Why not to set your cruise control in the rain
 

Think setting the Cruise Control on at a lower speed in the rain is a good idea??? Well think about this the next it rains and you start to set the Cruise Control ...

Setting the Cruise Control requires the car to be at a consistance speed with the wheels on the pavement..Well when it rains or the roads are wet and you hydroplane, in reality your wheels have left pavement on are running on standing water.

Now with the Cruise Control on and this happens, the computer doesn't realize what hydroplaning is.. Therefore the computer continues to feed the cruise info to the wheels. In reality causing the car to speed up once the wheels leave pavement, therefore causing a more potential problem when the wheels do set back on pavement after hydroplaning..

Basically you well take off like an airplane, once the car stops hydroplaning.. Keep this in mind the next time you use the Cruise Control..

Most people only use cruise control when they are going on a long trip, it's not like its an everyday thing. I understand what you are saying, but the average person usually would hit the brakes which would shut off cruise control. Or you just hit cancel real quick. I really don't see it being an issue.

while I don't use it in the rain, another point is that if you tap the brakes it turns off also.

I didn't have cruise on my mustang when I had it but I will tell you that VW has an amazing traction control system. I use my cruise control ALOT, keeps me from speeding and therefore avoiding tickets. I have been in many occasions where my car has begun to hydroplane and everytime I think my car is about to slam the barrier the TC kicks in and I'm back in a straight line even with cruise control on.

my thought on that... if you are using cruise control, and lose traction, your wheels would not spin faster, because the car would let off the throttle and think it was going down a steep hill... however, if you have your foot on the gas and you lose traction, your wheels will spin faster than the speed you are going. This is all based upon he idea that the traction control module reacts to the loss of traction as simply being easier to move the wheels.

I say...FLOOR IT :D

this was being debated on another forum, so thought I'd post it here and debate it here.

i think it has something to do with the wheels not being on the ground.

cruise control was setup for wheel to pavement...not wheel to water...but my only thing would be wouldn't the TCS pick up that you lost traction with the pavement and kick in to prevent the cruise control from accelerating the wheels?

Ford should have made it to where if the TCS kicks in while cruise control is on, it shuts the cruise control off as a safety precaution.

YES.

And even if it diddnt, the only reason it would start speeding up is if the speedo drops under the speed the cruise control is set at. Cruise control has NOTHING to do with wheels on ground or wheels on water. There is no reason to believe that the wheels would start to slow down during hydroplaning, and even if they did slow down, the cruise control would speed them up to match the vehicles speed as it would not likely decrease more than 1-2mph during hydroplaning because last time i checked a 1-2 seconjd hydroplane is not a braking mechanism.

Debate is over.

yeah i never set my cruise control unless im on a trip or something. but ive never thought about that either. that is some good advice that may come handy in the future for someone here.

why cant i set my cruise control over 100 miles per hour while cruising on a dry or wet road? i dont get it makes me mad

LOL

maybe they didn't realize you would be driving the autobahn?

awd ftw!

i was just bein a smart ass.

1. cruise control wet road, high winds at 100 MPH is just dumb.
2. if conditions are right i still cant set cruise control at that speed.
3. AWD doesnt really help with hydro plane it just makes it more fun. my AWD is slow as shit.
4. cruise control works off of the speedo not the contact that the wheel has with the ground. WTF was he thinkin.
5. puddled up water creats resistance, slows car down, cruise control kicks in and speeds car up. sometimes cruise control will got 1/2 to 3/4 throttle to speed back up. that creates wheel spin and potentially cuase you to crash.

cmon your rex cant be THAT slow. turbo upgrade ftw

all of the STi guys out here are being haters with their take-off parts. they want to keep them. im budgeting a cheap stage 2 setup. im not sure if im going to do lamda cable or just get the COBB AP.

they keep parts that sit in their garage? retarded ass germans. cobb makes good stuff. stage 2 should satisfy you. I had a stage 2 tune, UP, DP, FMIC, Exhuast and it was damn quick

So was I.

its not the germans its the other americans.