Read for your driving safety

[Calamity Jake]

We all spend more time with a steering wheel in our hands
than we do with our guns in our hands. Everyone who drives
should read this and be thankful for it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEVER KNEW THIS BEFORE.
I wonder how many people know about this?

A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks
ago and totaled her car.

A resident of Kilgore, Texas, she was traveling
between Gladewater & Kilgore. It was raining, though
not excessively, when her car suddenly began to
hydroplane and literally flew through the air. She
was not seriously injured but very stunned at the
sudden occurrence!

When she explained to the highway patrolman what had
happened he told her something that every driver should know:

- NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON.

She had thought she was being cautious by setting the
cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain.

But the highway patrolman told her that if the
cruise control is on and your car begins to hydroplane --
when your tires lose contact with the pavement, your
car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed and you
take off like an airplane. She told the patrolman that
was exactly what had occurred.

The highway patrol estimated her car was actually
traveling through the air at 10 to 15 miles per hour
faster than the speed set on the cruise control.

The patrolman said this warning should be listed,
on the driver's seat sun-visor:

NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY,

along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set
the cruise control and drive a safe speed -
but we don't tell them to use the cruise control
only when the pavement is dry.

[StarMetal]

Now wait a minute. You have your cruise control on and you begin to hydroplane, when your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will acclerate to higher speed, and you take off like an airplane.

If you are hydroplaning you've already taken off like an airplane just about. How can you accelerate faster if your tires lose contact with the pavement? Sounds like a bunch of bull to me. First let me tell you this. I have cruise in my truck. My truck has a manual transmission. I was in cruise one day and coming to a mountain hill and I was in 5 gear overdrive. I was going to do a test and see if I could shift down to 4th gear to better climb the hill. When I threw the clutch in the cruise control cut out. Now I might try a test with my wife's car which has an automatic transmission and that is be in the cruise control mode and then shift the car into neutral to see if it cuts out. My thinking here, at least with my truck and manual tranny, is that if it hydroplanes the tires lose traction thus the engine spins up to a higher rpm being there's less resistance on the drive train, so in effect it would be the same as when I pushed the clutch in....the cruise would cut out.

Anyone have any ideas or comments?

Joe

[grumble]

I'd say it depends on where the sensor is for the CC. If the feed is off the drive wheels (which most are, either from the anti-skid system or the speedometer input, or even the older magnets on the driveshaft type), the CC doesn't know actual speed, it only knows how fast the drive wheels are turning. So, if you hydoplane or get on some black ice, the CC will just keep the drive wheel going at the same RPM as it was set to. This could cause the drive wheel(s) to slip causing a spin, but it wouldn't accelerate suddenly.

[David R]

ON a stick shift, there is a switch on the clutch pedal so it doesn't over rev when the clutch is pushed especially when you go up a hill (mph too low).

On the older cars, there was a pulley with a ball chain between the brake and clutch pedal. Push on either one and the cruise shuts off. Newer cars use the brake light switch and a seperate switch on the clutch pedal. NOT the same one it uses to start.

On an automatic depending on the year, when you put it in neutral it will accelerate the engine, or in the newer cars, it knows what gear the selector is in and will cut out also.

Newer cars know how fast the engine is turning, (cam and crankshaft) the torque converter, the driveshaft and each wheel. The computer figures out how to operate the cruise, ABS, traction control, fuel injection, and timing from all that info. It can also tell if you have a low tire.


A nice new ford will have a computer for ride control, electric seat, transmission, sound system, security system, cruise control, climate control, a body computer, and one for the engine. These computers all have to get along.

David

[grumble]

Interesting stuff, David. Can you think of any combination that would allow a vehicle's cruise control to automatically accelerate strongly while hydroplaning or on slick ice? (other than the vehicle slowing down, that is.)

[NVcurmudgeon]

Thanks, Calamity. I'll tell SWMBO as soon as she gets home, she has cruise, and we live in icy road country. I am too old school to abide cruise on my vehicles!

[waksupi]

I've experienced the problems with CC on inclement roads. They can be bad news. Don't use it on wet or ice.
Snowing like crazy here, with high wind. The commute home was interesting! Zero visiblity in many areas.

[KCSO]

N/E Nebraska 0 degree's up from 15 below and snowing with a 25-30 mph wind from the north. Just another day in paradise. I also won't use cc on the slick stuff.

[Lee W]

I do this for my mother all the time...

Mother, please,
http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/wetroad.asp

At least the flying throught the air part.

[JCherry]

I have a similar experience with cruise control several years ago though it does not involve hydroplaning or ice but instead it was wet brakes. Myself and another LE were transporting an arrestee across southern Arizona for an appointment with a Federal Magistrate. As normal we had a long way to go and a short time to get there so I was expediting my travel on a paved highway across a remote unpopulated Saguaro and Greasewood desert.

Updated to add; The highway was completely dry where I was just the washes were wet.

It had rained somewhere up in the mountains and a few of the washes were running slightly. I went through a couple of washes that had a few inches of water in them after which I would “dry“ out the brakes by applying them lightly to dry them out. I got back up to my Warp III cruising speed and applied the cruse control again thinking it was clear sailing as I had never seen the washes in front of me running, ever.

Well I was wrong, up comes another wash running about a foot deep. I applied the brakes and nothing happened, no braking, no slow down, no let up of acceleration. The acceleration did not increase but it did not let up when I wanted to slow down fast!!!! In retrospect it SEEMED like it was accelerating though it wasn’t.

I braked as hard as I could no slowing down, not a bit. The wash was coming up fast so I tightened up hard on the steering wheel as I knew I was going through it at full steam ahead no choice at all. Some poor innocent had just entered the wash from the other side, he had his drivers window down all the way.

I hit the water, I felt just a twitch of the rear end wanting to go to the side but a slight correction and we made it all the way through the wash in one piece and all four wheels still on the ground. Two walls of water that Moses would have been proud of shot up on either side of my vehicle. The poor innocent individual got at least 5 or 6 gallons, a window full of water for sure. He was one unlucky som beach, he must have literally been the only other vehicle for fifty miles either way and he was right there right then.

By that point in time I was able to move my hand enough on the steering wheel to hit the off button for the cruise control and began to slow things down a bit.

The arrestee, who was in the front passenger seat was belted in and handcuffed behind his back, had eyes the size of dinner plates. The other LE asked me why I did not brake saying he had not seen my leg move. I told him my leg did not move because I was literally standing on the brake for all I was worth.

We both knew right away what the problem had been, wet brakes did not allow the cruse control to shut down when I hit the brakes. We pulled over, found no damage and continued on our way, just another border incident.

Cruse Control is convenient but it will come up and try to bite once in a while.

Have Fun,

JCherry

[Herb in Pa]

I experienced a very different kind of cruise control on Saturday. I was passing a vehicle and punched the throttle as is my custom every now and then to "blow out the dust" well the damn pedal stayed to the metal and we were off to the races. It took a few seconds to figure out why I was still accelerating with the brakes mashed full on. I kicked it up into neutral where the rev limiter promptly started to break up the ignition. After I got it pulled over I started and restarted the engine several times with the same result. I finally yanked on the damn pedal to slow things down. It went to the dealer this morning..........it's a 2001 Ranger that I bought new and only has 9000 miles on it! Anyone else hear of a problem with this year and truck??

[imashooter2]

This is pretty standard urban legend. Advice from an unknown but semi authoritative source dispensed to an unknown recipient that just wants to help by passing it on to the world.

Do you suppose that if using the cruise control in the rain could make cars fly the auto companies would print a warning in big bold letters in the owners manual?

[StarMetal]

Oh Herb, I can't help it. It's called F O R D...found on roadside dead, or fix, oil, repair daily. Contrary to what you may hear about it being First On Race Day is incorrect....that was mistakenly changed from First Outta commission Race Day.

Hey Herb, what do you expect a Chevy man to say about a Ford? All in good humor.

I certainly hope they fix it, imagine if a younger person was driving it when it happen, and old lady or something, old man for that fact...crash... yikes.

Joe

[Herb in Pa]

It's the first (and probably last Ford) I will own, I replaced all the tires at 6000 miles due to cupping. The good folks at Ford said "so sorry, it's out of warranty" I found out that they installed the wrong size tires on the damn thing........the fix was to replace the 245x75R 16's with 255x70R 16's, which they would do if it was less than a year old. So I get to pay for Ford's stupidity. Goodyear was somewhat sympathetic...they replaced all four tires for $150. The dealer is going to get into a pissing contest with me over this sticking throttle problem!!

It's either MOPAR or Japomatic for me next time!!