Spiral cable or not?

A couple months ago my cruise control started acting weird. Resume wouldn't work sometimes, the green light lit but cruise wouldn't engage stuff like that. This got worse and soon became one day cruise works normal, the next day it won't. Now cruise control is completely dead.

This is a 14 regular cab that had the cruise installed by the previous owner. The question is would you start with the OEM cruise stalk ($$) or go straight to the spiral cable ($$$?)

 

If you have OEM cruise, you can find matching sticks cheap on Amazon. They may not last forever, but easy enough to check. I did it 3 years ago, easy. Of course, I'm going to need a re-replacement soonish....

 

So based on the finicky operation of the cruise you feel it's the stalk?

 

Does your horn work? Does the cruise light on the dash light up when you turn it on?

 

Yup.

 

Does your cruise light turn on at all when you activate it?

 

Not anymore.

 

If you don't want to hassle with the airbag right away, you can take resistance measurements from the S8 (if I recall) socket at the bottom of the steering column. Put a meter on it, and run the stalk through the different positions and see if you are getting the different resistance measurements.

The cruise operates through one wire. The stalk sends different signals by changing the resistance coming across the one wire.

If you're getting some, but not all, it's likely the stalk. If you're not getting anything, it could either be the clock spring or that stalk and you will have to take the step of taking the airbag off and measuring to see if stalk is correctly signalling the various resistance. If so, you can check for clock spring continuity from behind the steering wheel to the S8 socket.

The horn working but cruise not even activating lends more to a bad stalk, but when I installed my cruise (I have a base 2013) my horn was working fine, but cruise didn't work (new stalk). I measured for continuity from input to output, and determined it was the specific trace for the cruise.

Pulling the clock spring and taking it apart, I found a TINY wear spot on the spring ONLY on the trace for the cruise. The other traces were worn in the same general area, so eventually they all would have worn through.

Other possibilities are:

If you have a manual, it could also be a faulty switch/circuit
If you are getting the resistance readings off S8 correctly, it could be the ONE wire/wiring going to the ECU from the steering column

 

Assuming my first stalk was OE, which I presume, that's how it died. Bit by bit, affecting nothing else. My replacement has slowly started misbehaving, Turing cruise OFF when I try to set. Now and then, it doesn't like to cancel. But they don't cost much, so I'll do it again when that's my major worry!

 

Does cruise control work if you turn the wheel stop to stop? If so, it’s the spiral cable

 

Not sure if mine was exact like yours. My cruise never worked from the time I bought the truck. My problem ended up being the small cable between the spiral cable and the switch. Part number was

$60 84633-04020 Cruise Control Switch Wire

84633-04020. My switch was fine. Good Luck.

 

Spiral cable. Purchase from Dealer using your VIN. Take that back, missed the part about the previous owner's installation. I'll leave it to the experts.

 

No it chooses when it wants to work. Ironically, it worked again for a trip yesterday. First time in probably a month or so.