E450 cruise control quit.....need suggestions.

starlord wrote:
Don't know about your 04 but on my 05 E350 diesel I've never had a cruise light from the day it was new.

That's strange. After reading that self test thing about watching for the blinking light, I assumed they meant an icon that indicates the cruise is on like my GMC truck has. That test may be a hoax I guess.

starlord wrote:
Don't know about your 04 but on my 05 E350 diesel I've never had a cruise light from the day it was new.

My '06 450 either.
Nor the 250 passenger vans that I used to drive in livery service.
Maybe it is "special order". :B

Don't know about your 04 but on my 05 E350 diesel I've never had a cruise light from the day it was new.

Well the cruise functions but I would like to replace the bulb (if that's why-no icon) so I will be fully functional. I hate to fix things half way. I took the instrument panel out and boy there is a lot of bulbs back there. No markings to be able to tell what is what. I have no owners manual and have looked and looked (to my ability) on the internet looking for a picture of just where that icon is on the console. If someone could take a picture of the page in their manual that shows where it is or could take a picture of their console with that icon illuminated and post it here, I would be forever in your debt. My chassis is a 2004 E450. The dash was the same for several years around that time I believe.

I have an 05 E350 and for about the last four years my cruise will quit working, maybe for a short time, maybe longer. Example, going to Orlando a couple of years ago my cruise wasn't working....after six hours on the road and hitting the on and off switch and then the set switch quite often it started working again. Have had it in shops that never could find anything wrong with it. After it started working again it was a year and a half before it quit again....same sequence for getting it going again except not as long on the on, off, set method. Had bought a new replacement switch but hey, when it works it works.

tatest wrote:
RE the mis-wired hydraulic pressure switch, the recall changes only the wiring, so that the switch does not stay hot if it fails and shorts out. If the switch has failed, it needs to be replaced, and that will be the same Texas Instrument part that was used OEM.

Recall issue with the switch, specifically, was that any pressure switch can eventually fail as a short, and switch on hot side was different than switch on groung. Fix was a fuse in wiring harness to blow if the switch with high amps. TI never admitted to abnormal switch defects, it failed safely in 10x as many vehicles wired safely.

There are a lot of other elements in ECM managed cruise control, speed sensors and connection failures. You need to find a competent dealer. But replacing the pressure switch would not be a bad idea, whether it fixes cruise control or not.

Well, I now understand why the Ford outfit says my 2004 isn't on the recall. The problem was that on the earlier models that switch had unfused power to it all the time, whether the key was in the ignition or not. With that setup if the switch failed and let that circuit go to ground internally then the wiring became the fuse and melted, sometimes resulting in fires.

In the course of trying to figure out my problem of "no cruise", I found that on my 2004 e450 Ford changed that circuit to become energized at "key on" only. I'm just guessing but since this change in design was no doubt prompted by the recall situation, I would bet that they also put fuse protection in that circuit. In reading lots of info online about this, I found one especially informative Ford service bulletin about installing the recall harness. It recommended unplugging the 10 wire harness plug right next to the cruise actuator on the fender well and filling it with dielectric grease and re-plugging it. It also recommended doing the same with the plug on the switch. I did both these things and "Dave H M" mentioned that he had cruise problems due to the speed sensor on the top of the differential, so I had a look at that. I didn't remove the connector, just wiggled it around a bit because I didn't know the test procedure but I did find a very unsanitary situation with the wire routing, the loom and excessive slack that existed there. A couple of zip-ties righted that. I still couldn't get the icon on the dash to light and I wasn't sure if it would light without it being in motion so I took the rig for a drive and guess what,,,,,the cruise works! But, there is no lighted icon on the dash. Evidently the bulb is toast. nother project...oh boy.

Even though this is working and I now know that this switch isn't "hot" all the time I'm kinda thinking about installing a new switch. The genuine Motorcraft kit, including the switch and the harness is only 25 bucks. I don't think the harness is needed on this rig but the switch is 13 years old and with only 35K on the speedo, it has done a lot of sitting. That, plus the fact that it is mounted on the bottom of the master cylinder facing up, so any bits of moisture would find its way into the switches innards. Any thoughts on this??

wing_zealot wrote:
Did you try that self diagnosis test procedure. Cause even though the light doesn't work now, it will work when you run that test unless the light itself is burned out. What do you have to lose? It takes two minutes and requires no tools or jumping switches.

I tried multiple times to complete that self-test but no light on the dash would blink.

RE the mis-wired hydraulic pressure switch, the recall changes only the wiring, so that the switch does not stay hot if it fails and shorts out. If the switch has failed, it needs to be replaced, and that will be the same Texas Instrument part that was used OEM.

Recall issue with the switch, specifically, was that any pressure switch can eventually fail as a short, and switch on hot side was different than switch on groung. Fix was a fuse in wiring harness to blow if the switch with high amps. TI never admitted to abnormal switch defects, it failed safely in 10x as many vehicles wired safely.

There are a lot of other elements in ECM managed cruise control, speed sensors and connection failures. You need to find a competent dealer. But replacing the pressure switch would not be a bad idea, whether it fixes cruise control or not.

Did you try that self diagnosis test procedure. Cause even though the light doesn't work now, it will work when you run that test unless the light itself is burned out. What do you have to lose? It takes two minutes and requires no tools or jumping switches.

Dave H M wrote:
On my F250 it was the speed sensor on the rear pumpkin.

OK, thanks. I will check that. After doing some reading online, I found that there is a switch on the parking brake mechanism that has to be not activated...I checked that this morning and the pedal is all the way up. The brake pedal switch can cause no cruise...they say if the brake lights don't work with the pedal it can cause no cruise... they work. Right now I am working on another test...you are supposed to unplug the harness from the master cylinder speed control switch(this is the switch that caused all the fires and recall) and jump across the harness plug with a paper clip if the cruise lights up then the switch is bad. I haven't yet figured out how to get the plug to release from the switch. I don't want to break it. I'm hoping I can find a how-to online. Thanks for the tip. If this switch test passes, I will look into that switch or sensor on the diff. next. Do you happen to know the test procedure on that item?

One thing that concerns me is according to Ford the recall ended with 2003. Mine is a 2004 but I read a warning for signs to watch for before your rig catches fire and the first one on the list of 4 or 5 things was "Cruise control stops working or fails to activate". Mine has both those symptoms. They have extended the recall on that fault several times over the years and I'm just wondering if I should just update that switch and install the fused wiring harness myself and not wait for the next round of recalls.
https://www.thoughtco.com/ford-cruise-control-recall-3273659