I've had cruise on my Evo since new. I use cruise so much I find it hard to maintain steady speed without it.

Coming back from a Thanksgiving road trip I observed the cruise slowly going away. Yesterday I finally had a look at it and found the cable housing had slipped. So, I tightened the clamp and in doing that I unknowingly crushed the cable sheath.

Off for a test drive on Highway 2 and nothing. Heading home, I hit the resume button one more time and she went to WOT (the engine sounded great). I was immediatley doing 100 in a 50 mile zone. Cruise off and no effect. The thing was I didn't want to stop right away. There's a good place to pull off but it was a mile or two ahead.

I applied the brakes expecting speed to pull right down. I got the speed down to 83 by standing on the brakes when it dawned on me I was going to smoke them before reaching legal speed and killed the ignition.

The cruise cable had finally moved and there it stuck. Cleared that and drove home. What surprised me was that the engine can just about overpower the brakes.

 

Well, that was a dangerous experience

Remember the unintended Toyota acceleration issue from years ago. Braking had little effect & a few died as a result

 

Holy crap that doesn't sound fun at all. I'd rip that cruise control out in a heartbeat.

 

Well, I'm talking user error here. The point is, if you have something attached to the accelerator cable it needs to be in working condition before you go for a drive.

The first cruise I had on the car worked better than the OEM in my Subaru. After 10 years the control unit failed. This second unit is one level above junk but everyone else is out of the business. So, yeah, it is going to get pulled.

 

Wait, evos came with cruise control? I was unaware of this lol.

 

Both user installed.

 

So did the cable stick or what is actually the culprit here? I know you mentioned the cable sheath getting crushed but I still dont really understand what they would translate to? Just that it wouldnt allow it to slide back inward? Glad you didnt panic and throw the thing into a guardrail however!

If you come up with some sort of fix for this and keep the cruise installed just remember that you can always clutch in!

Also, is it really that surprising that the engine can overpower the brakes? Have you ever seen a burnout? Yeah not my cup of tea but the name brake stand is derived from something and it's exactly as it sounds.

 

Technically the engine didn't over power the brakes. You slowed down to 83 from 100. I can brake boost my car in any gear and it won't accelerate through the brakes. They are much more "powerful" than the engine.

 

For a pull cable like the accelerator to work the cable sheath needs to be fixed in place at both ends. What I did was clamp the cruise cable sheath to the accelerator cable sheath at the throttle end using the same arrangement and the same clamp that served on the first cruise I had had installed on the car for 10 years.

A good cable sheath is practically indestructible consisting of a spring coated with a low friction plastic on the inside and rubber on the outside. This cable sheath, after two years of service, collapsed enough to allow it to slip through the clamp. That is why the cruise slowly went away on the trip.

Seeing that the cable sheath had slipped I tightened the clamp a little more not realizing the sheath had collapsed. On a test drive the cable was pinned in the sheath until it suddenly overcame the resistance, and the car being underspeed for the setting, pulled full throttle and there it stuck again.

When I returned home and examined the cable I discovered the cable sheath was damaged.

So, anyway, a curious combination of junk parts, stupid on my part and happen-stance.

 

Meh I suppose you're right, and I can't comment on if my brakes are more powerful than my engine bc personally I have no desire to even try.

So how do brake stands even work then? Seems like its exactly that the engine overpowering the brakes, well at least the rear brakes? Perhaps the engine is indeed more powerful than the brakes at least in lower gears?

Not sure it even matters and you'll probably win this argument and we (like always are sorta going OT) but lets hear it boss! School me with knowledge!!

EDIT: Just read your response regarding the sheath and that makes perfect sense. Seems like the easy button would be to replace the cable if you can find one that matches up close enough. Shouldn't be too hard of a fix to make a custom cable if needbe. I've made cable ends with lead solder in the past.

 

Most car have smaller rear brakes than front, so braking power is more towards the front. It only takes a bit of pedal pressure to hold the fronts and let the rears spin up in a RWD car. You aren't standing on the brake pedal to do it.


Now, to brake boost in my car requires a huge brake pedal effort to hold the car back...lol

 

Thanks for the suggestions but it got up to a high of about 20 degrees today. In this kind of weather my interest wanes to where my car projects are limited to things I just have to do. The gas it takes to heat the shop to comfortable would probably heat the house for a week.

 

Yeah good point about the size variance on the rear brakes; I didnt even think about that. But if your brakes can overpower your car then it sounds like you need to up the boost And of course when the brakes become overpowered then it's time to pick up some AP Racing big dogs. Rinse and repeat!

I can understand where you're coming from in regards to working in the cold. That's why I made a point to insulate the crap outa my garage and install a Mitsubishi (wahoo Mitsu lol!) minisplit heat pump. Im sure you'll get it squared away just give it some time and you'll come up with a simple solution!

 

Yeah, the cold sucks. I'll burn through a $30-$40 of propane to keep the shop warm if it 45* out...lol




My brakes don't over power the engine, theyre about equal. The boost is up as high as Aaron and I feel comfortable on the stock rods...lol