Cruise Control indicators

[Zippy7]

Could someone please take a photo of the cruise control indication lights?

I am after a picture of the yellow standby indicator light that appears when the cruise control is on, but not active (active is when the green indicator is showing).

I hope someone understands what I mean and can take a piccy of it for me.

Thanks in advance.

[Dusty1]

No help here. The MA only shows when it's active. The XR5 with the updates HMI would.

[apstar]

Same here as Dusty or are you talking about when the ignition key is first turned on and all lights light up,may I ask why you want this for just curious

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[AlanD]

Hi Zippy,

I just went to see if I could activate the cruise control with the car stationary and as I suspected it isn't possible. (Most cruise controls I have used will not allow themselves to be set until a minimum speed is reached and cut out if you drop below a particular speed too.)

It is a while since I used ours, but I seem to recall, that when first switched on, the standby amber colour was present, but as Dusty has indicated ordinarily it is either green or absent after it is first set depending on whether or not it is operating.

But it seems to me that what you are asking for would be a very dangerous activity to engage in, which is using a camera to take a photo of the dash whilst the car is moving. Possible, perhaps, by having someone in the rear seat behind the driver take the photo over the driver's shoulder. Not sure if the seat belt would extend far enough to enable that though.

Why do you need it anyway?

Cheers

[scribbly]

The Mondeo cruise does activate at a lower setting than the Territory. When I had the Territory you had to be going about 60KMH for it to engage. The Mondeo can activate at 40kmh or lower - not stationary though.
-ON TOPIC- Definitely no light when activated but not engaged on my MA.

[Zippy7]

I'm not asking anyone to do anything illegal or dangerous.

My MA XR5 does not seem to want to show the symbol, and the dealership I spoke to did not understand. You see, the owner's manual does not show or mention this indication light.
Also, the cruise seemed to be playing up a bit on my last long distance drive (buttons were not cooperative).

Therefore, if I could show the dealership a picture of what it looks like, they might do something more than ask head office (and in all likelihood, they would say there is nothing wrong because I can't prove it exists).

And the dealership refused to look at any other Mondeo's that they had.

Like I said, would appreciate a photo if someone can help (perhaps a front passenger could take a picture?)

[Dusty1]

You'll need to get a fellow XR5 owner to do it as we with MAs have a different HMI. Mine is orange at start up and green when active. If that's any help.

What's it doing? Mine will sometimes switch off and mean I have to turn the cruise back on after I press the brake or accelerator.

[scribbly]

My cruise plays up and I think I've figured out the problem. When the wheel is slightly turned to the right and I try to re-engage cruise via the resume button the whole system switches off. I can consistently make this happen now. I believe it is the clock spring that makes the electrical connection between the wheel and the rest of the car and the disengage point is a hairline crack in this electrical track. When I have the car in for the next service (5k to go) I'll push the point to the stealers.

[Dusty1]

Originally Posted by scribbly

My cruise plays up and I think I've figured out the problem. When the wheel is slightly turned to the right and I try to re-engage cruise via the resume button the whole system switches off. I can consistently make this happen now. I believe it is the clock spring that makes the electrical connection between the wheel and the rest of the car and the disengage point is a hairline crack in this electrical track. When I have the car in for the next service (5k to go) I'll push the point to the stealers.

.

Sounds like mine. I haven't noticed the lean to the right, but you do more highway than me, so I believe what you say. Mine's out of warranty, and it really only happens when I do the 'resume' so I just turn it on again.

Do reckon the dealers will be able to fix this without multiple trips back?

[apstar]

Originally Posted by Dusty1

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Do reckon the dealers will be able to fix this without multiple trips back?

nope they may even end up stuffing something else up trying to fix it!

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[AlanD]

Hi all,

To Zippy - Often I see on the forum questions asked that could lead to questionable actions on the part of a driver in an attempt to answer a question. My comment was intended as a "brake" on such activity rather than any kind of criticism. Hope you understand this?

I was not aware that the XR5 instrument cluster was significantly different from the other instrument clusters, but I'd guess that it works in the same way. ie when first accessed, an amber indicator that it is in standby together with a language indicator in the lower centre array that ordinarily provides odometer/fuel usage information, etc. This reverts to whatever readout was set previously after a short time and the amber tell-tale extinguishes. When you hit the "set" button the tell-tale lights up in a green(ish) colour and stays lit while it is controlling car speed. Could you put up a picture of your instrument cluster at the initial ignition setting for comparison purposes?

If you let us know the way in which the buttons were not co-operative we may be able to shed further light on the concern.

Have you asked the Service Manager to sit in the passenger's seat while you demonstrate the problem? Could be difficult if it's a dealership in an inner city location.

Hi Dusty - It is quite normal to have the cruise control switch off when the brake pedal is pushed. So far as the accelerator is concerned it will over-ride the Cruise setting but should settle back to whatever speed was previously set when you lift off. You can also use the set button, if held, when in Cruise mode to lift your speed to a higher level. Generally I use "coast" with a short press to wash off speed and hit "set" again when the lower speed is achieved. I don't know what might happen it you press and hold "coast", It might drop speed until it is let go, and then maintain the lower speed, I haven't tried this.

My problem is that the Cruise Control in the Territory and Modeo are quite similar, but sufficiently different to give me recall problems until I'm in the car and want to use them. Then I refresh my memory with a bit of experimentation.

Cheers

[Dusty1]

Alan, excellent work (again and always). My BA didn't turn the cruise off if I touched the brake pedal, I could hit resume and continue on. Maybe the Mondeo is different and touching the brake does turn off the cruise. I've noticed this but, at the end of the day it's one more button to press, and its not going to stop me enjoying the car or the drive.

[Zippy7]

Before we get too far off topic..

I would still very much appreciate if someone could give me a picture of the amber indicator light.

My MA XR5 is no longer showing it, and I am sure it previously did this. Mine is still under warranty, and I want the dealership to take this seriously. Because the light is not mentioned in the owner manual, they are denying it exists. Hence I get nowhere with them...

[Dusty1]

Originally Posted by Dusty1

You'll need to get a fellow XR5 owner to do it as we with MAs have a different HMI.

Maybe a more specific thread title might have helped things stay on topic. A post o. The XR5 forum might be your best bet as most on here seem to be non XR5 drivers, or with the previous HMI.

The forum is a place to exchange thoughts and ideas, so sorry if we took it off topic.

[apstar]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the early XR5's did not have cruise control as standard equipment at all it was an option!

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[AlanD]

Hi Zippy,

I can't provide the photo - and in any event it would display a different instrument console from yours.

However there is mention of an amber light in the manual regarding the Cruise Control function. I've attached a scan of the page. It is meant to indicate a malfunction.

You will be aware that at ignition on most of the lamp tell tales in the instrument cluster get lit. The primary reason is to let the driver know that they are all operational ie non are "blown". But the cruise control isn't one of them.

Two reasons for this 1. the cruise system isn't active as it needs a positive input from the driver and 2. the car being stationary provides a cutout preventing any driver input being recognised.

However it is necessary to let the driver know that the indicator works and this occurs when the cruise system gets activated. It firstly performs a self check and while this occurs the indicator gets lit amber because a) the system is not yet functional and b) it lets the driver know the amber lamp works. Once the self check is finished and OK the lamp goes out. From this point on the indicator will be either not lit (Cruise control in standby if activated) or lit green (Cruise Control maintaining set speed).

Note that while the self check is going on the system will ignore driver initiated inputs. This means if you switch the system on and immediately hit the set button it will be ignored - and you might regard this as abnormal or faulty behavior, but it isn't. So that initial amber tell tale also indicates the delay between switch on and able to accept control inputs.

I'm reasonably confident about the process, but since it is now more than a month since I used the Cruise in the Mondeo I can't be certain.

When I next get onto a freeway with light traffic I'll check and confirm my recollection.

As they say - Watch this space.

Cheers

[scribbly]

Originally Posted by Dusty1

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Sounds like mine. I haven't noticed the lean to the right, but you do more highway than me, so I believe what you say. Mine's out of warranty, and it really only happens when I do the 'resume' so I just turn it on again.

Do reckon the dealers will be able to fix this without multiple trips back?

I've already had multiple trips back and even had the Ford Service Engineer sit next to me. It was only after I did a search on the UK forums that I found a clue. When I mentioned it to the Service Department (at the end of the last service) they mentioned that the 'clock spring' mechanism has been known to cause this type of problem. Seeing as I have complained about it several times now and got it on their records I'll now be able to prove it to them in a road test.
I certainly wouldn't do the test on suburban roads but with the fact the Mondeo cruise will activate at such a low speed you just have to find some empty estate to test the theory.
This is not like the airline industry that I work in where the third complaint means the customer is always right and the part get looked at thoroughly. Maybe if it was a Mercedes or Ferrari Service Centre would I then get believed if I continued to complain.

[yelpir]

Originally Posted by Dusty1

.

Sounds like mine. I haven't noticed the lean to the right, but you do more highway than me, so I believe what you say. Mine's out of warranty, and it really only happens when I do the 'resume' so I just turn it on again.

Do reckon the dealers will be able to fix this without multiple trips back?

Mine did the something similar for 2 straight days (over the weekend 2nd and 3rd Jan 2011). I use the cruise a lot (saves me from speeding fines) These were the things that happened...
1/ Switching on cruise control, i get the normal cruise control..standby (in MA) and when I get to the speed I want, and try to engage it, nothing happens.
2/ When it does engage, pressing the brakes disengages it (normally) and pressing RES re-engages @ speeds over 30kmph and takes it to the previously set speed (as long as you have not turned the ignition off). In my case, similar to dusty's nothing happens (pressing the brake now turns it off) and I have to turn it on before re-engaging.
3/ Twice in a day, while travelling with the cruise on, it disengaged and turned itself off and could not be engaged at all.
4/ There were a few times that it will not even turn on despite many attempts. I drive for a few minutes, try it again and it works!

As expected, I was worried and called the dealer. Was scheduled to come in 4 days later. By the third day, the cruise control was fine and has not missed a bit since then. Ford tested it and found it working perfectly, hooked it up onto their computer and interestingly got four different error codes on the cruise control which they could not interprete. They were going to send it somewhere to be interpreted. Interpretation.......still being awaited.

[apstar]

God help us with Adaptive Cruise Control with Forward Collision Warning & Collision Mitigation if something goes wrong at 110Km/h on the new MC I think they are becoming complicated using these features as a selling point

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[Zippy7]

Thanks guys.

Alan - thanks for the scan. I am quite sure that in the past, my cruise was showing an amber light to indicate it was in standby.

Yelpir - what you describe is similar to what happened to me. This is why I noticed it was not "quite right". In any event, the dealership found no issue, and denied there being any error codes. It seems to work, but requires "robust" button pressure (previously was easy for my wife to use, but now...).

Will see what happens. I guess this will go down the same as the MA hatch issue.

[DRU842]

On my MA XR5 at car start there is no Cruise Control check light. When switching the cruise control on the left side screen of the HDMI confirms the Cruise Control is on for approx 5-10 sec then reverts to the previously selected trip computer data. When setting the Cruise Control a green light appears, confirming Cruise Control is active.
It is possible to very quickly active the system on the move from off to on & select at speeds above about 45kph.
Its always worked this way on my car, so unless it was delivered broken, I'm assuming its par for the course.

[NZ XR6]

Wow. As I have a base model Mondeo, life for me is very simple. When I press the " cruise on" button on the left steering wheel button, I get a message on the speedo display to tell me that Cruise is active.

When I activate cruise with the right button, a symbol lights up in the speedo. Simple, although I have had the odd occasion when I couldn't activate cruise. Hasn't happened for a long time, so I suspect a firmware update has fixed it.

[AlanD]

Hi all,

Had an opportunity to do some investigations on our 2008 Feb Build Mondeo TDCi sedan.

But please take into account that 1. It is 3 months since I had occasion to use the Cruise Control (CC) and 2. In November a good dealership (IMV) replaced an Instrument Console Module that was faulty.

What I discovered was:

1. When first activating the CC there was ONLY an indication in the Information Display that the CC was in standby. This information was a text display in the information panel of the Instrument Cluster. Previously I am sure that the "tell tale" in the RPM dial lit up for a brief period in the amber colour.

2. When using the accelerator there were TWO responses. Firstly if the accelerator is used for a short(ish) period then the speed would rise to whatever you "wanted" - on lift off the speed returned to whatever speed had been previously set. But if you maintained higher than set speed for some time (I'm guessing more than 120 seconds) then the CC switched off. Almost as though it had decided that you wanted to use the accelerator rather than the CC.

3. Using the brake switched the CC into standy mode. Using the resume button allowed the previously set speed to be reacquired.

4. The only time the CC"tell tale" was lit was when the CC was controlling the car speed.

The traffic conditions prevented further investigations, I was only on the freeway for about 18 km. Hopefully this will help the OP.

According to the manual the CC "tell tale" light in amber indicates a CC malfunction. So I'm beginning to suspect that, although I was able to control car speed using the CC, there was a malfunction, and this is why I was getting the amber indication at CC switch on. Apparently the module replacement has changed (and fixed?) things. This has caused the CC to operate in a way that mirrors the the descriptions of other contributors. Thanks guys!!

However, everyone should be aware that there have been at least 5 firmware upgrades to various electonics modules on MA series vehicles. And often the dealership does these without informing the owner that they have been done.

From here on in I'm going to make a point that any firmware changes are advised to me with a full description of the nature of the alterations that will follow.

Thanks to everyone contributing because it led me to investigate in detail how our car works.

Cheers

[Dusty1]

Mine's either point 2 or point 3 with a query. Often I find after braking the CC has turned itself off, but for me, it's not really a big drama. I just have to push the 'on' button.

I'd bet, that when I use the brake, I don't often 'resume' (getting off the freeway for example) so only notice it when it when I try to 'resume' the same speed. It gives me the sh!ts, but not more annoying than anything. Like my partner not using the CC at all!

[Zippy7]

Thanks for the detailed investigation Alan.

What you state is consistent with my thoughts, especially regarding the update.

However, my CC is only allowing 5kmh changes now.

I thought it previously was smaller - in increments of 1 or 2kmh...

Oh well - I guess I can only shrug and blame a dealer update.

[Wazza]

Hi Zippy,

On my car (2009 MB Titanium with adaptive CC) once I have set a cruising speed I can only +/- 5kph using the set +/- buttons. The resume button when CC is active adds 1kph increments to the speed.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

[allanv6gt]

MB XR5 2.5T 6spd manual with hi-spec HMI.....

1. Turning the cruise control ON ewith the button on left had side of wheel hub gives a STAND-BY message in the HMI (with 3 bars for the adaptive cruise control (ACC) - can't get my 1-bar not-quite-tailgate-mode to stick beyond current ignition-on session i.e. each motor start).
2. Green indicator light only comes on when the desired speed is SET using the SET + button on the right hand side (or pressing RESume to ...resume your prev speed).
SET+ adds 5km/h steps, SET- decreases by 5km/h. RES only adds 1 km/h .
3. Press the brakes or clutch and the cruise control drops to standby mode.
4. Re-engage via SET+ or SET- or RES on RHS wheel hub.

IF pressing the activate/on button for ACC and nothing happens, check that your Electronic Stability program (ESP) is not swtiched off. The manual says on page 125...
Note: The system will not operate if the dynamic stability control (DSC?ESP) has been manually switched off.
If I could only switch the adaptive bit of the cruise off I'd be even happier.

Hope this helps.....

Mine is working fine after 6 months/14000km and gets lots of use in work commuting and over the last 2 weeks of 3000kms on holiday. Great car, fantastic economy on highway, very comfy.

Cheers