If there’s one feature I missed on longer trips in our camper van, it’s cruise control.
All of my other cars have cruise control and it’s vehicle option that I find extremely useful especially on longer journeys in my VW Transporter T4 when you’re mile munching.
Thankfully, all of the main components are already in the van as standard – the later model ECU has cruise control, the loom has the plug connector – however the cruise control needs to be enabled using VCDS, and you need a loom to engage & disengage cruise control.
Getting it all to work is simpler than I thought. See the steps below that I followed.
Of course finding a factory T4 cruise control stalk is like winning the lottery, but it’s easy enough to make a loom like I did to get it working or get one from one of the few people who are making them so owners can retro fit them to their vans like I did.
There’s a simple check you can do to see if your van has cruise control ability – start the van and idle, apply some revs (I think it was to more than 2000rpm) then at the same time apply the brake with your left foot – if the engine drops it’s revs automatically you know you have a van that can have cruise control activated.
There’s a simple procedure to activate Cruise Control in VCDS – log into the app, and go to Engine module then click the login button. Enter 11463 to activate the Cruise Control software option in the ECU. It’s that easy….
See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKgAhyRsffs
I hope you get inspired to do something similar in your van conversion!
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HOW TO FIT CRUISE CONTROL TO YOUR VW T4
Wiring – credit to Steve Lou on Just T4’s for this info:
Check you have ECU throttle control: when parked, gear in neutral, increase revs to 3000, press left foot on brake without changing pressure on throttle, and revs should come down. If they do, you’re good to go. If they don’t, then buy a house brick and that’s your cruise control.
Step 1 – Buy The Bits
2 way momentary
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281811473142
On/off switch (not needed if you are hard wiring ‘on’)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254230113995
You’ll also need some wire and crimp female terminals for the switches.
Step 2 – locate the connector
Remove the fuse box cover panel (to lower right of steering wheel). Undo the brace and bottom plastic cover. Remove side clips from the relay block and lift up the block and lower down out the way. The connector will be located at the back near where the loom goes through the bulkhead.
Step 3 – Start connecting up
On the connector you’ll see numbers stamped on the side, this relates to the numbers in the wiring diagram (see wiring diagram). You can cut the wires and use wago connectors which I found much easier and wire as per diagram.
Step 4 – Mount switches
Decide on where you want the switches and mount according routing the wires neatly behind the dash.
Step 5 – Activate with VCDS
This can be purchased with a cable for about £10 on eBay.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323776511042
Watch this video for tutorial on activating
https://youtu.be/jdgF6mDoVIc
