Cruise control

[Damo88]

I recently got my hands on a Golf GL manual and my mate an auto, both our indicator stalks have cruise control on them but neither work. We were wondering if this is a common problem, or whether it was never an option on the GL but was on the stalk? any help would be much appreciated

[Ben J]

mine doesnt work on the vr6 either

theres a section on testing it in the bently manual i might go through sometime and try and figure out whats wrong with mine. From what I know bout the vr6 its pretty common though for it not too work

[MattyT]

It's a common issue. Mine worked fine on the day I bought the car, but then stopped working as I was driving it home! It's never worked since. I've never been bothered to fix it but recently got quoted for a new cruise control module... over $700!!! That's not from a dealer either!!! :O

[Damo88]

had a feeling that might be the case, oh well it was only gonna be a bonus if it ever worked

[Ben J]

pretty sure I read a DIY on the vortex on how to fix/bulletproof the electrical parts of the cruise control or something, so if thats the problem and your handy with a soldering iron it might not have to cost hundreds. Had it bookmarked but then my computer ****ed itself recently so all my bookmarks are gone But it could also be a broken pipe/pump as the cruise is vacuum operated (atleast the vr6 one is, i presume the GL is the same)

Resting the foot on the accelerator and checking the speed every now and then isnt that hard though

[The_Hawk]

I'm going to copy what I said in another thread from here: http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/f47/...tml#post528302
Hopefully that helps out.

The cruise control doesn't seem to work, not that it bothers me, I've never used it and around town i cant see much point, but if it was an easy fix it wouldnt hurt to do.

First things first, take the car for a drive and turn the cruise control on. (If you need the manual you can grab it here: http://www.mooshen.com/vwwc/golf/golf_mk3_manual.pdf ). What you want to do is set the cruise and hopefully hear the relay's ticking trying to turn it on when you hit set and off when you tap the brake. If you hear the relays ticking it's likely to something wrong with the vacuum pump or the lines (which are things that always breaks )

The cruise control is a vacuum operated system, the pump sits behind the washer bottle on the passengers side front (basically in the front guard). This vacuum does nothing more complex than pull the accelerator pedal down. The line runs into the front passenger side tunnel/frame bit then across to the pedals. The high tech way of testing it is to grab the pipe and suck on it. If you can feel pressure get someone to feel if the pedal is moving, if not, it's time to hunt down the broken pipe. The pump itself can be tested by grabbing some small alligator clamps and running some power through it to see if it pumps.

In my case I found that the vacuum pipe was cracked *just* where it exited the frame at the front of the car, which was damn lucky since I'd hate to have to try and run all new piping.

Bottom line, it's a pretty simple system and it's likely that the pump or the line is busted.

For reference the system diagram looks like this: