ARGGHH! Cruise surges BIG TIME at 70mph
 

Ok I went a on "Semi-long" road trip yesterday. I'll post mpg / L/100Km results after I fill up this morning (it's EMPTY).

Anyway, I set my cruise to 110Km/h approx 68mph and the car surge back and forth back and forth CONSTANTLY!

I thought maybe I was dreaming or I was tired or something, but even my g/f noticed this in the passenger seat.

So I turned off the cruise and it defintely went away.

I set the cruise again at the same speed with the same results (I was hoping it was because I set it on a hill or something).

ARGHHH!!

So I set it to 114km/h and no surging..... maybe once every couple of minutes but it was CONSTANT. I set it to 90km/h no surging!

Man, is that ever annoying!

What gear were you in while on cruise and getting the surging??

6th of course.

I've noticed the same thing. It seems that mine does it at any speed when I have the cruise on. Wonder what that is?

It was so bad I drove for 3 hours with my foot on the pedal!

this IS A legitimate problem. We need to make it known to Mazda.

Is yours doing the samething Rod?

I used it for a 2000 mile trip last week. My only problem was climbing on moderate grades. It didn't surge unless I tapped the brakes and turned it off, and then hit the resume button. It seemed to overshoot the set speed and then surge when it tried to settle down after passing the set speed mark. I saw that problem a couple of times, but wasn't able to reproduce it again.

jd62, I have that problem as well.

I use cruise control for an 8 mile stretch of divided highway every day. I set it at 64 mph, and I've never had any surging problems. There's only one slight hill and it handles that fine. In fact, I've been more impressed with this cruise control than the one on my 2000 Accord.

I'm going on a trip to Pittsburgh next weekend, and I'm sure I'll be using the CC more. I'll definitely make note of how it does on longer stretches.

I used the cruise quite a bit on our 6600 km road trip - three times, when I would push the resume button it would accelerate to a cruise speed about 4 mph faster than it should have, but all the rest of the time it would be exactly at the speed it was supposed to. Other than those 3 blips, it performed perfectly - it held the speed to the exact mph and never wavered one mph up or down, even climbing or descending hills. Most accurate cruise control I've ever seen, and I never had any problems with surging.

Speaking of hills, who says the Renesis doesn't have any torque? As a test, I tried using the cruise in 6th gear while climbing the pass between Lake Tahoe and Reno, NV - the max altitude of the pass was 8900 ft, and the cruise control in 6th was still able to maintain speed while climbing at that altitude, even to accelerate a bit. :D

Regards,
Gordon

Just to note, the speedo doesn't change NEITHER does the tac, but you can feel your back get pushed off the seat every few seconds when it surges.

But like I said it only did it for me at 110Km/h odd.

I've been using the cruise 3 days a week on my turnpike drive thats 30 miles. Set it to 75 usually, although today I was doing 85 and didnt notice anything. I'll check it next weekend on 70 and see what happens.

The surge is so mild it makes you feel like your going crazy, but it is just enough to drive you nuts! The surge doesn't change the speed. It almost feels like a slight miss. Even with the surge it is the most accurate cruise I have ever seen.

I have not experienced surging at all with cruise, and I use it for about 15 miles per day. Perhaps it is an isolated issue for you (or the result of some other problem with a tire, etc.). As for the comment about this being the most accurate cruise ever seen: I was thinking that, too, but I suspect it is more a matter of perception due to having the digital speedo. I DO love it, though.

Yup! It sure does. On the highway at higher speeds. ANd right on the speedo and RPM readings. No change inddicated BUT the surging is happening - you can definitely feel it. It is like a pulse for and back, for and back in regular rhythm.

Nope - I had my GPS mounted beside the instrument cluster and was comparing the speeds on that, which are displayed to a 1/10th of a MPH. The GPS speedo showed speeds varying by less than 0.5 mph with the cruise engaged as the car went up and down hills.

I appreciate the clarifying descriptions of the surging - still, my car never exhibited that problem. It seems that it doesn't happen to all of them.

Regards,
Gordon

Or you just don't feel it, it is VERY subtle I didn't feel it till I thought I was tired, so I thought I was just going crazy!

It actually feels like your being rocked, just like a miss as described.

Wow! This is actually a case where I can honestly say that "my such and such is working perfectly!"

No problems with the CC at all.
Now I'm worried!

1800 mile trip. cruise worked exceptionally well except for:

1) resume tended to resume at speeds greater than originally set (approx 4 mph, sometimes less; this depends on how long you hold the resume, faster is less additional MPH)

2) when going down hill the cruise tended to surge very similar to what's been described previously - no changes in displayed speed, just a sense of drag undershoot, power overshoot, drag undershoot. i suspect if you paid attention you could watch the hood (actually whole front of the car) move up and down in response to the changes in throttle setting.

I have had the same problem on my car the 3rd day i had it i think. On my way back from Ottawa i felt exactly what Wing is explaining. I thought at that time that it was the AC going on anf off constantly that was producing the "rocking" effect i felt. Since that one time i haven't felt it again, AC on or off. I'm just back from a 125km trip, all HW and all cruise control at 115 kph and it certainly wasn't doing it.

okay okay

UPDATE

I took the car out for a spin on I-75 and used the cruise control at 70 mph for about 8 miles - NO SURGE NOW.

Hmm. It did surge the first week I owned it. Maybe the break-in or the regular gas have changed the situation - those are the only 2 factors of change besides weather.

Tried out the cruise at speeds between 65 and 80 after reading this post. Works flawlessly- vehicle speed was at the set MPH with an occasional blip up or down 1mph. Worked fine on the flats and up and down hills. BTW, I have 1200 miles now.

I was on a short trip yesterday, and used the cruise for the first time. The only surging I had was the standard surging you get with any cruise control. I finally had to turn it off because I was putting myself to sleep by not using my gas pedal. If you're noticing a huge surging, you really ought to get it checked out. That shouldn't be normal.

We did a 1100+ mile trip a week ago -- for break-in -- and we found the cruise control to work flawlessly. Up hills, down hills, lots of flat boring highway (101, SoCal) and twisties (Hwy 1 between Morro Bay/Pismo Beach and Monterey CA). Spot on all the time, and we never noticed any surging whatsoever, except when "bumping up/down" the set speed. Love the 1 mph increment/decrement!