Subaru/Vanagon Cruise Control Design
Below is a diagram with my current thoughts for installing the native Subaru CC into my Weekender. It has the Subaru CC Brain box up front by all the switches and sensors (clutch, brake, and VSS, which is a speedo-based, so it is conveniently up front to give the brain a speed signal). The brain box wiring is sent over shielded 22 AWG wires in an OEM sheath under the van to the servo located in the engine bay.
A Vanagon turn-signal stalk with cruise control will provide the SET/RESUME functionality rather than the Subaru stalk, so it will not look like
Frankenstein off the steering column.
The Subaru CC servo fits nicely in the passenger side back corner of the engine bay. This would be a problem for an earlier year Vanagon model, which may have carbon canister components located there. On an '86 or later, these are located behind the firewall in the wheel well, so the space is open to put the servo there instead. The servo's throttle cable loops toward the back of the van and then forward into the throttle.
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| Subaru/Vanagon Cruise Control Logical Design |
Cruise Control Photos
Here are the parts I pulled from my 2001 Subaru donor car. There are still wire harnesses missing that are attached to the main engine harness, which is being modified by Rocky Mountain Westy.
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| Cruise Control Stalk - not used, but could be |
My CC servo is electric whereas many older Subaru vehicles utilized a vacuum-based servo. Even in the same year (e.g. 2001), Subaru released both electric and vacuum servos as I know of another project that has the same donor car, but his is vacuum-based. Go figure! Anyway, this servo should be easier to hook into my system since I won't need to figure out extra hoses to achieve a vacuum. I'm looking to mount this in the passenger side of the engine bay of the van.
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| Cruise Control Servo & Throttle Cable |
Subaru cruise control is an "on/off" thing... Meaning you must first tell it to go into "cruise" mode and then you can actually "set" the cruise speed you want. This switch is for that. It also has an indicator light, so it will tell me if cruise is engaged or not. Some people with aftermarket cruise control installs either do not have this indicator or must install a custom indicator into their van's dash themselves.
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| Cruise Control On/Off Switch |
This is the brains behind the Subaru cruise control system. This will probably be mounted under the dash close to the clutch & brake switches as well as the VSS signal from my speedo-based VSS.
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| Cruise Control Brain & Bracket |
This switch has a pressure sensor that will turn cruise off if you tap the brake. The adapter and wiring to connect to the brake switch is currently on the wiring harness at RMW. Another option instead of using a brake switch is to connect the brake signal into the "power" wire that goes to the brake lights. The idea is that whenever the brakes are pushed, power goes to the brake lights, so you can harness that to send the signal to the Subaru CC brain instead of installing a brake switch by the pedal.
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| Cruise Control Brake Switch |
One of these clutch switches has a pressure sensor that will turn cruise off if you tap the brake. The adapter and wiring to it is on the wiring harness at RMW as well.. The other one is worthless. I think the other one is just for starting the vehicle if it requires the clutch to be pressed in before turning over.
Question: I don't know which one is which right now! Do I need A or B? It is better to keep the parts around until you know for sure that you don't need it.
Answer (Dec. 5, 2013): I found out from UltimateSubaru.org forums that the bottom clutch switch is the one for cruise control, while the top is for starting the car! So, the smaller, blue switch is what I need.
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| Cruise Control Clutch Switch |
VW Vanagon Turn Signal Switch With Cruise Control! (January 8th, 2014)
Psyched I got this today!!! A rare thing indeed... I found it on TheSamba.org, after asking a member from the classifieds if they had the part. Boom!! He did have an extra for me and for only $105 (ouch!) I got this sucker. Now, I need to get the Subaru wiring diagrams to see how it connects up to my Subaru CC harness & brain. I'm not too concerned because I know others that have done it including Tom Shiels from Subaruvanagon.com.
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| Vanagon Turn Stalk w/ Cruise Control - Un-boxed! |
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| Wire Colors - I Need to Match Subaru CC functions |
2 comments:
Hello. Did you ever complete the cruise control project ? I'm in the same boat and I'd like to do as you did with the potential installation. I just want to know if you were successful.
Haven't gotten around to it. The main thing that is keeping me back is that my engine keeps throwing false-positive CEL codes (see rest of my blog). When any CEL code is thrown, Subaru CC shuts off. If I cannot get the codes 100% eliminated, I will have to go with the GoWesty CC kit instead.
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