[Query] Cruise control gone after battery reset (95 Taurus)

[CeeBee]

Cool sig. Wish I could do more than just ask for help. My forte's in the computer dept. Feel free to PM me if you need an assist with Windows, networking, or PC hardware.

I recall this happened once before. After I had my battery replaced, and all the settings on my car were wiped out (such as the radio station presets), the car ran rough for a while. OK, so the engine computer needed to "relearn" optimal settings. It would stall out easily, that was a pain in the neck.

After a few hundred miles on the road, things started to level out, apparently enough statistics had been gathered by the engine computer for it to tune itself, more or less.

One thing I noticed right away is that the car, a 1995 Ford Taurus, would no longer go into cruise control, simply ignoring the switch presses on the steering wheel console. This is more than an inconvenience, since I drive 20 minutes twice a day commuting to work, I'm concerned I'll verge over the speed limit (er, possibly well over) without noticing.

I recall something like this happened once before after a battery reset, and after a few hundred miles, the car suddenly started accepting cruise control command again.

Well, I'm up to around a thousand miles since this incident, and still no cruise control. Engine runs OK.

Anyone ever heard of this? Any ideas, suggested remedies?

 

[Opus Dei]

The easy thing to check for is a blown fuse or bad relay on that circuit. If you look in the manual, there'll probably be more than one item on that circuit-and I'll guess they are functioning properly?

The next thing to look at is the switch itself. But the problem only occurs when the battery is disconnected, I gather. I'm not really sure how new CC is configured. I wonder if there's something like a magnetic switch somewhere on the intake/throttle linkage that might be dirty.


FWIW, next time you need to change batteries, there are cigarette lighter plugs that use a 9V battery to provide a little voltage to the computer. Something could probably be easily made less expensively.

 

[CeeBee]

I tried to use my 12V battery-based emergency jump-off system to keep the computer alive while changing out the battery, but I guess there was some momentary loss of connection during the change-out, alas.

Thanks for considering my issue. I really should take a look at the fuses, I can't figure out why changing the battery would blow one, since nothing else seems amiss, but it's worth a look-see.

The smokies were out in rare form this morning, stalking us poor citizens at key points along the commute route, and riding along like sheepdogs to keep us in line, yet my radar detector never made a peep. Seems intimidation alone is enough. Nobody went over 75 as far as I can tell, most of the time my speed as well under 70!