Over the weekend, I started having issues with my cruise control. I was on the expressway coming home from a wedding reception and hit the lever to the Set position at around 79mph. The car coasted to about 65, then the cruise finally took over. I had to accelerate to 90mph in order to get the speed set where I wanted it to be. The cruise operation was fine once the speed was established and the resume seemed to work fine. After setting/resuming maybe 5 times, it stopped working all together.

This was very strange, as the cruise has always been dead on with almost no hesitation between the time Set was engaged and the time the cruise took over. Never had any trouble prior to this.

So yesterday I did a search here and found some information regarding the non-OEM types of brake light bulbs possibly causing problems. Hmm...I DID have a brake light burn out a week or so ago and replaced both sides with an unknown local parts store brand grabbed from a bin. Could it be so easy, I was certain something much more costly was wrong.


On the way home from the office, I stopped by the dealer and picked up 2 OEM bulbs in MB packaging and replaced both brake lights in the parking lot. Hit SET once I got on the interstate and the cruise worked perfectly. I set it several times, no hesitation. When set at 79mph, the cruise set at 79mph. Accelerated and decelled several times and it works flawlessly. Just to be sure, I messed with it most of the way home, resetting several times. Seems to work fine.

Total cost of repair, $2.68.

Moral of this lesson...using the SEARCH function could save one money.

__________________
Lance Allison
Lance@LanceAllison.com

Current:
11 MB S550 4Matic, 55k miles, Designo Black/Black
14 Ford F150 XLT Lariat Crew, 73k miles, 5.0
Coyote V8 4x4. Black/tan.
09 GMC Envoy Denali, 5.3 V8, 4x4 SWB. 38k miles,
Jewel Red/Med Gray.

Gone:
87 MB 300SDL, 320k miles, Astral Silver/Blue.
98 VW Jetta TDI, 488k miles, Classic Green/Gray.
85 Olds 98 Brougham FWD, 4.3 DIESEL V6, 80k
miles, 3x Gray.

MBCA Member, Chicago Region