Cruise Control Problem
 

So, I think my problem has already been figured out but I need to figure out how to exactly do it. My cruise control lights all go on but nothing happens when they show they are engaged. I took the car to the honda dealer and they told me it was a $800 repair to replace the entire throttle body. The notes in the service order were throttle body cable fitting damaged, throttle body and gasket. Does anyone have a 'how to' on how to complete this repair?

I have a 2003 Honda Accord LX 4 Cyl 4 Door

I would inspect the cable that goes from the cruise control actuator to the the throttle body.

Figure out what they meant by throttle body cable fitting damaged. Is the plastic piece that holds the cable damaged?

Not clear from that description just WHAT is damaged. The cruise-control unit has a cable that goes over to the throttle body to work the throttle.

The throttle body has a cable-spool - that might be broken or bent?
The "official" deal is that cable-spool is not a separate part. Have to buy the whole throttle body. But if you get a TB from a junkyard, it would be relatively easy to replace (bolt-on).

The cable-drum is on the far side (blocked from view) in this drawing.
http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...4sda01_e01.png

Without taking it off I see that the throttle body looks okay...hmmm


Do you think changing a throttle body can be done by someone who hasn't worked one before?

Changing the throttle body isn't too hard to do. You may have to drain the coolant, if there are coolant lines going to it.

On my friend's 99 V6, the black plastic piece that holds the cable was broken, so the cable does not stay in place. That is why I asked you to take a look for either a broken cable or a broken piece of plastic. It should be pretty obvious.

Where it says "E-15" I think those are coolant lines. With the engine cold, just be "ready" to swap the hoses quickly & you probably won't lose much.

What if the drum where the throttle cable attaches is broken? That's not available by itself, so that forces you to replace the TB.

I don't believe the OP got a correct diagnose.
I think a second opinion is needed.
There is no way I can think of offhand, that the throttle body would cause the Cruise to be inoperable.

People have brought poor service upon themselves; years and years of DEMANDING cheaper service has resulted in dealerships paying peanuts and hiring monkeys in the service department. TOP TECHS won't work for minimum wages.

Anyone know of a good mechanic shop in Chicago then?

I don't know a good place to go in Chicago.

The only thing on the throttle body that can screw up the cruise control is a broken plastic piece that holds the CC cable. This happened on my friend's 99 V6.

I attached two pics. The CC pic shows where the CC cable is routed in your car in red. Follow that cable to the TB. The TB pic shows the two plastic pieces that the end of the cable connects to with the red arrows. I am not sure which one is for the CC, but you can follow the cable to it.

Just take a look and see if the black plastic piece is broken where the T of the CC cable gets held in place. It should be obvious if something broke off. The CC cable would be easily pulled off of that black piece if that is the cause of your problem.

What do you think? Sorry I took alot of pictures and they all turned out like crap...it looks good to me at that point http://tinypic.com/r/s1kadx/4

Bump...

What are most common causes of cruise control failure?

cruise cable breaking off throttle body
 

Hi,

I am also from Chicago and had this exact same problem happen this week. My mechanic brother inspected the TB for me after i told him the cruise control wasn't working. The plastic clip that holds the cruise control cable onto the TB melted off basically.

I assume you cannot buy the clip to reattach to the TB from Honda and they will make you purchase a complete new one for an outrageous price.

Alright so the plastic piece that connected the cruise control to the throttle body did snap off. The throttle body from Honda is 320 and installation I got for 87. Expensive fix for such a little plastic piece...

Thanks PA Honda - Cruise Control Mystery Solved
 

I am having the same issue with my cruise control...lights come on dash, but car doesn't hold speed after activation. Thanks to PA Honda's pictures, I traced the cable and found that the very end of the cruise control cable (with the little cylindrical retaining nub on the end) has detached from the spring-loaded circular piece attached to the throttle body. The cable appears to wrap around this piece (marked by the top red arrow on PA Honda's TB picture) about 3/4 of the way, and then it looks like the nub is supposed to fit into a notch to secure it. This "notch" in the circular piece appears to have broken, so that the cable is no longer secured (it's just hanging there unattached), thus explaining why my CC doesn't work. By the way, the CC cable on my car (2003 Accord EX Coupe - 4 cyl) is attached to a metal bracket on the throttle body with a nut, so the cable itself is very secure.

Now the question is whether this circular fitting is a part that can be replaced. The two parts (one for the main throttle cable and the other for the cruise control cable are attached to the throttle body by a nut, so I would imagine this could be removed. There are several springs in this area, so I don't know if parts are going to start flying after starting to remove everything. It seems like it would be a repair that should not cost too much if I had it done, since everything is very accessible.

I think I'm on the right track here, but I'd appreciate any additional feedback so that I am fully informed before going to the dealer.

Thanks again to PA Honda for making the diagnosis so much easier!

2003 Accord EX Coupe 4 Cyl Throttle Body
 

I have attached a picture to clarify what I was trying to explain in my first message. The area circled in black is where mine is broken. This is the "notch" where the nub at the very end of the cruise control cable is supposed to be secured. On mine, the nub just slips out since the notch is broken.

The red circled area is the nut that I was talking about. It seems like this could be removed so that the broken part could come off, but I might be oversimplifying this. Have any of you ever replaced this portion of the assembly and if so, how easy or difficult is it?

Yeah, it looks like it can be removed. Probably not all that difficult either.

The problem will be getting a new part. Honda doesn't sell the cable drums, so the official story is you gotta buy a new throttlebody(!). Maybe a junkyard??

Jim,

I was afraid of that. I can get a used one for about $75. Have you ever heard of a Honda dealer installing parts supplied by customers?

Maybe I could do it myself, but I have no manual and am not sure if this is a simple remove and replace or if there are other adjustments or things to watch out for. I would imagine there are also torque specs for the bolts that attach the TB to the engine. I have not worked on cars for a very long time, so this would have to be pretty straightforward for me to want to attempt the repair.

I have the same problem where the plastic part that hold the cruise control cable broke off. Shame on Honda for letting this happened on an otherwise exceptional piece of engineering!

To fix it I bought the Epoxy glue called steel weld (it contains two compounds, milky and black liquid, that you must mixed together) and glue the cable notch to the plastic end again. So far it is working well for me. Not bad for a $5 solution. Hopefully this post can help someone out there to save some money.

This is Fixable
 

I was able to fix this without replacing the throttle body. Here are the steps I performed.

-Remove the throttle body
-Find a very sharp and small drill bit
-VERY gently and slowly drill a hole through the plastic wire guide
-The plastic is very fragile so be extra careful
-Thread through a zip tie but leave it very loose
-Reattach the throttle body
-Make sure to pass the cruise control cable through the zip tie loop
-Position the cruise control cable and tighten down the zip tie to capture the cable

Below are three pictures I took of the process.

http://postimg.org/image/ly0jp9sap/
http://postimg.org/image/atdr08kat/
http://postimg.org/image/a2ji976tb/

I too am having cruise control problems on my 2000 Honda Accord EX. I was looking at the throttle body and saw that the cruise cable was laying limp in the groove. I rotated the cam and see that the hole for the cable boss is broke. The throttle body is the problem but I refuse to buy a new one. I will go to a Pull a Part to find a used one or will manufacture a fix for the one I have. I will let you know how that works out. A throttle body is able to cause cruise problems. Easy to find but not easy to fix if you dont go for the new OEM parts.

Good luck with the fix.

Let us know how it goes and which way worked out for you.

oke thanks information welcome the accord forums

Please post something close to a response or help WITHOUT that attachment. Not sure if you are a spammer or not. I see you are in CA so I didn't ban you right away.

check the vacuum. If the actuator is not getting vacuum it will not engage.

i did pull on the cables earlier and they seemed taught. i could not find any vacuum tubes to the actuator...does anyone have any pics?

well i think i found the issue with my cruise control...will check for that cable this weekend.

found the cable end for cruise control was hanging out there...will have to remove the TB and try to fix it without replacing the TB. poor design on Honda's part, unbelievable.

Sounds strange but I'm glad you found the issue.....now to try to figure out how to fix it :shrug:

its the same issue that everyone has had where the plastic thing that holds the cable is broken.

some people have epoxied the end of the cable ball into the plastic thing...this will restrict the cable end from turning when its pulled on, isn't that going to restrict or break something else?

I fixed the cruise control! here is a pics and video of how to do it...thanks to cowsarered suggest fix!

here is the video link

https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...ine=1477246650

Picking up on this thread as I believe i have this same problem now. I see the cruise cable end hanging free. This is a clever fix, but I can't believe how much work it is just to get access in order to make the fix. I see you need to drill holes, so I guess that means you really have to remove the TB. Anyone have any other suggestions that do not involve pulling the TB? It does look like a hard place to work. Naturally, it wouldn't be a part that breaks and is easily accessible!

I saw the note about using epoxy to secure the cable. Any further input on how to do that? Is the epoxy just applied at the end or do you go further along the cable? Has anyone else here tried that?

Thanks!

Tom

Can't say how working on it while still on the car is going to work - be able to get the right "angle" to attempt a fix.

Either way you decide to go, let us know how you go at it and how it comes out - always like to have extra ideas.

I'm going to take a look at this probably next week. I have found several listings for used TBs for $75-100. I may purchase one to have one to put back in if a repair of mine doesn't go well.

Seems like there should be a way to clip something over that part of the pulley to hold the cable in place. Hmmm. I'll think about that further too.

Meanwhile, looking at the setup, I'd say that the only time a CC cable pulls at a direct angle sufficient to break that piece is when the CC is doing a hard acceleration. Otherwise, the throttle isn't open that far ... or so it seems. My advice for people with these models that still have working CC is to not use the CC to accelerate very much (including not allowing the CC to resume a cruise speed without manually accelerating back to that point or close by). Just a thought.

Tom

If you replace - or even remove and re-install....I would look into the idle "re-learn" procedure, just a thought.

I realize this thread is old but perhaps this will help someone. I've a 2005 Honda Accord EX 2.4l and the cruise control cable was dangling free as described by others earlier in this thread. After watching footprintsinconc's very helpful video (thanks), near the bottom of page 3, I attacked. For the most part things went well. However, I was too aggressive tightening the cable tie closest to the cruise control cable end and broke one side of the (longtime engine heat-baked) plastic groove. Even before this broke I was unhappy with the looseness of the cable end with two cable ties in place, and it became even looser after the breakage. To rectify this, I placed the throttle body and the accelerator and cruise control cables in a position so that they were stable in the engine compartment and the cruise control cable was properly in its groove. Then I used three cable ties to "hold" it in place ("hold" because if the throttle body and cables weren't in a stable position the cruise control cable would move quite a bit in the groove and the end would twist), one through the unbroken set of holes with the cable tie over the cruise control cable, one through the remaining single hole (opposite the broken side), and one through a hole I drilled beneath the groove under the cruise control cable end. Be sure that the fat ends of the cable ties wind up on top of the cruise control cable; if they're on either side they might interfere with other moving parts. Finally, with everything sitting in a stable position with easy access to the cruise control cable end from all directions, I used toothpicks to coat the cruise control cable end and all three cable ties with JB Weld Original Cold-Weld Formula. Be sure to work some epoxy into all the nooks and crannies. By the end you want the last inch or so of the plastic groove to be a solid V of epoxy, such that the cruise control cable end, the cable itself, and the cable ties are bonded together. After waiting four hours (on a hot day) I put everything back together, then I allowed the JB Weld to cure overnight. I went for a test drive today and the cruise control works as it should. Ahhh, if you're going to do this you might want to spray some penetrating oil on the throttle body's two nuts and two bolts, and the cable holder's three bolts, the night before to aid removal.