When automakers first came out with cruise control, it was a real luxury item.  The older cruise controls used a mechanical vacuum system but it worked.  Well, some of the time. 

Now days, cruise control is all electronic, thanks to computers.  It’s reliable and a real convenience on long trips.  Cruise control is offered on most vehicles and standard on a lot of them.  Because it’s electronic, when it breaks, it’s usually some electronic component.  Your vehicle’s cruise can be the victim of a blown fuse. Or your vehicle’s speed sensor, which—not surprisingly—measures your vehicle’s speed, can also stop working.  And that will cause your cruise to stop cruising. 

Vehicles with cruise control also have a built-in feature that, when the brakes are applied, turns off the cruise.  With electronic cruise control, that happens thanks to the brake pedal switch, and if a problem develops in that switch, the cruise might not work.

The newest cruise control is called “adaptive.” What that means is that it will maintain your vehicle’s speed as well as the distance between you and the vehicle ahead of you.  That means if a car ahead of you slows down, your vehicle will slow down to the same speed and even stop if the car ahead stops.  Pretty cool, right? As you can imagine, adaptive cruise control is more sophisticated and has many more components than standard cruise.  The systems vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but they use on-board radar units and cameras to calculate what your vehicle should do to maintain a safe distance and speed. 

Finally, there are still some of the older style cruise controls out on the roads.  They’ll stop working when the vacuum actuator develops a problem, a vacuum hose starts leaking or breaks or the cable between the actuator and the throttle kinks, breaks, seizes up or becomes detached. 

If your cruise control isn’t working, your service repair facility will be able to determine what kind your vehicle has and what it will take to fix it.  Good news for the cruise blues.

Today in our Autotronics of St. Peter blog, we’re going to talk about following recommended service intervals. Your vehicle isn’t the only aspect of your life with recommended intervals: What about six-month dental cleanings and regular physical exams? Then there’s laundry, mowing the lawn, paying your electric bill, changing your furnace filter – you get the idea.

Now, what would happen if you didn’t follow these intervals? For one thing, your teeth may get more cavities. You might not discover health issues that benefit from early detection and treatment. And you’d have to wear dirty clothes, be embarrassed by your overgrown lawn and have your power shut off.

We all realize there are some things in life that we have to take care of regularly. If we don’t, there are negative consequences. Our quality of life diminishes and it inevitably costs more money.

Have you ever wondered, “How often should I bring my car in for scheduled maintenance?” You can let your friendly and knowledgeable Autotronics of St. Peter technician remind you of the manufacturer’s recommendations. He has checklists of what the manufacturer recommends and can find potential problems when he inspects your vehicle. Rely on Autotronics of St. Peter professionals to help you make good car care decisions, that’s our job.

For those in St. Peter who want to be more proactive with their vehicle care, here are some simple ways to remember what has a maintenance interval:

First: fluids. If it’s liquid, it’s got a replacement schedule. Oil, transmission fluid, coolant, power steering fluid, brake fluid, differential fluid, etc.
Then think tires. They need air, rotation, balancing, and alignment. And while you’re thinking tires, think brakes and shocks.
And what makes your car go? Air and fuel. Air filter replacement, fuel filters and fuel system cleaning.

Of course there are more items, but if you remember to take your vehicle into Autotronics of St. Peter for these things, your friendly and knowledgeable service advisor will help you with the rest.

Autotronics of St. Peter
111 Jefferson Avenue
St. Peter, MN 56082
507.934.9290
http://autotronicsstpeter.com