dhean

Is this also true for cars with VSA? Anybody had first hand experience care to chime in?

ZX11

It isn't obvious to a lot of people. My wife is from florida and thought the cruise control would keep her from going too fast when the roads got bad. Her Z-71 cruise control kicked the rear out on an icy spot and shot her across the median at the on coming freeway lane. She tried correcting and missed the head on with a semi trailer, but wound up rolling several times in the median. She was seatbelted in and only got bruised up. Cruise control is only for clean dry roads.

A young lady and her baby was killed the same day across town when her truck lost control, crossed the median, and hit a semi head on. I am thinking her cruise control was on.

__redruM

Do you want to be the first?

Its should improve matters somewhat by keeping the tires closer in speed. And by helping the recovery. But the real problem is, that when hydroplaning the car slows down from both wind resistance and water resistance. But the tires continue on at the same speed (60mph for example), until either the puddle ends, or the speed drops below amount needed to hydroplane (40 mph for example). The tires hit the road, and jolt the car out of control. And with a diff, chances are they'll be going different speeds. A limited slip diff and VSA help there, but on already fairly wet roads, it tough for VSA to correct the speed difference and the loss of balance.

Vik2000

It just occurs to me that using cruise control in rain is not good. Prob read it somewhere.

Ahnold

Thank you!

Yes, the cruise had been set for a while. I hit some water, the ECU saw the vehicle speed slow down and attempted to speed up, causing the loose rear end.

This is my first RWD car, with enough power, to have this happen. I've always had FWD cars. I posted this to warn others about it.

mxt_77

It's amazing how few people know this. I pointed this out to my sister when she turned her cruise control on in the rain just a few months back. She's 40 years old and was not aware of this issue.

Here's another random fact. You shouldn't use metal utensils when cooking in a teflon-coated pan/skillet because you'll damage the coating. An ex-girlfriend of mine didn't know that, so now all of my teflon-coated cookware is scratched up.

But at least she knew her place was in the kitchen!

Tee-Dub

Man, you guys are a bunch of ninnys. Don't use the cruise in the rain? You've got to be kidding me. It rains a lot in my part of the country and I've used the cruise on every car I've ever owned with no threat of spin outs or the like. This car isn't that powerful that it will just break em loose when the cruise kicks in. Maybe you need new tires? Honestly, I've never hear of anything so foolish. If the weather is so bad that there is standing water everywhere, you probably shouldn't be so relaxed with your driving to use the cruise control. Normal to moderate rain, I use it when ever on the highway and there isn't heavy traffic.

Could this possibly be a problem with the newer DBW cars? My 05 kicks the power in very smoothly when the cruise is set. I think the only car that had a smoother cruise engagement was my 1997 BMW 540i that I owned prior to this car.

JustinsanE

Are you really bragging about the fact that you use cruise control in the rain?? You have fun with that....hopefully you aren't proven wrong by a head on collision with a semi.....

Woodson

ECale3

Ha...Good luck with that. It only takes once for it to kill you .