Adding 'Cruise Control'

All I kept thinking on the 500 mile round trip in my '94 Metro last week was "If only this thing had a cruise control..." does anyone else's right leg cramp after three hours?

I'm wondering what it would take to add/enable cruise control on a Metro without this blessed feature, ideally OEM (used parts?) but possibly aftermarket. Would a module and switch just snap into a wiring harness somewhere (can't be that simple) or is my dream a major overhaul?

After checking out the after market cruise controls, I decided that it was too expensive and too labor intensive for me to do. I ended up going to NAPA auto parts and purchasing a $6.00 manual choke cable assembly. I drilled a hole in a small plate in my dash to the right and below the steering column and mounted the choke cable there. I cut it to length and bent the cable to pull the gas pedal lever out when I pulled the choke knob. Make sure that when the knob is pushed in, the gas pedal has free travel. Now when my foot and leg need a rest, I pull the choke knob out until it matches the speed I want to maintain. Don't use it in heavy traffic, because it doesn't "shut off" when the brake is pushed. This is a cheap and effective alternate to cruise control.

All I kept thinking on the 500 mile round trip in my '94 Metro last week was "If only this thing had a cruise control..." does anyone else's right leg cramp after three hours?

I'm wondering what it would take to add/enable cruise control on a Metro without this blessed feature, ideally OEM (used parts?) but possibly aftermarket. Would a module and switch just snap into a wiring harness somewhere (can't be that simple) or is my dream a major overhaul?

If the car did not come with cruise it is a bear cat and expensive to put oem on it.
Some after market places make after market cruise control setups.
And some places specialize in installing the setups.
Not as good as OEM but most of them do work.
Check around in your area and see what you can find.
Good Luck

I found a really cool site on how to install this cruise control kit on the Metro, check this out!

http://users.adelphia.net/~elfiso/cruise.htm

I'm probably gonna end up adding cruise control to my Metro because my feet and ankles kept numbing up on my last big road trip (1,540 miles in 23 hours, OK to PA, roundtrip total of over 3,000 miles)

Heres some other posts on cruise at Teamswift.net

http://www.teamswift.net/viewtopic.php?p=130629
http://www.teamswift.net/viewtopic.php?p=156859

Previous posts on this forum about cruise:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=533495&highlight=cruise+control
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=366909&highlight=cruise+control
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=243826&highlight=cruise+control

Thanks for the info Irk, this unit looks very promising with some good reviews.

I ordered it today from Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00029WQTW/ref=cm_sp_item/103-6204797-5523043) with free shipping for $89.95, and threw in some filters with my order to boost it over $99 to qualify for their $20 off $99 automotive parts promotion (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/1000012331/ref=amb_link_3745972_2/103-6204797-5523043). Everything rang-up correctly, so I got the cruise unit for $69.95! There's even a $3 mail-in rebate (http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html/103-6204797-5523043?location=http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/00/10/00/16/63/13/100016631317.pdf&token=FD5C8E0AC014164CD5C9E3BB1C3EF8AE47DB0555) for the Fram Filters!

I'll follow-up after the installation. :uhoh:

Thanks everyone for your replies!

I installed the Audiovox CCS-100 Cruise Control three days ago; the process went fairly well thanks to the ‘elfiso’ file (http://users.adelphia.net/%7Eelfiso/cruise.htm) sited by Irk. After reading some of the other forums sited, connecting the servo cable directly to the accelerator pedal was a pearl of wisdom used; that also changed my mounting location on the firewall. Otherwise, the elfiso how-to was followed and the details were extremely helpful; the Audiovox manual (http://www.audiovox.com/manuals/owners/1284540_OM.pdf) was confusing at times.

I am REALLY enjoying this thing. Just wish I would have installed it two years ago. It operates perfectly and my quality of life just shot up three notches. Good-bye right leg cramps! This is easily the best $70 I’ve put into this car, and I recommend it to anyone pondering a cruise control option.

Thanks again for the replies.

That's a useful post - I considered installing this about 2 years ago and never got around to it. Couple of questions - how did you measure the PPM from the VSS and did you need to use a vacuum canister due to the size of the engine. My FSM does not mention the PPM and short of hooking up a scope I am not sure about this figure. Bit of a confusing term PPM in this context - I'm used to seeing it used for Pulse Position Modulation.

I did not measure the PPM from the VSS, credit goes out to ‘elfiso’ and the informative how-to at that link – all the figurin’ has been done for ya. The how-to walks you through all the unit settings and which wires to tap into, I would have been lost without it. I should mention that I’m just eighteen, and a girl, learning how to maintain her own car. Installing the cruise unit with just the Audiovox instruction manual would have been a bit beyond my novice level; the online how-to made it easy to finish in one afternoon.

A Reference Manual is supplied with the kit that lists makes and models of cars. It lists the PPM for Metros should be set to 4,000. This is the setting ‘elfiso’ makes.

No secondary vacuum canister was needed; my 1.0L has what’s needed to control the throttle. I should mention that there aren’t any significant hills where I live. I will be driving 340 miles in unknown territory this week, will post if there are any disappointments.

I can try to take some pictures of where I mounted the servo and connected the cable, that may help someone.

Thanks to Irk for the informative post, that really helped.

OK thanks for the info and the detailed post. I must say I'm very impressed that you are learning to maintain your own car - I know so many people (including guys) who know very little about cars.