The Safrane.Info Forum!

So the cruise control stopped working on my Safrane.

Now its a very simple system so its actually easy to fix.

You have an electrical side and a vacuum side. The electrical side is very reliable but the wheel butons can wear out if you use it a lot. So I started there.

The wheel



The airbag removed



The switch popped out



Switch apart for cleaning



My switches were fine. As was power supply etc.

So next vacuum system.

The throttle is controlled by a vacuum signal which operates on a diaphragm at the throttle body.I don't haave a pic handy but its the black bit with the vacuum pipe going into it. First make sure the actuator rod is connected to the throttle arm, if you move it the actuator arm will also move inside the outer part of it.

Next check the diaphragms integrity. Basically remove the vacuum pipe pull the base of it upwards then put your finger over the hole. The throttle should stay open if it closes again its bad.

Next is the actual pump. This is a simple vacuum pump much like a small tyre inflator but pulls a vacuum. It has 2 solenids in it, a hold and a dump solenoid.

The hold solenoid maintains the negative pressure to keep a constant throttle position.

The dump solenoid allows negative pressure to be bled off to reduce throttle angle thus speed.

The pump is found in the offside front corner. Bumper off easy to get to but you can do it from the top after removing ecu bracket etc. Thats how I did it. Its rubber mounted due to it being a pump that vibrates so be careful the rubbers don't get torn.



The unit just pulls apart



Shows rubber mount, as you can see one wasn't fitted right from the factory thus folded over, the other 2 are on the bracket on the car



The motor thankfully not corroded



This solenoid and seal etc is clean and workng well so no issues here. I apply voltage to to the pins at the plug to make sure it activates and holds which it does





Finally the culprit. To the right you can see the motor with its eccentric that operates the pump, I gave this a light oil. The main issue is the rusty solenoid. This is not working freely so not sealing the port thus the cruise is trying to work but can't as the system canot pull a vacuum.



The fix is a thorough clean and scraping the corrosion from the solenoid where it pivots on its body. I then applied voltage to check it pulled in and held and sealed the port which it did.

I then put the pump back into the car and took it a test drive. It of course worked perfectly once again.

Total cost £0, time maybe an hour all in for everything to be checked.

Heh there was me thinking you'd sold the old girl and left us!

Good to see you're still in the gang

no its gone. A year ago in fact. Last June.

Scrapped. Shame as it was tip top and had a lot of new stuff.

It had to go, thankfully now I'm down to 2 cars and only 4 motorbikes. When I had the Safrane I had 5 cars and 5 bikes lol

I found some pics I took so thought they might as well go to good use.

What I miss most is the air con, it truly was the coldest I have ever felt. I also miss the auto box tbh. After I changed the fluid it was a dream.

Great post Chris,the cruise control was not working on my old V6 and it was the same unit,but i just replaced it with a spare,it was tight on a V6 but i got there,the unit was slightly different to look at but in the same location,must be water ingress that causes it to pack,water ingress is very common on Renaults,its one thing they have never 100% cured.