The steering wheel of my 1990 Toyota 4Runner has two black buttons on the right hand side, and one button on the left side. The lettering on the buttons has long since been rubbed away, so I can’t read them.
The left-hand button is Cruise Control, which doesn’t work (It displays the word “CRUISE” in green on the dash but does nothing. The two buttons on the right I have no idea what the hell they do.
One of them is small and round. The other is shaped like a fat hotdog; it’s one of those double-headed buttons where both the top and bottom are actually seperate buttons. (Many cars’ window and lock controls are like this.)
What are these buttons? I’ve tried pushing them and they don’t do anything at all.
… which means, in case you haven’t used Cruise Control before, once you hit the Cruise button to turn it on, press the upper button to set your current speed as what the Cruise Control is going to keep the speed at. If you tap the brakes, this would disengage the cruise control; then you would hit the lower button and the vehicle would boost back up to the speed you set it at.
Either that or the upper one is for grenades, the lower one is for the machine guns, and you’re out of ammo.
It sounds like it does exactly what it’s meant to do – turn the cruise control on. That’s not the same as engaging the cruise so it can control the car’s speed. Almost certainly the buttons on the right side control the set, coast, and resume functions, as others have suggested.
For best results, look it up in your owner’s manual. If you don’t have one, get one, either from a dealer or from a salvage yard. It will have complete and exact instructions on how your system works, no guessing. This is just one example of the value of owner’s manual, which should be stored in the car.
Different car makers have different ways of laying out the cruise functions and their buttons. For example, one brand may have coast and resume on the same button, another may have set and resume on the same button. If you don’t have an owner’s manual, you have to sort it out by trial and error, trying each possible button application. If you can find a like model of vehicle to look at, you can read the button labels and maybe sort it out easier. It helps to have a basic familiarity with how cruise systems operate – for example, knowing that cruise won’t engage at speeds below 35 mph, and that stepping on the brake will disengage it. And of course, make sure the system is “on” (left button) when trying this.
I always use Cruise Control in my dad’s 1999 Toyota Camry when I’m on the highways…in that car, it’s activated by a lever on the right-hand side of the steering column. Never seen buttons before.
Yeah, okay, I admit it. I had the same problem. I thought for years that the cruise on my mom’s car didn’t work because I would hit the “cruise” button, the green light would go on, and nothing would happen. Then I found out that I’m not as brilliant as I once thought, and that the cruise button and green light only mean that cruise control is ready to go, but not that it is actively engaged. :smack:
To engage it, you actually have to push the lower of the other two buttons. The upper button increases the speed a tiny bit, but you may have to push it several times to notice it working. The lower button will now lower the speed a little bit.
Since Gary already did a pretty good job of explaining things, I have to add something else of value instead. Here’s how you get a 1990 4Runner owners manual:
Toyota publications, including owner’s manuals, repair manuals, and wiring diagrams may be purchased from our Material Distribution Center or your local Toyota dealership. Online access to Toyota reference materials may also be obtained through a subscription to our Technical Information System (TIS) (http://techinfo.toyota.com/). To contact our Material Distribution Center, please call 800-622-2033 or 310-761-9400 between the hours of 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM, Pacific Time, Monday - Friday.
