Rostra/Yaris Custom Cruise kit

[blacksan]

This outfit has them for $230.76 for both auto & manual.

http://www.brandondist.com/products/custom_cruise.htm

[Mead]

Yeah some members had major DIY install trouble.

Anyhow I like to have this kit and it's way cheaper than dealer install (I think it's the same unit).... but I don't want my Yaris to stall on the hwy

[nsmitchell]

Mine works great, although the stalk could feel more solid. I'm sure someone (blacksan) could come up with a slick way to make it feel more structurally sound. I was thinking about using a piece of bent steel with a hole in it that could be glued with "gorilla glue" to the inside of the plastic cover. This would be much better than the simple washer for stability.

[blacksan]

I might just need to eyeball your setup fer sum ideers.

[nsmitchell]

Well, mine is installed, but everytime I use it I think about that one mod. To stiffen up the mounting of the stalk. Basically it's just a threaded hollow rod, going through a flimsy piece of plastic, with a large washer and a nut. If you have some metal laying around, you could stiffen that bay up like stock!

[blacksan]

We need to get together at some point so I can take some measurements and photos of the assembly. I might be just as easy to make an insert for the existing setup, but I need to see it. I will most likely order mine soon and if I am satisfied with my setup we can upgrade yours.

[Jerkratt]

yo if u guys get this cruise control thing working would any of u wanna help me do it? lol

[blacksan]

No prob if you can make the trip.

[Violin]

Originally Posted by nsmitchell

Mine works great, although the stalk could feel more solid. I'm sure someone (blacksan) could come up with a slick way to make it feel more structurally sound. I was thinking about using a piece of bent steel with a hole in it that could be glued with "gorilla glue" to the inside of the plastic cover. This would be much better than the simple washer for stability.

Good tip. I'll finally get a chance to install mine in the next few weeks.

[Bogartal]

Well, I just finished installing the Rostra cruise control on my '07 Yaris.

Lemmme tell ya, it wasn't much fun. The kit seems nice enough, and the instructions seemed decent (more on that below), but I'm 6' tall, 300 pounds, with big hands and I had a devil of a time installing it in the available space. If I was lucky I could get one hand into the space where I needed to splice wires, install wire ties, run cables, etc. etc. I've worked on it 2-3 hours a day since Saturday (making this my fourth day).

I was maniacally pleased this morning when I got the last wire hooked up (no wire ties yet and all panels still off), turned on the key, turned on the cruise, and the little green led on the cruise went on. Then I made the fatal Murphy taunt mistake I usually make when repairing computers: I cable tied everything and replaced all the panels before going for a test drive.

It doesn't work.


The car starts and runs fine, the green led on the cruise comes on when you press the power button, but the Set/Accel buttons on the cruise control do nothing.

I'm in the process of rechecking all the wires to see if anything got pulled out of a connector and verifying that I've hooked everything up according to the instructions, but that's almost as frustrating as the install itself.

There is one nagging question I have, though, that maybe one of you knows the answer to. When I inserted the loose wires into the connector from the control/switch stalk, the instructions were a bit vague in that they say (step D7), "Assemble the 8-pin connector from the sack parts to the mating wire colors on the Control switch harness." No diagram, no pinouts, marginally parseable English. To make things more complicated, there are eight pins in the connector but only five wires from the control stalk, so there are some holes that must be left open.

Worse, the loose connector from the parts bag that one must insert the pins into has color-coded tape on it that mostly, with one exception, matches the wire colors on the matching connector. The exception is the blue wire. The plastic connector is marked blue where the opposite connector has a beige wire, and where the opposite connector has a blue wire, the wire-it-yourself connector has no color, indicating no connection.

I made a command decision to insert the blue wire where the connector said to rather than where the other blue wire was. I suspect this is my problem. I thought I'd try moving it, but of course those connector pins have little prongs that make it nigh unto impossible to remove a pin once it's been inserted into the connector.

Before I go cave-man on this thing and cut the wire, install a new pin, and try the other hole, I thought I'd try to find out if that really is the problem.

In summary, after a long, sad story you probably have no interest in, can one of you who have installed this kit tell me which pin the blue wire from the control stalk is supposed to connect to??

Thanks in advance!!!

[socko]

Bogartal,
take a look at thread entitled Rostra Cruse Control. My installation went fairly smoothly although I had problems similar to yours (ie. tapping into small wires in tight spaces. I had to call the dealer I bought the kit from once becasue the wire colors on my car were not the same as what the Rostra instructions said they were. I learned that the pin placement is what counts, not the wire color.
Good luck

[Bogartal]

socko-

Thanks for the reply. As it turns out, after receiving no response to my plea, I made another command decision and moved the blue wire to the other position in the connector.

Then, the green led stopped coming on. Clearly not the problem.

I got lucky- As I was moving the blue wire _back_ to its original position, I noticed that two of the other pins in the assemble-it-yourself connector weren't fully seated, so I carefully pushed them all the way in with a paper clip.

The cruise works FLAWLESSLY now.

I had actually managed to install everything properly, except that when I snapped the stalk connector into it's corresponding connector from the cruise controller, a couple of pins got pushed out instead of making a connection with the pins in the other connector. Something for anyone else doing this install to watch out for, I propose.

So, to concur with your comment, the blue wire belonged where the blue tape was on the connector body, not where the blue wire was on the opposing connector.

Thanks again for your reply!

[nsmitchell]

Attaboy Bogartal! It was an elusive but simple fix and now you are feeling very proud no doubt.

[gonzo452001]

I had the most trouble getting the wire taps on all my wires were the right color put mine on in late december cold as helll has been working fine . You got to put the pins in the connecter one way or they don't lock in right.You should print the instuctions off the web site in color makes things a lot easyer.I kind of worry about hitting the stalk with my knee and breaking it off

[Violin]

I looked at the rostra site for color instructions but didn't find them.

Can a brother get a link?

[nsmitchell]

Originally Posted by Violin

I looked at the rostra site for color instructions but didn't find them.

Can a brother get a link?

This is for the Rostra Cruise controls.

http://www.thecruisecontrolstore.com/installinst.html

[Violin]

Thanks!

[yoyoche]

I just pulled the trigger on one of these from M&R electonics.
http://www.mnrelectronics.com/toya20crcoki.html same as http://www.thecruisecontrolstore.com/
Will report how the install goes when it's done.