OEM cruise control

Has to an LS, sure a lot of stuff on this issue in the technical section of this board. To the best of my knowledge, cruise is already programmed.

I know for a fact as a long time automotive engineer, its costing Chevy more money to eliminate the cruise for the LS than just to leave it in, tooling and inventory for a different steering wheel. Just a mean darn right dirty trick.

But learned recently Kia is just as bad, all my youngest kid could afford was a 2015 Soul base model, also without cruise, just to darn easy to get a speeding ticket today with all these 9/11 cops running around with nothing else to do but it give tickets, and talk about skyrocketing insurance rates!

Her dealer told her it would cost her 740 bucks to add cruise, studied it for her, 15 bucks for a switch, really didn't have to lay out another 40 for a new wiring harness, only added an extra wire to the original one. But wanted to keep it stock for her so she wouldn't have warranty problems. In less than 20 minutes, she has cruise, works perfectly and even the dash lights come on.

Just a darn right dirty trick, shame on you dirty rotten basterds, hate people like this, talk about super greed, especially for the poorer folks just starting off.

For years was a vacuum controlled cruise system, a rather complex mechanical device with clockwork that had a mechanical memory for speed. Long cable to the carburetor to advance the throttle, and was in series with the speedometer cable for vehicle speed data. And had vacuum lines running all over the place, to both the clutch and brake pedal for quick vacuum release, plus electrical switches as well.

Then the came out with an electronic servo controlled motor, and used the Vss for speed control, still rather complex, because still ran a cable to regulate the vane in the throttle body.

Vss stands for velocity, what it is, is a tiny bar magnet with a few turns of wire on it, called it a ten cent part, has a toothed gear in the output of the transmission that fires pulses proportional to vehicle speed.

It was first used for automatic transmission control, early transmissions used a very expensive mechanical governor, modulator, and a rather complex control valve assembly. a hail of a lot cheaper to use an 89 cent microcontroller, activate four solenoid valves to do the same thing, Cruze added a couple more solenoid valves for six speeds.

Speedometers were expensive, a mechanical tachometer with a bunch of gears in it, ran by the speedometer cable with more gears in the transmission. ECU is already there, can received multiplexed signals. so used the Vss to trigger it, and used a cheap voltmeter that is now your speedometer that is a hail of a lot cheaper to make than that tachometer. But the tach does not show engine RPM but is calibrated to read speed. Vss already there is also used for the cruise control, so now serving three functions instead of just one.

Throttle linkage, all mechanical was also expensive to manufacture and even install. Just put a cheap potentiometer on the gas pedal and a cheap motor on the throttle body vane and just run a wire. So rather than having that servo motor and its circuitry look at that potentiometer on the gas pedal, have it look at circuitry already there for the Vss. Speed is stored in dirt cheap ram, already has the D to A converter to control that servo motor.

So just saying, only cost a couple of cents to add cruise to a vehicle. Just need some more ram, and some switches, guess who left off the switches in the LS.

Inventory is profit according to the IRS so require certified CPA's to count it, this in many cases cost more than what they are counting, so is actually costing GM to leave the cruise off the LS than to just leave it in. This is a marketing decision, a bunch of greedy basterds, to encourage the buyer to purchase a more expensive vehicle, but just can't get the cruise, have to buy a bunch of crap with it so you even have more problems.

Just telling you the way it is. Greed.

Here is th the circuit diagram for the Cruze cruise control switches, on the left hand side of the steering wheel, as you can see the switch only has two wires, 12V from one clock spring feeds the on off switch, series of resistors that can shorted out with control switches that outputs what the call the airbag clock spring into the BCM. Common trick to save wire, feeds the BCM with various voltages that go through a comparator for the individual switch controls.

View attachment 183201

Haven't been able to locate the clock springs yet, apparently an extra one. Use to use slip rings and brushes for these connections, a clock spring would provide better conductivity while permitting the steering wheel to rotate.

See Amazon sells the Cruze steering wheel with the clock springs installed. Have to watch some of those ebay sellers, namely from China, I only buy from US sellers.

This site shows how to take the steering apart on the Cruze.

GM Cruze Leather Steering Wheel technical guide

Doesn't show the clock springs, Kia I added the switch to,already had them, didn't have to fool with that. Ha, see you are supposed to be a licensed technician to do this job, never heard of this, did hear of a liquor license, have to know when you can sell liquor and have some common sense if a two year kid comes in with a fake ID to buy liquor.

FAA certifies electronic techs, have to pass a bunch of tests and get experience to do this kind of work.