Hi, have a 05 x type 3.0 98K Miles, recently purchased the car. Cruise was working. Today I tried it and it seems to engage for a split second then a message pops up Cruise Control Cancelled.


Any ideas? I have the wheel but there is no on / off button on front or back of the steering wheel. Cruise seems to be always on....

 

The break light switch is what cancels cruise. There should be a toggle on the backside of the cruise buttons. Toggle the top for on and the bottom for off. It is possible the button is corroded and you can try some electrical contact cleaner spraying lightly. Toggling it back and forth.
If when you push the button on and it disengages by itself it is most likely a bad break light switch.

 

lynnpt2001, I would check the car to make sure that your brake lights are not on all the time. It is possible that if the switch under the dash got bumped and is not sitting in the correct spot will cause the cruise to not engage and give you the indications that you are seeing.

As for the cruise being enabled all the time, let me check my manuals to make sure I remember how the cruise was activated on the car. I am questioning myself how the X-Type is setup (got rid of mine 18 months ago). But, in the instrument cluster you should see a yellow speedometer looking light come on when the cruise is in standby mode (ie, waiting on you to either resume your old speed or waiting for you to set a new speed) and then that light will turn green when you are actively using cruise.

 

When the message comes up that the cruise control is cancelled how fast are you going? Car has to be going at least 18 mph for the cruise to be enabled. Also, if you have a manual transmission every time you engage the clutch it will disable.

When you say the cruise is on all the time, can you elaborate? Whenever you turn the car off the cruise is automatically disabled. The next time you start the car and want to activate the cruise you will have to start the process over. Is that not what happens?

 

Answers: I do not have any switches on the back of the steering wheel. Used to be all I had to do is turn the wheel toward the + and it would activate. Also I never saw any lights on the dash for cruise. Only the message window saying "Cruise Activated" now it "Cruise Cancelled" when I hit the + on the wheel. I am going 40 - 50 mph when trying this.

 

I feel stupid and wish I would have checked this first. Cleaned the little air pump in the dash a few days ago, in that process I dislodged the brake light switch. Wala, no cruise. Took me 30 seconds to fix

 

Don't feel stupid! We all have done things like this working on our cars.

 

To clarify some confusion about the button arrangement and dash lights for those unfamiliar with them, if a post 2005 model has a message centre that reads out Cruise Engaged/Cancelled there is no Cruise Indicator light on the dash.

Also the controls on the steering wheel are the modernised style of a 'wheel' that rotates upwards to Engage Cruise and increase the set cruise speed. The same wheel rotates downwards to reduce speed. The two buttons on the steering wheel spoke Cancel Cruise as required and Resume it to the value set before cancellation.