Cruise Control in Civic

[McPatrick]

I was wondering if I could retrofit my VX with cruise control. I know it is not exactly a hypermiling technique, but in the future my wife will be driving this VX to work as well, putting more than 200 miles a week on it and I don't see her using any hypermile techniques (have to start with them myself yet). And myself; on longer trips when I have my two year old with me I have enough to do with paying attention to driving plus entertaining him, so realisticly speaking I don't think I will do any P & G there either and then cruise control would be pretty relaxing (plus it is easier to drive slow then).

Anyone have any idea what all I would need to get in parts and what to do to get it working?

Appreciate any comments.

[Sigifrith]

I have an aftermarket unit on my VX. You might talk with some installers in your area to see what is available.

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by McPatrick

I was wondering if I could retrofit my VX with cruise control.

I don't see why not, as there are generic cruse control kits you can add to just about any vehicle. In fact, I'm having my mechanic install one on my CRX. In my case, the unit is about 80% hooked up, but not yet functional, as we don't yet have the electronic speed sensor installed (hopefully my mechanic can get back to it sometime in the next week or two).

Just keep in mind that the generic cruse control kits themselves are around $200, and depending upon the car they can be a PITA to install (i.e. ~ 1/2 hour of a mechanic's time to install if all goes well, and possibly several hours if you have a car that makes it difficult to install such things). So you have to decide if the costs/hassles of installing the cruse control is "worth it" to you (or if it's "too costly"). However, it should certainly be doable, as generic cruse control kits can (with enough work) be installed in just about anything (as the generic kits actually use an electronically controlled servo motor to mechanically move the same throttle you normally move with your foot)!

NOTE:
If (like me) you have a manual transmission, the cruse control won't be able to shift gears. But even on a manual transmission car, you can still install a cruse control and have it adjust the throttle to try to maintain a constant speed (in whatever gear you manually put the car in). For highway driving that should work well, as I rarely (if ever) see a need to be in any gear other than "high" (5th on my CRX) on the highway. So I plan to just put the car in high gear before setting the cruse control...

[McPatrick]

What I am looking for is to get original cruise control equipment on my VX. I have seen several parts offered on Ebay that for instance come out of an EX, but I am wondering which parts I would need. Parts that are offered are these:

Auto Cruise Control Unit P28 MT:



Cruise Control Switch for on the steering wheel:



Cruise Control Switch for in instrument panel:



Would these be all the parts I needed? Any ideas about wiring? And yes, my VX has a manual transmission 9don't believe they even came as an automatic in the US).

[88HF]

DracoFelis: as we don't yet have the electronic speed sensor installed

I was thinking about using a stock honda wheel mounted cruise control switch for my injector shutoff. (I already have a switch, but I'd like to hide it so I can use it as theft deterrence) At any rate, you could probably use the stock VSS. I used it in my 88 crx for the supermid. I have the gauge cluster out of my 90 crx and tested, it would hook up the same way. In the picture its the screw that the shift light unit's green wire is attached to on the left.

[McPatrick]

Ok, so unfortunately I am technically challenged, but I am trying to get it together. What you are saying is that the whole instrument cluster would need to come of to connect a wire to it? Where would this wire originate from?

[88HF]

sorry, I was actually replying to what dracofelis said... that the mechanic had to "hook up a VSS" for the cruise to work. I was simply pointing out that there is an electronic VSS in the cluster on the crx that they could use.
As for your VX the electronic VSS is on the transmission and there is no mechanical speedometer cable. The signal from your transmission runs to both the cluster and ECU, whereas on ours the electronic signal originates in the cluster off the cable-driven speedo cable.
At any rate, you should be able to tap off of the VSS signal in your cluster as well, if you don't want to cut into the wiring harness that goes to the ecu. The clusters are different, so maybe I can try and look it up for you.

[McPatrick]

Well, I looked at the schematics in the manual you so kindly provided me with and ideally I would like to use the existing wiring if possible. I will look at this more closely. Ideally I would go to a salvage yard and take everything of a Civic that has cruise control. Just don't wanna miss anything. I also am trying to estimate how big of a job this would be as far as taking a lot of interior parts or instrument cluster off is concerned. This is a daily driver and I cannot afford to be in a situation where it doesn't work out and then being unable to get for instance the cluster back in again to be able to drive it (or wiring that doesn't work anymore). Wish one of you gurus would live closer by

[88HF]

Your car probably came with cruise as an option so there is probably already a connector you just plug into. If not you get the VSS signal with the following

Your cluster should look something like this on the back:



Your yellow/blue wire from the 12 pin connector is the signal for the speedometer/VSS (pin A2). If you trace out where it goes it should run into a screw on the back of the speedo and you can slip a small gauge wire under the washer to tap in for a signal. Then again, they probably have a place for the cruise unit to all just plug in since cruise control was an option on your car?

[88HF]

Oh, I've driven my 89 civic hatch with no cluster. Crazy looking down and nothing there. But I don't think you'll have to take the cluster apart or do much of anything that complicated. I don't know.