Help please, cruise control

[adamw]

So my wife calls me freaking out because she's driving and the car is acting weird. She's near a Chrysler dealer so I have her go pay $90 for the diagnostic. They tell me théy're getting the codes for the tranny to be repaired. They tell me $2,800. Because I couldn't leave work, I didn't have a chance to go drive it myself and see what was happening. I take their word for it () and call a tranny shop who'll do it for $1800. We go pick it up today and she tells me it's doing the same thing So I call the dealer and get "bring it back and we'll check it for more codes." So I drive it myself (what I should have done in the first place) And notice that when it acts funny, meaning power drops and speedometer drops 20mph, the cruise control light is coming on.

Totally random cruise control light coming on and engine losing power for a second. Anyone know a quick way to fix this? I could live without cruise control if I could simply disable it, but I didn't see a fuze for the cruise. I guess there could be an exposed wire touching ground somewhere. I'm wondering if some wires got damaged when they replaced the computer. I'm still sick about the $2K now on my credit card, but I guess I'll not have to worry about the tranny for a good while now. It's frustrating that the dealer says they went and drove it and determined it was the trannyand then I go drive it and see this. Cars, it's a love hate relationship. It's also not helpful to be so unsmart in going about getting them fixed.

[CREWZIN]

I'd like to help you out but my books and PT (with owners manual) is back in Florida. Did you check the under-hood fuse box for a fuse or relay for the cruise control? The owners manual has a diagram of the fuse box with a listing of what all the fuses are for. I have a picture of the box (in Photobucket that I can post) but not the listing of what all the fuses and relays are for.

We hear about someone like you that had a part (computer/tranny fix) thrown at it that didn't repair the exact problem is was meant to fix. If it was me who put out that kind of money and it didn't fix the problem I'd sure raise a lot of stink to whoever would listen about how bad the service was and I'd want some answers as to why it's still doing the same thing I brought it in for.

[adamw]

Thanks.

Now I found out from Checker that the fuse is a 10 amp and it's in the fuse panel in the passenger compartment, not the engine bay. But looking at it, I still can't figure out wich one it is. If anybody know, please let me know. There are a couple of fuses on there with abbreviations that I can't decipher.

[quicksilverdon]

There's a small vacuum hose that plugs into the "can" on the passenger side near the firewall that is the cruise control. Pull it off and cruise is disabled. I know, because when I put in my strut bar, I accidentally pulled the hose off, and no cruise....

[adamw]

OK, I might try that. Also, I guess it could still be a tranny issue, I talked to the service manager and the dealership and he said that the cruise control does have some integrated parts with the tranny and he didn't think that pulling the fuse would help it, since it was coming on by itself. So then I called the tranny shop and told them that the car was doing the same thing that was supposed to have been fixed by them and they were quick to tell me to bring it in and they would make it right. So that's good, let's hope they do.

[adamw]

So I removed that hose, and just like you said, my cruise control no longer worked. The cruise light still came on, but it wouldn't hold my speed. Unfortunately, this didn't fix the problem. The car would still do it's little power drop thing. I'll be taking it back to the tranny shop tomorrow. They diagnosed it, now they need to fix it.

[quicksilverdon]

Sorry.
Hey, don't forget to put the hose back on....

[adamw]

My wife tried to drive it back to the tranny shop, but after a few miles, it wouldn't go over 20mph, so I went and picked her and the kids up, and the shop sent out their tow truck. My 3 year old daughter cracks me up, she sitting in her car seat in the back with a sad look on her face, "Daddy, the car is broken, we need another car."

So the tranny shop looked at it and they're thinking it's the computer, which we replaced not long ago for $700. Good thing it has a 8 year 80k miles warranty. Tomorrow we find out for sure if that's it, if it is, it still sucks that we fixed the tranny instead of the computer, even though it was going bad, the tranny could have waited.

Meanwhile we have to go out early tomorrow since my Focus has no A/C and it's getting pretty dang hot here in Utah.