s light over the drive wheels or is an empty tanker. These things can break traction at the drop of a hat even without cruise control and I can assure you that it’s not much fun when it happens.

[Rodp]

Never had problems in mine, but then I've owned a manual with cruise control for the last 6 years, so no kick downs.

I'd say it would have to be one brutal hill and an oily wet road for it to be plausable.

[Homer]

It's true, though it's more to do with aquaplaning. The car accelerates as it detects the loss of speed and the car can loses control when it ‘grips’ again.

It happened to a guy at my work, though that was before my time here.
He left as he can’t walk properly any more… the car hit a concrete barrier :S

[ltd]

Myth. If you are driving up a hill into a corner in the wet I'd say that it has more to do with driver inattentiveness than anything else. I have travelled hundreds of thousands of kilometres in the wet in V8's and have never had a problem. If you have slick tyres and a typhoon then you may have a problem. But, at highway speeds the kickdown is less intrusive than you would think.

[rodderz]

My mum had a parent at her school have this happen to her her years ago in a VR V8 commodore, it aquaplaned in the wet and spun out as the cruise applied more throttle around a corner.

I would say now that modern cars with t/c would turn it off once it detects wheelspin

[nb_351]

how hard is it to keep an eye on your surroundings and not totally rely on the car doing ther work for you...
if they are paying attention, they wuoldnt have as much chance of spinning or losing it as they would still be ready for emergency braking... what if a child ran across the road, would they blame the cruise for not slowing down?
and yes they turn off when you apply the brakes, or modern ones have a switch on the clutch aswell...

[sfr rob]

yeah you may say "meh i use it in the wet all the time" UNTIL you aqua plane and the car redlines because it thinks it needs to give you more power.
This happened to me in the wet on a flooded part of road which was dry before and after As we came up over the rise and into the valley I aqua planed out of control for about 30 meters, luckily in a straight line.
As soon as we aquaplaned the car decided we were ascending a hill and dropped into a lower gear and hit rev limiter before i could tap the brakes.
From then on, i NEVER use cruise in the wet and rarely in the dry too.


The question whether it is a Myth or not, is answered in my books.
Dont use Cruise in the wet, it's plain dangerous!

I should add, the car was a BA Fairmont Ghia 3v V8 which was modified.

[Bearman]

I also had a scary moment using cruise control in the wet. The same issue, aquaplaning in the wet.

The car was an EA Ghia, I was travelling on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne when my car hit a fairly big puddle. The computer picked up a decrease in speed without the brakes being applied and gave the engine plenty more gas. The result was the front end aquaplaning and the rear end going into wheelspin. Luckily I was on a straight section but I did lose control of the car for a moment.

I do not use cruise control in wet weather driving as a result.

[MITCHAY]

I would not use cruise control in the wet full stop. Driving in the wet needs some what more concentration from the driver.

Mine being a turbo car you can feel the boost kick in quite a bit on a steep incline. I will control that I think, not a computer!

[Elks]

I have driven for years in the wet in High HP auto cars with cruise and no dramas. That said I have a tendancy to not use cruise in the wet, so maybe I have been lucky.

Originally Posted by Full Noise

Cruise control in trucks can cause quite a few problems in the rain, especially if the truck’s light over the drive wheels or is an empty tanker. These things can break traction at the drop of a hat even without cruise control and I can assure you that it’s not much fun when it happens.

I have delivered quite few new truck to major fleets who require that the cruise control be disabled (it a programming thing) for reasons of this and fatigue.

[dave351cid]

aftermarket cruise controls state in the driver instructions not to use cruise control on wet roads.

[wodahs]

me's thinks tiz time to call MYTH BUSTERS
but i believe it can happen even thou it hasen heppened to me

[Steffo]

Depends on the car. In something with a primitive system, I wouldn't trust it in the wet.

In something like... a W211 Mercedes-Benz E-Class with traction control, stability control and advanced cruise control that uses the brakes even to keep your speed downhill and etc, I wouldn't have a problem.

[EFIwindsor]

I drive down to yamba last week in all the rain QLD northern NSW has. car is a 2003 SRi astra manual. had cruise control on the whole way.

twice the car aquaplained (one side only) t/c came on and car kept going straight.

no problems what so ever.

car is front wheel drive

[Agent86]

my XR6T suffers on cruise in the wet.

I hav hit numerous puddles and the drop in road speed has prompted the cruise to throttle up, traction control has a heart attack and switches off and wit the sudden hit of power form the ignition timing being fed back in, doesnt just mildly wheelspin, it goes bonkers until you get it switched off.

and it didnt kick down out of 3rd..

[jabba]

Originally Posted by EFIwindsor

I drive down to yamba last week in all the rain QLD northern NSW has. car is a 2003 SRi astra manual. had cruise control on the whole way.

twice the car aquaplained (one side only) t/c came on and car kept going straight.

no problems what so ever.

car is front wheel drive

Hence, I did say powerful cars...

[T3man]

This is one of those topics that has been done to death - AND it's not an urban myth.

I'm not going to repeat all the safety reasons here again - it's in the owner's handbook straight from the horse's mouth. That should be good enough reason ....

[MO]

Perhaps ppl should learn to drive..not steer!!!!!!

[XD 351 Ute]

Originally Posted by MO

Perhaps ppl should learn to drive..not steer!!!!!!

Got that right. The smarter the car, the dumber the driver.
All this traction control, ABS crap etc, doesn't matter one bit once you're out of control.
We should be teaching new drivers how to control a car by themselves before allowing them to begin to rely on the driving aids in new cars.

On subject: cruise control should not be used in the rain, I have heard of, and seen the results.

Ed

[normxb]

Thanks for the replies , Gang . It's just the guy who mentioned it to me (John [Johnny] Walker from Parramatta , elusiverunner) is pretty well known for "stretching" things a bit . I just thought I'd get other peoples ideas .

The wife has only used Cruise once , freeway from Yass to Canberra (dry conditions) and didn't like it , I've used it twice , freeway Albury to outskirts of Melb. (Vic speed laws) . We both found that you don't have the same concentration just "pointing the car" . And "Yes" , it disengages when either braking or accelerating . 20y/o daughter tried it once and hated it . So on our car it's never used .

Originally Posted by nb_351

how hard is it to keep an eye on your surroundings and not totally rely on the car doing their work for you...
if they are paying attention, they wouldn't have as much chance of spinning or losing it as they would still be ready for emergency braking... what if a child ran across the road.

Agree with you there , nb_351 , but living in the country you don't get many children on the freeways .

Originally Posted by MO

Perhaps ppl should learn to drive..not steer!!!!!!

Yes MO, I've see quite a few of your replies about this , we must be from the same school , kids should be taught to "drive" , not just to pass their licence test . My kids learnt on an old Telstar , No P/steer , No Aircon.

Originally Posted by T3man

This is one of those topics that has been done to death . It's in the owner's handbook straight from the horse's mouth.

Sorry T3man , I did a search before I started the thread and also not all 2nd hand cars come with handbooks .

Thanks All

Norm

[ef_classic]

I learnt to drive in cars without cruise control, now that i have a car with it i could NEVER go back.

I would consider myself a good driver aswell.

[sgt_doofey]

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/cruise-control-warning.html

[henry 351]

I used to have a Turbo VL Calais 5 speed. I remember climbing a local hill (not a bend) under cruise and she spat sideways (in the wet) whilst building boost.

No harm done, bit of opposite and all sorted. It never happened again because I never used the cruise again in the wet.