OT Cruise control and changing gears

On our Honda, the CC remains engaged so I can keep a constant speed if the road starts to climb and I need to change down. The CC does exactly what I would do without it: come right off the power while the clutch is down and there is no load on the engine; and adjust throttle so the car keeps a constant speed in a different gear with a different load on the engine.

It would be a pain to have to turn it back on every time I changed gear.

Possibly for the Skoda/Seat by a VCDS cable, but info about the exact codes to do it seems vague, it might vary depending if there's an extra switch on the clutch pedal.

My old Audi diesel cruise stayed on and the owners manual said that you had to use the clutch to change gear or the engine would race till the hydraulic tappets limited the revs! The clutch was the temp disengage. As I never was in to clutch-less changes, it worked perfectly for me. It also had rev tweeking so as you lifted your foot off the clutch, the revs were boosted a little giving super smooth changes.

I didn't know that not all cruise controls will apply the brakes like it did if you over shot the speed on a hill descent. The brakes started coming on when you went 5mph faster.

My old Audi diesel cruise stayed on and the owners manual said that you had to use the clutch to change gear or the engine would race till the hydraulic tappets limited the revs! The clutch was the temp disengage. As I never was in to clutch-less changes, it worked perfectly for me. It also had rev tweeking so as you lifted your foot off the clutch, the revs were boosted a little giving super smooth changes.

I didn't know that not all cruise controls will apply the brakes like it did if you over shot the speed on a hill descent. The brakes started coming on when you went 5mph faster.

All the cars that I have driven, with cruise control, have turned it off when the clutch is pressed. Indeed, I have often momentarily dipped the clutch to start dropping in speed prior to a stop, rather than press the more fiddly disengage button.

I'd certainly want it to disengage when I change gears, as I'd likely be speeding up and need a new setpoint or slowing down to either a new speed or stop.

Not a worry for me though, as my daily car is an EV and has no gears and my others cars have no cruise control.

We’ve had both types of CC in our cars. The first time I came across the “non-cutting out” variety it was quite disconcerting. You dab the brakes approaching a roundabout say only to have it start accelerating again.

After a pretty short learning curve I soon got used to it though and I don’t recall it being a problem after the initial surprise.

Tim

Mine cuts out on brake application. You have to resume it. Being an automatic the gearchanges are integrated...

The reason I want it to disengage when changing gear is that for example in a 30 limit I approach a bend that would require you to slow down and drop a gear. I prefer not to use the brakes as I was taught that way.

Although Chris mentions gearing down for a hill as his reason to do the opposite. I'll now be seeing how often I have to gear down for a hill.

Well in the end you earn to drive the car you have to the best of your ability

Or simply apply brakes

I think CC that controls the car's speed with the brakes as well as the throttle are regarded as a more expensive option: one car that I considered buying had throttle-only and throttle-and-brake CC as two different optional extras.

I thought that all CCs disengaged when you pressed the footbrake, but that some allowed it to continue when you press and release the clutch as part of changing gear.

When CC is engaged, I tend to keep my right thumb within reach of the disengage button so I can turn it off at the same point as I would release the accelerator prior to braking in a car without CC.

On a motorway I have become adept at disengaging CC if I come up behind a slower car and I am blocked from moving into the lane on my right, and then pressing the resume button as soon as the overtaking car on my right is far enough ahead of me that I can return to 70 or whatever my chosen speed is.

My wife's Honda CR-V has a CC that remains engaged when you change gear. My Peugeot 308 doesn't have CC but I borrowed a newer Pug in the 20x range (*) which had it, and I *think* that also remained enabled after a gear change. Both disengaged as soon as the footbrake was pressed. The Honda doesn't let you set CC for less than 20 mph, though the speed limiter works down to a much lower speed.

(*) I remember it had a 3-cylinder engine which was much smoother and more lively than I was expecting but which made a very loud, head-turning and highly embarrassing WOOOF bark when you accelerated in first or second.

I suppose I would manually cancel the CC at the same place where I would come off the power in a non-CC car, some distance before I considered braking and/or changing gear.

I also tend to stay in the same gear as I go round the bend (unless I need engine braking) and change when I want to accelerate out of the bend as it straightens out.

I also try to brake before the bend on the straight and not during the bend - unless it is a downhill bend where coming off the brakes on the bend would make me speed up too much. But mostly I try to avoid braking by planning ahead and coming off the power earlier than I would have done before I learned that technique as part of taking and passing my IAM advanced test.

I must be doing something right because my present car has reached a smidgen under 200,000 miles on its original clutch. I've never had a car that has lasted that long on one clutch; in previous cars I've needed a new clutch at about 80-90,000. I reckon if the car can still do a hill-start on a 1:3 hill, the clutch is still OK! I got stuck behind a non-local who ground to a halt on Rosedale Chimney near me in North Yorkshire, so I had to a) do a hill-start in his car after he rolled further back, using up the large safety distance that I had left from his car, and I thought "this guy needs my help otherwise he's going to hit me", and b) in my own car once I got back to it after my errand of mercy. I was quite proud that I got into a strange car with unknown clutch bite point and petrol when I'm used to diesel, and only stalled the first time but I didn't roll back an inch because I'm used to only releasing the handbrake when the car actually starts to strain forwards. Doing the same hill-start in my car afterwards was so much easier because the extra torque meant I didn't need to run the engine as fast to overcome gravity.

I tend to change down just before the start of the hill while I'm on the level (*) if it is a long steep one (Sutton Bank, Porlock Hill, or the one near Broadway), though disc brakes are a lot less prone to fading than drum brakes were. I'm not sure which my last car was that had drum brakes. My wife remembers being a passenger in a friend's motor-caravan with drum brakes all round going down Porlock Hill and there were clouds of smoke coming from the brakes by the bottom because he didn't know about changing to a lower gear for extra engine braking.

I tend to choose a gear that gives me about 2500-3000 rpm in a diesel car or a bit more in a petrol, and supplementing that with less footbrake than otherwise. But that's only on long steep hills, and even on those I wonder how necessary it is in a modern car.

(*) I remember the infamous Dibble's Bridge coach crash between Pateley Bridge and Grassington, when a coach got out of control because the driver missed engaging a lower gear on the descent, and then couldn't engage *any* gear so he went down in neutral (effectively) and the brakes weren't good enough. Every time I go down there, I think of the people that died in that crash.

Our Skoda Superb does that all for you, it detects the car in front and slows down, then accelerates back to the CC set speed when the lane is clear (or you pull out to the empty outside lane).

The Skoda seems to switch between two modes when CC is on, in one mode lifting off the accelerator applies the regenerative brake, in the other mode it just coasts when yoiu release the brake. We've not yet discovered how you swithc modes! :-)

Ah, you are almost certainly right. I was probably just misremembering which pedal I dabbed. Certainly touching the brakes ought to disengage a CC.

Tim

Time you went on a driving style update. If you were forced to have a re-test you may Modern cars are designed to be slowed by the brakes and have weedy clutches.. From the Institute of Advanced Motorists

These days, we recommend "block changing". Use the brakes to slow down, then, when the speed is right; choose the gear that is best for that speed. So, when approaching a red traffic light you may move from fifth gear, say, straight to first, after you have finished braking. Brake pads are cheaper to replace than clutches and transmission."

Dave

I thought the IAM had recommended block changing for a long time. Depends when "these days" is ;-)

I can remember in the mid seventies when my mum prepared for her IAM test she found it difficult to get used to block changing, so it must have been taught then.

When I took my ordinary test in 1981, I was taught to change down sequentially because that was what the test required in those days. But my instructor was an ex police Class 1 instructor and after I passed my test he confessed that it pained him greatly to teach sequential changing because the police and other advanced drivers had been block changing "for years". I'd find it very difficult to go back to changing down from 6 -> 5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1 as I did for my test. Block changing and progressive braking took a bit to master ten years later for my IAM test, but they are deeply engrained now, like push-pull steering (ie not letting either hand pass the 12 o'clock point in normal driving). Mind you, I evolved a technique of making the fewest number of the largest movements (12 to 6 o'clock, then 6 to 12 with the opposite hand) whereas I was taught a slower, more fussy technique of making a lot more smaller movements, as seen on the unintentionally hilarious film "Journey Without Incident" made by the IAM's chief examiner in

I'm not sure when the ordinary test first allowed (or even encouraged) block changing.

That's when I get frustrated at your inability to drive and overtake you.

Most peoples recollection of Porlock hill is the clouds of smoke and steam after going UP it :-)