Any ideas what may have caused this? I was driving my '05 Sebring sedan 2.4 DOHC on the highway with the cruise control turned on. I had been driving 15 minutes or so. I touched the "coast" switch to adjust my speed slightly and then, aproxiamately 3 or 4 minutes later, the cruise control completely shut down by itself. The "cruise" light on the dash had been lit but now it was not. I tried to turn the cruise control on but it wouldn't turn on and the little light would not come back on.
I thought that it may have blown a fuse, but after I parked the car for an hour, the cruise control worked again and the "cruise" indicator light came back on. I was able to drive my car home on the highway using the cruise control with no issues. I'm wondering if I have a problem? Is the cruise control going to fail and what could be the cause? What things should I be looking at? Any help would be appreciated.

 

OK. It's 24 hours later. The same thing happened again. I'm driving along the highway with the "cruise" on and all of a sudden the cruise control shuts off and I can't turn it back on. Again this happened 15 minutes or so into the trip. The only difference this time is that I hadn't touched any of the controls while I was driving.
Just like last time, after I park the car for a while, the "cruise" indicator lights up when I start the engine and the cruise works again. Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like there might be a problem with the controls at the wheel and/or the clockspring. The system is basically controlled by the PCM with inputs from the switches on the wheel, the transmission output speed sensor, and the brake light switch.

 

Thank you for the reply dcotter0579. OK, an update. I've started having a new problem and I'm wondering if it might be related. Usually this car starts fine, nearly always on the first crank. Lately I've been having a problem where, on occasion, it will crank over but not start. Sometimes it takes upwards of 5 or 6 trys. Once it does start the engine seems to run fine. The other evening I shut the car "off" and went in for a coffee. When I returned to my car 30-40 minutes later it would crank but wouldn't start. I tried cranking 5 or 6 times, popped my hood and checked as many electrical connectors as I could reach to make sure they were all snug. I waited a couple of minutes and tried again. I took my key out of the ignition, put it back in, cranked 5 or 6 more times. Nothing, the engine didn't even try to fire. After trying to start it 15 or 20 times my battery still hadn't given up. It was cranking fine, just wouldn't fire. I did the "key dance" and it displayed code PO344. So, I gave up and called a tow truck. This was a Saturday evening so there were no service centres open and the car would have to sit until at least Monday before anyone could look at it. Once the car had been towed to the repair shop and the tow truck had left, I was getting my stuff out of it and was going to call a friend for a ride, when just out of curiosity, I tried to start it to see what would happen. Well you guessed it, it fired up and ran on the first try!
I figured since it was running I might as well try to make it home. When I got home I looked up code PO344 on the net and found "camshaft position sensor and circuit". If this was an older car I would say that it's behaving like a bad electrical connection, but being a car with a computer (PCM), I'm not sure what to think. I am wondering if there might be a problem with the wiring harness between the camshaft position sensor and the PCM and also if the wiring for the cruise control is in the same harness? Could the two problems be related? Thanks again.

 

If you browse the forum here you might find several threads regarding that engine and cam and crankshaft position sensor problems. For some reason, it seems that if one of the sensors goes bad, replacing both of them usually solves the problem. It's not a difficult job to replace them but it must be done correctly to get it right.

I doubt that the cruise control problem is related.

 

Thanks again dcotter0579. I pulled the connector off the camshaft position sensor and also unplugged the other end of the wiring harness at the PCM. I used my ohmmeter to check the violet/white wire and the tan/yellow wire for continuity and both checked out okay, I couldn't find the other end of the ground wire. Then I plugged the harness back in, turned on the ignition and checked for the two 5 volt readings at the camshaft sensor, centering on the ground wire. I had both, so I bought a new sensor and installed it. I'm happy to say that I am now driving my car again. I'm still checking for the issue with the cruise control.