Cruise Control Oddity

I had my Leaf cruise control act up a bit yesterday. I searched and didn't find any other reports. I'm just wondering if anyone else has seen this.

I was on cruise control at 61 MPH last night. I had been on cruise for about 10 miles and everything was fine and suddenly, the car started slowing down. I looked down to see the speed drop to about 56 and then stabilize. The display showed that the cruise control was still set. My hand was nowhere near the cruise control buttons/toggle and my foot was not touching any pedal.

After establishing that nothing looked wrong on the displays (other than the speed), I flicked the toggle up a few times, slowly, until I was back at 61. It behaved fine the rest of the trip home (another 5 miles).

Note that the cruise control never actually disengaged as it would if I pressed the brake or pushed CANCEL. It was as if flicked down the toggle a few times (though I did not).

I am happy that if the cruise control decided to screw up, it slowed down instead of increasing speed. However, in all of my years of driving, including 4 years in a Gen II Prius with a similar cruise control, I have never had this happen. Just a little disconcerting.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

I've probably used cruise control for close to 2000 miles so far, and never had a hiccup like that. It drifts no more than 1 mph except when going down hills. The closest I had to seeing something similar was when my wife tried to open the console compartment and grabbed the parking brake lever instead. But you would know if that happened - red lights lit up on the dash. Besides, I'm sure it didn't stabilize at a lower speed. I can't remember now whether it dropped out (probable) or slowed and went back up to speed when I yelped and she released the lever.

Ray

I use the cruise control a lot. I have never seen the speed drop off unless cancel, brake, or toggle switch is touched. You did not happen to bump the "shifter" to change from D to ECO, did you? That might change the speed set point. I really like how steady the cruise control holds the speed--even down hill unless the hill is too steep for regeneration to hold it back.

I would keep using it and not worry about it unless it happens again. If it happens again, take it to the dealer for diagnosis and repair because it should not do that.

Gerry

GerryAZ said:

I use the cruise control a lot. I have never seen the speed drop off unless cancel, brake, or toggle switch is touched. You did not happen to bump the "shifter" to change from D to ECO, did you? That might change the speed set point.

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Nope. I switch between D and ECO periodically while cruise control is on. Never had any effect on speed.

DoxyLover said:

I was on cruise control at 61 MPH last night.

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Off topic, but curious. Why 61? Because that is really 60?

When my LEAF says 61, my Garmin GPS says 60.

Bill

ebill3 said:

When my LEAF says 61, my Garmin GPS says 60.

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Due to GPS sampling errors, you really can't count on them to provide an accurate speed.

DarkStar said:

ebill3 said:

When my LEAF says 61, my Garmin GPS says 60.

Click to expand...

Due to GPS sampling errors, you really can't count on them to provide an accurate speed.

Click to expand...

Really? I'll take the GPS indicated speed over a speedo any time.

Bill

ebill3 said:

DoxyLover said:

I was on cruise control at 61 MPH last night.

Click to expand...

Off topic, but curious. Why 61? Because that is really 60?

When my LEAF says 61, my Garmin GPS says 60.

Bill

Click to expand...

I was keeping my speed down to save extend range and 60 just felt too slow! :lol:

Interesting, and not surprising, that no one else has seen this. I'll keep an eye out for further occurances.

Thanks all.

ebill3 said:

DarkStar said:

ebill3 said:

When my LEAF says 61, my Garmin GPS says 60.

Click to expand...

Due to GPS sampling errors, you really can't count on them to provide an accurate speed.

Click to expand...

Really? I'll take the GPS indicated speed over a speedo any time.

Click to expand...

A typical GPS can only tell its "speed" by calculating the distance between two samples and comparing that by the time it took. While a lot of GPS systems say things like "60 Hz," the software usually runs at a lot slower rate to save the battery adding to the margin of error.

Personally, my experience is that the Leaf is within a mile-per-hour when traveling at 40 MPH. Depending on tire pressure, it's probably even closer than that...

I have not seen the cruise control change speed, either. Sounds like a defective switch or wires in the steering column.

I think it's just that some Leafs are smarter than others - saving you some juice. :lol: