Cruise control in the wet?

[King Nothing]

Just got this in an email. Seems like it may be possible, but im not totally sure. Could it be true?


FYI, Drive carefully.
I wonder how many people know about this?
A 36-year-old female had an accident several weeks ago and totalled her car. A resident of Wollongong , NSW, she was travelling between Wollongong & Sydney . It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly began to hydroplane and literally flew through the air.
She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence!
When she explained to the policeman what had happened, he told her something that every driver should know - NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON.
She had thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain.
But the policeman told her that if the cruise control is on and your car begins to hydroplane -- when your tyres lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed and you take off like an airplane. She told the policeman that was exactly what had occurred.
The policeman estimated her car was actually travelling through the air at 10 to 15 kms per hour faster than the speed set on the cruise control.
The policeman said this warning should be listed, on the driver's seat sun-visor - NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY, along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise control and drive a safe speed - but we don't tell them to use the cruise control only when the road is dry.
The only person the accident victim found, who knew this (besides the policeman), was a man who had had a similar accident, totalled his car and sustained severe injuries. If you send this to 15 people and only one of them doesn't know about this, then it was all worth it. You might have saved a life.

[EA2BA]

When the wheels loose control on the road they do spin faster but then cruise will cut the throttle to get the car back to speed so in fact slow down. Oh and becoming an airplane because of spinning wheels is the best laugh I have had today

I do believe that email is another bogus myth that likes to do the rounds.

[Aeron]

EA2BA is on the money. It wouldn't happen. The wheel spin would be detected and the throttle percentage would be reduced and the wheels would stop spinning.

[Powdered Toast Man]

I'm pretty sure there was a thread on this a while back. Somebody else must have received the same email.

[Charliewool]

This has been posted before.... Here's "Snopes" answer...
http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/wetroad.asp

Oh.. And notice the places where this supposedly happened?.. NSW then Texas..

[Turbot]

Fairly certain there was also a thread on the xr6t forum of a member crashing when the cruise control decided to drop down a gear in the wet uphill, which lead to turbo boost loss of traction and big badda boom.

[arm79]

Your glovebox manual has in it not to use cruise control in these conditions.

Not only is it something reasonably logical, but it's written down in a book. Maybe you need to pull the book out and read about the car a bit.

[mcflux]

Originally Posted by Turbot

Fairly certain there was also a thread on the xr6t forum of a member crashing when the cruise control decided to drop down a gear in the wet uphill, which lead to turbo boost loss of traction and big badda boom.

The only way I could see this happening would be if someone was doing 50, and the cruise was previously set to 100, and then cruise is engaged for some reason.

[King Nothing]

Yeah, I agree the whole flying through the air thing was a load of rubbish, I did laugh when it said it was travelling through the air at 15km over the cruise control :

But what sfr_rob has said makes sense to me, it's what I was thinking could be possible

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Turbot

Fairly certain there was also a thread on the xr6t forum of a member crashing when the cruise control decided to drop down a gear in the wet uphill, which lead to turbo boost loss of traction and big badda boom.

That can happen, It happened while I was Driving up a wet hill in one of mums old cars, a NL Fairlane Ghia... Scary..

[chevypower]

instead of saying "never use cruise control in the wet", it might be more appropriate to simply say "drive according to the road conditions" which may mean cruise control is inappropriate for certain sections of the road, which may include tight bends, or other sections where careful cornering, acceleration and deceleration is needed. Or in other words, use "common sense". I am sure cruise control is ok on freeways in the wet if a constant speed is safely maintainable.

[GXL078]

I was surpised on my Mazda that when I pushed the clutch in to shift from 5th to 4th going up a hill the cruise didnt disengage and the engine over reved. I thought there was a clutch switch

[FTE72]

Originally Posted by xcgxl

I was surpised on my Mazda that when I pushed the clutch in to shift from 5th to 4th going up a hill the cruise didnt disengage and the engine over reved. I thought there was a clutch switch

Every manual with cruise I have ever owned did have such a switch, but it was never an immedeate disengagement.

[lukey]

I'm pretty sure thats crap lol

[arm79]

Only difference with cruise is that it wont react as quickly as a human.

It wont detect any slip initially and pull the throttle like a human and his foot will. And by the time the cruise does pull back, chances are the damage is done and there is no recovering.

[Grechie]

lol @ airoplane

[sfr rob]

that is not a myth, i mean.. well it kinda is.
This is my example of it happening to me in my BA.
I was driving on the hwy at night cruise on 110, noticed the roads were wet like it was raining a few hours earlier, no reason to turn cruise off.
We approached a hill and i noticed some water running off the side of the road, over the top there was a dip in the road, full of water because of blocked drains.
Car aquaplaned, cruise decided to kick down into 3rd at about 4000rpm because wheel speed slowed as i hit the water and i 'lost' control.
So i drove all the way home without cruise that night.

From my experience, YES, if you aquaplane with cruise on the car will kickdown because it thinks it has slowed down.

Hence the reason why every time I jump in my car now, before i click clack the seat belt, I flick the traction control off.

[HLC]

Originally Posted by sfr rob

Hence the reason why every time I jump in my car now, before i click clack the seat belt, I flick the traction control off.

i do that.

ive been caught out many a times in greasy intersections where the car has begun to slip, TC kicks in, car gains tractions again, but i am pointing in some funny direction. its much easier to get off the gas or control the car yourself.

[Envi XR8]

well I don't use cruise in the wet, because I like to be in control in those conditions.

The scariest experience I had with cruise was when the brake light switch failed in my EF. I hit the brake to slow down and the car kicked down 2 gears to second and took off. The brake light did not turn the cruise off cause the switch was stuffed and cruise encountered a sudden and massive resistance......and tried to counter it...

Never forget that, put my foot on the brake and car tried to speed up. bit of a dilema there I tell ya. Always been weary of cruise since then....

[arm79]

Originally Posted by Envi XR8

well I don't use cruise in the wet, because I like to be in control in those conditions.

The scariest experience I had with cruise was when the brake light switch failed in my EF. I hit the brake to slow down and the car kicked down 2 gears to second and took off. The brake light did not turn the cruise off cause the switch was stuffed and cruise encountered a sudden and massive resistance......and tried to counter it...

Never forget that, put my foot on the brake and car tried to speed up. bit of a dilema there I tell ya. Always been weary of cruise since then....

You should have hit the brake harder, then the backup switch would have kicked in.

[XR06T]

Originally Posted by Envi XR8

well I don't use cruise in the wet, because I like to be in control in those conditions.

The scariest experience I had with cruise was when the brake light switch failed in my EF. I hit the brake to slow down and the car kicked down 2 gears to second and took off. The brake light did not turn the cruise off cause the switch was stuffed and cruise encountered a sudden and massive resistance......and tried to counter it...

Never forget that, put my foot on the brake and car tried to speed up. bit of a dilema there I tell ya. Always been weary of cruise since then....

im surprised we dont hear more stories like this as the brake light switch fail is common in that series!

[arm79]

Originally Posted by XR06T

im surprised we dont hear more stories like this as the brake light switch fail is common in that series!

Which is why they have a backup switch. I've known many cars to have perfectly working cruise control, even if the brake light switch is broken. Been there and tested it myself.

[The Monty]

Biggest load of crap I have ever heard. I drive with cruise on in the wet, and have aqualplaned when using cruise in the wet. All you do is have your hand near to where cruise is located, car starts getting slippy, tap the button and its off. Gee that must be hard. And how can the car be going faster than the cruise is set at, thats the stupidest thing Ive heard....EVER!!!!

And SFR rob, I believe YOU 100%. When you hit water, you slow down pretty damn quick, the cruise is only trying to do what its been told. Didnt mean to come over harsh, Im just stating facts.

[sfr rob]

yeah the flying though the air this is crap, with the price of airline tickets everyone would be doing it!
On that point, I agree 100%
But my car DID slam 3rd and sent the **** out in the wet when i aquaplaned with cruise on, easy to come un stuck, makes sense if you think about it really.

[The Monty]

I can see exactly whats happend sfr rob, and I believe it 100%. I just dont believe the flying part.

[bathurst77]

"when your tyres lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed and you take off like an airplane. She told the policeman that was exactly what had occurred."

BZZT Wrong
when your tyres lose contact with the pavement, the wheels would start to spin faster, the cruise sensors would read this as the car getting faster and decrease the throttle so slowing the car, similar to going down hill.

So in the wet cruise is more likely to keep momentarily slowing the car making it a bit jerky, but it wouldnt lead to the car speeding up.

This email and thread was discussed about 6 months back here, use the search.

[smally289]

I got this email too and thought it was crap. I doubted the ability of the cruise to pull the throttle open that savagely, causing wheel spin. It never seems to on the road from my experience. Maybe I never got into an aquaplaning situation.
BUT, try and set the cruise on the dyno rollers..... HOLY HELL!! Injector cut here we come, and very quickly.

[jonk]

Never driven a car that didn't have both cruise and some form of traction control which would mitigate this scenario happening, all my cars have had both.

[XR6_661]

Maybe she was driving a JET 747 hektik VL?

[T3man]

The story is BS. Which is sad because it will tend to make people believe that the whole "don't use CC in the wet" line is also BS.

Believe me it is NOT. The fact is that it is downright dangerous to use CC in the wet. The momentary delay between it's sensors operating in an emergency situation is long enough to cause terminal loss of control. It is not going to happen often, the speed and conditions would have to be just right - or wrong as the case may be. However it is a very real danger and even moreso in an auto trans car as some people have stated.

DO NOT USE CC IN THE WET.

PS. Owners manuals should go further than stating in general terms that CC should be used only when "conditions warrant" or something similar. They should describe the dangers because a lot of people just don't know. You should also never use CC in undulating or twisty country roads. It really should ONLY be used in freeway type conditions in fine weather.