Retrofit Cruise Control
Discussion
This took a lot longer than I expected!
Finally I have a means to protect myself from 30mph speed cameras! My 4.7V8 did not have cruise fitted as standard, had the phone controls, but not the cruise so I decided to look into fitting it as I use it all the time on the Rangey when in town. Read a few really encouraging posts - DS2000 & KarlFranz to name but two but didn't quite have all the info I needed.
Got a quote from a well known spares supplier for £800 for a replacement used wheel or £1500 for a new one - they offered £80 for my old wheel!
£62 + vat and postage and I have a cruise module in my hand.
I also had the electrical diagram for the wheel and the cruise module and so was able to do a bit of detective work with a multimeter and figure out which pin was which by checking resistance values pin to pin and referencing the drawing.
So, with all the info, I removed the steering wheel on my Aston Martin and took a scalpel to it!
Before
First step was to disconnect the battery and wait 10 mins. No idea why 10 mins - it just made me feel better about disconnecting an exploding device!
Then disconnected the Airbag retaining screws of which there is one either side.
These needed a visit to the shops to buy a star shaped tool!
The airbag, (center section of the steering wheel then falls away from the wheel itself, attached by the wires connecting the air bag with two connectors. These had me a little confused at first as I expected them to disconnect in line with the wires - ie pull gently. But the don't! They disconnect by sliding a plastic cover and then pulling away from the airbag at 90 degrees.
Next job was to undo the center bolt and pull the slip ring connector (rotating connector) and the steering wheel is free.
Once the wheel was removed, I took it out of the car an into the house to fit the cruise module.
The section to cut out is well marked and the captive nuts are there - if buried in the plastic foam stuff! You will need a couple of M4 bolts and I needed and M4 tap to clean out the threads before my bolts would screw in. Seen here between the yellow connector and the grey connector.
Captive nut buried in the foam!
Cut out removed!
The module was then screwed into place and the wires connected.
These wires lead to a PCB and from the PCB to a connector that plugs into the rotating connector. Correct wiring was confirmed with a multimeter and the Aston wiring diagram.
The wheel was the reassembled and the battery reconnected and er, nothing changed! Sadly, the most expensive part of this was to get the ECU re flashed so that the car realises it has cruise fitted. It took my local dealer some time to figure this out - but we got there in the end and my Aston now sits at 30mph without any need for me to worry!
Sorry if any of this is confusing, but I hope it helps someone! PM if anything needs to be better explained and I will do my best!
Finally I have a means to protect myself from 30mph speed cameras! My 4.7V8 did not have cruise fitted as standard, had the phone controls, but not the cruise so I decided to look into fitting it as I use it all the time on the Rangey when in town. Read a few really encouraging posts - DS2000 & KarlFranz to name but two but didn't quite have all the info I needed.
Got a quote from a well known spares supplier for £800 for a replacement used wheel or £1500 for a new one - they offered £80 for my old wheel!
£62 + vat and postage and I have a cruise module in my hand.
I also had the electrical diagram for the wheel and the cruise module and so was able to do a bit of detective work with a multimeter and figure out which pin was which by checking resistance values pin to pin and referencing the drawing.
So, with all the info, I removed the steering wheel on my Aston Martin and took a scalpel to it!
Before
First step was to disconnect the battery and wait 10 mins. No idea why 10 mins - it just made me feel better about disconnecting an exploding device!
Then disconnected the Airbag retaining screws of which there is one either side.
These needed a visit to the shops to buy a star shaped tool!
The airbag, (center section of the steering wheel then falls away from the wheel itself, attached by the wires connecting the air bag with two connectors. These had me a little confused at first as I expected them to disconnect in line with the wires - ie pull gently. But the don't! They disconnect by sliding a plastic cover and then pulling away from the airbag at 90 degrees.
Next job was to undo the center bolt and pull the slip ring connector (rotating connector) and the steering wheel is free.
Once the wheel was removed, I took it out of the car an into the house to fit the cruise module.
The section to cut out is well marked and the captive nuts are there - if buried in the plastic foam stuff! You will need a couple of M4 bolts and I needed and M4 tap to clean out the threads before my bolts would screw in. Seen here between the yellow connector and the grey connector.
Captive nut buried in the foam!
Cut out removed!
The module was then screwed into place and the wires connected.
These wires lead to a PCB and from the PCB to a connector that plugs into the rotating connector. Correct wiring was confirmed with a multimeter and the Aston wiring diagram.
The wheel was the reassembled and the battery reconnected and er, nothing changed! Sadly, the most expensive part of this was to get the ECU re flashed so that the car realises it has cruise fitted. It took my local dealer some time to figure this out - but we got there in the end and my Aston now sits at 30mph without any need for me to worry!
Sorry if any of this is confusing, but I hope it helps someone! PM if anything needs to be better explained and I will do my best!
Great write up. I did this on my 55 plate V8V today. Though for my car, the red and the white needed to be the opposite way around at the switch end to what is shown in your pictures. Not sure if this is a difference due to the year of the car.....?
When I connected as per your pictures, I would get the cruise light come up on the dash, but would then occasionally throw up a 'engine system service required' message. The cruise would partially engage if holding the + button, but wouldn't hold. Also when pressing the buttons the brightness of the backlight would change.
For my car, at the buttons, I needed red connected to pin 1, white connected to pin 3 and black on pin 4. Then all worked great :-)
When I connected as per your pictures, I would get the cruise light come up on the dash, but would then occasionally throw up a 'engine system service required' message. The cruise would partially engage if holding the + button, but wouldn't hold. Also when pressing the buttons the brightness of the backlight would change.
For my car, at the buttons, I needed red connected to pin 1, white connected to pin 3 and black on pin 4. Then all worked great :-)
My daily car has cruise control. It is helpful for the 50mph motorway roadworks, but would not be of much use in towns. The speed set can be temporarily disabled by pushing a steering wheel stalk, but I would not want to have to keep doing that. Pressing the foot brake switches off the CC completely. No use therefore in stop start town driving. Alternatively there is a maximum speed limiter, so that would be easier to use in towns, although I just watch the speedo.
Does the V8V cruise control system work in a more sophisticated way than that, making it easier to use in varying traffic speeds?
a bit surprised that all that was needed (assuming i understood your explanation....not a given btw) was a flash and the steering wheel gizmo. i guess i shouldn't be surprised seeing that it's cheaper to build them all the same and then charge you to activate them.
makes me wonder if i've got a convertible top stuffed in the trunk...
makes me wonder if i've got a convertible top stuffed in the trunk...
Dewi 2 said:
My daily car has cruise control. It is helpful for the 50mph motorway roadworks, but would not be of much use in towns. The speed set can be temporarily disabled by pushing a steering wheel stalk, but I would not want to have to keep doing that. Pressing the foot brake switches off the CC completely. No use therefore in stop start town driving. Alternatively there is a maximum speed limiter, so that would be easier to use in towns, although I just watch the speedo.
Does the V8V cruise control system work in a more sophisticated way than that, making it easier to use in varying traffic speeds?
you may be thinking of something known as "adaptive cruise control" or the like. usually such things need some sort of "traffic awareness" hardware/software to work. and most of the older 8V8's, like mine and me, are too old to have such things other than simple parking assist radar. i suspect the newer models may.
Edited by hueyhoolihan on Sunday 19th September 03:44
Edited by hueyhoolihan on Sunday 19th September 03:47
hueyhoolihan said:
Dewi 2 said:
My daily car has cruise control. It is helpful for the 50mph motorway roadworks, but would not be of much use in towns. The speed set can be temporarily disabled by pushing a steering wheel stalk, but I would not want to have to keep doing that. Pressing the foot brake switches off the CC completely. No use therefore in stop start town driving. Alternatively there is a maximum speed limiter, so that would be easier to use in towns, although I just watch the speedo.
Does the V8V cruise control system work in a more sophisticated way than that, making it easier to use in varying traffic speeds?
if you're talking about the previous vantage models (2006-2016 or thereabouts), well in a word...no
you may be thinking of something known as "adaptive cruise control" or the like. usually such things need some sort of "traffic awareness" hardware/software to work. and most of the older 8V8's, like mine and me, are too old to have such things other than simple parking assist radar. i suspect the newer models may.
Thank you.
Yes, so the more recent adaptive cruise control, is the only real answer to keeping it simple to automate obeying town speed limits.
Interesting to read the OP's sequence description, but it does seem fairly technical.
For older cars, using the limiter (if fitted) seems an easier way of being certain to keep under 30 mph, because once set the car can be driven normally, including stopping and starting, the car will not exceed 30 mph and a button only has to be touched once.
Edited by Dewi 2 on Sunday 19th September 08:10
Dewi 2 said:
Thank you.
Yes, so the more recent adaptive cruise control, is the only real answer to keeping it simple to automate obeying town speed limits.
Interesting to read the OP's sequence description, but it does seem fairly technical.
For older cars, using the limiter (if fitted) seems an easier way of being certain to keep under 30 mph, because once set the car can be driven normally, including stopping and starting, the car will not exceed 30 mph and a button only has to be touched once.
MichaelV8V said:
... but as I don't use the indicators (it being a BMW) it sort of balances out.
I hear that your 'prayers' are going to be answered next year Michael.
All new cars must be fitted with ISA, an automatic speed limiter. Think it is within EU and UK.
It can be overridden by the driver, but if it has been switched off and then a crash occurs, the insurers can find out that it had been deactivated.
I will be keeping my Aston Martin, but of course officer, I never exceed the speed limit anyway.
Lady drivers might try this.
Police officer - "What is your name?"
"Freda".
Police officer - "and your surname?"
"Goethen".
Police officer - "You are Freda Gothen".
"Thank you officer, good bye".
Edited by Dewi 2 on Monday 20th September 15:03
chunkster-deluxe said:
Great write up. I did this on my 55 plate V8V today. Though for my car, the red and the white needed to be the opposite way around at the switch end to what is shown in your pictures. Not sure if this is a difference due to the year of the car.....?
When I connected as per your pictures, I would get the cruise light come up on the dash, but would then occasionally throw up a 'engine system service required' message. The cruise would partially engage if holding the + button, but wouldn't hold. Also when pressing the buttons the brightness of the backlight would change.
For my car, at the buttons, I needed red connected to pin 1, white connected to pin 3 and black on pin 4. Then all worked great :-)
Hello to the AM community, I'm new here When I connected as per your pictures, I would get the cruise light come up on the dash, but would then occasionally throw up a 'engine system service required' message. The cruise would partially engage if holding the + button, but wouldn't hold. Also when pressing the buttons the brightness of the backlight would change.
For my car, at the buttons, I needed red connected to pin 1, white connected to pin 3 and black on pin 4. Then all worked great :-)
Sorry if I'm doing wrong bumping this thread which is a year old but I think is better than opening a new one only for my question.
I have a 07 V8V 4.3 and my steering wheel has the bluetooth installed but not the cruise control and I would like to install it.
I believed until now that a ECU reflash was mandatory to configure the cruise control option is installed but, reading this post, is correct if I believe that the older Vantages prior to 4.7 engine don't need to reflash and it's plug and play?
bullet7 said:
I didn't do the job myself, but had it done at a specialist. Mine too is a 2007 V8V and in addition to the actual controls, it did need to be connected up to AMDS to tell the car it now had cruise control. In other words, just fitting the controls would not have made it work.
Thank you for the reply, I will check my options then Gassing Station | Aston Martin | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff