cruise control engaged by itself

I have 98 Passat V6. I rarely use cruise control and this morning I had no intention to use it. Today morning was very cold in my area –26C, I was driving to work when suddenly my cruise control engaged by itself. The car started to speed up I kept my feet on brake to slow down the car but the cruise didn’t want to disengage. I did exit the highway and tried to stop the car. Meantime, I was playing with the switch to turn off this thing but no luck. I pushed the brake pedal to slow down us much as I could and turn off the engine. It was scary experience and I was lucky that the highway was not busy. I sit in the car for a while than I turned the engine again. Everything went back to normal. Have you ever heard about something like this? There is no engine light or anything so I am afraid if I go to the dealer they will tell me that everything is OK…

:eek: Scary is right....Glad your safe....I had this happen to me once with my 99 Passat, but when I was able to finally get the car stopped and off, I just played with the switch, got it to dis-engage and never had the problem again. My Car was also not in the best electrical stage when I bought it. I had to replace a lot of wires, plug the brain back in and replace all fuse's, so that might have been part of my problem.....So for you, just check all fuse's and wires and hope that everything looks fine. If it does it again, sorry to say I would just take it in. If it does not happen again, you just had a bad spirit with you that wanted to go fast and be glad that hic-hiker is gone. Good Luck

98-99-00 passats most common problem with the cruise is the actual cruise module itsself. Its behind the glovebox. I have never heard of the car taking off by itsself but it would more lead me to believe that the throttle body was stuck because 98 has throttle cable.