Just Had Cuise Control Retro-fitted

[coupe-se]

After reading on here that you can have cruise control retro-fitted, I organised to have it fitted by a company called Hazydayz Ltd who advertise on Ebay.

I enquired just over a week ago and had replies to all my questions the same day, from the company owner Gareth. Gareth used to be an Audi technician for several years, so knows his way around them very well.

Gareth had 4 installs booked today and actually travels to the customer house to do the work, which was really convenient for me. He said he would arrive at 11am and the work would be completed in an hour.

At exactly 11am he turned as promised and was extremley polite and explained what he would do. Just over 35 minutes later the new stalk and steering module was installed along with a new lower column cover. No scratches, no marks no mess .......... perfect install job!! He gave me the old cover and old indicator stalk back also.
He explained that he needed to re-calibrate the steering sensor and test the cruise and asked for permission to take the car on a short drive.

When he came back he then took me out to show me how it operated and let me test it for myself.

I handed over £245 for the job and got a receipt and 3 year garauntee in return.

If you are a fussy ****** like me and demand top quality service for your money I can highly recommend Hazydayz Ltd (08708 905726) !! :icon_thumright:

EDIT
He said that my car had an 07 chasis number even though I bought it in 06

 

[h5djr]

All cars produced after 1 June 2006 have an 07 chassis or VIN number.

Glad the fit worked out OK. It's nice to get a good done well.

 

[benw123]

Nice one - I think cruise is one of my favourite features on my Sportback, and £245 is great value.

 

[RobinA3]

I have cruise on my A3 and i find it SO useful on motorways when you go through the 40 zones, i use it rarely on motorways unless i am cruising at 70 ish if i aint rushing time wise.

also may worth noting that using cruise increases fuel consumption but i am guessing diesel owners don't really care.

 

[rabs]

Just read this with interest.
Got my A3 2.0 TDI Sport 2 weeks ago today, retrofitted my cruise control myself this morning for less than £100....I already have VAG Com which is needed to do it.

BUT....I did not even get to try it out cos my car is now a right off in the police compound. Someone in a Fiesta decided he liked driving on my side of the road !!! Head on.

I had my 18Month old lad in the back and Wifey in front. Been in accident dept at hospital all day but all are relatively well.

Now have the hassell of dealing with insurance companies.....anyone any tips ?

The guy has already admitted he never seen me !

 

[benw123]

rabs that's unbelieveable! Glad you and the family are okay. Sounds truly shocking, although your post is amazingly calm - I would probably be going ballastic.

 

[BrianM]

Bad news fella, glad you're all OK. Scary stuff.

 

[davemk]

I had my 18Month old lad in the back and Wifey in front. Been in accident dept at hospital all day but all are relatively well.

Terrible thing to happen but at least you're all ok (ish).

 

[rabs]

Thanks for your messages. Got to be honest i am just glad everyone is ok.

First words of the Paramedic "Who are the sensible people with the Audi"

Just need to find myself a new Sportback ! Keep your eyes open for me.

I will post a few pictures when i get them sorted from the Driver Training Consultant who witnessed the accident and took pics for me.

 

[coupe-se]

Just read this with interest.
Got my A3 2.0 TDI Sport 2 weeks ago today, retrofitted my cruise control myself this morning for less than £100....I already have VAG Com which is needed to do it.

BUT....I did not even get to try it out cos my car is now a right off in the police compound. Someone in a Fiesta decided he liked driving on my side of the road !!! Head on.

I had my 18Month old lad in the back and Wifey in front. Been in accident dept at hospital all day but all are relatively well.

Now have the hassell of dealing with insurance companies.....anyone any tips ?

The guy has already admitted he never seen me !

****** hell mate, head on's are the worse type of accident with the energy involved in two cars hitting 'head on'.......... glad you are all reasonably well. Accidents like that are all the more shocking as you were no doubt driving as you do on every other normal day and your fate was actually decided by the actions of another driver.

How well do feel that the A3 actually protected you and your family in a real world accident situation? Having been involved in a couple of bad accidents myself, the safety and protection a car gives is quite important to me.

 

[newbiecrg]

Head ons! Never been in one but looks very scary!

Pedro

 

[Skittler]

Robin,

Are you sure that using CC increases fuel consumption? Without actually testing it, I would have guessed that sticking it on at 85mph, er, I mean 70mph, would give a 'smoother' throttle action than sticking to the same speed manually and would therefore give better figures.

I'm not disagreeing with you; I'm just curious

 

[coupe-se]

Cruise is definately better for fuel economy in my case!!!

I regularly do 200 mile+ motorway trips and I am dreadful at keeping my foot in one place and maintaining a steady speed. If I'm trying to stick to 70, anywhere between 65 and 80 is the norm for me and sometimes without thinking tend to keep up with some cars doing somewhat higher speeds.

With the cruise I tend to set it at 75mph .......... no aching foot or leg and i don't worry about speed cameras.
I also use it on the long stretches of road that have 30 or 40 limits where its easy to loose concerntration and let you speed creep up.

I really rate cruise and the last 5 out of 6 cars Iv'e owned had cruise which is why i wanted it fitted to my A3.

 

[sat1983]

Started making use of the cruise control on my A3 yesterday. First time i'd actually ever tried cruise control. I was like a big kid with it. it's fantastic!! No more achy leg on long distance journeys,especially the ones when i go to France to see my mum and dad. Definitely worth having!

 

[JamS3]

Cruise is worse for fuel economy as constant adjustments are made to the throttle to compensate for hills and dips etc to keep the speed you have set.

Obviously not having cruise on your speed will vary slightly, to the point of you not noticing that much like dropping 5mph going up a hill.

Put cruise on and then the actual mpg on your DIS and you will see what I mean when the actual figure drops right down when the car tries to keep the speed you have set.

 

[rowansbank]

Cruise is worse for fuel economy as constant adjustments are made to the throttle to compensate for hills and dips etc to keep the speed you have set.

Obviously not having cruise on your speed will vary slightly, to the point of you not noticing that much like dropping 5mph going up a hill.

Surely the fairer comparison would be between the driver trying to maintain a constant speed and leaving it to cruise to do it? If you are prepared to let your speed drop further than cruise is , you will obviously get better mpg but at the cost of average speed. The better basis for comparison would then be gallons per hour travelled really.

 

[coupe-se]

Cruise is worse for fuel economy as constant adjustments are made to the throttle to compensate for hills and dips etc to keep the speed you have set.

Obviously not having cruise on your speed will vary slightly, to the point of you not noticing that much like dropping 5mph going up a hill.

Put cruise on and then the actual mpg on your DIS and you will see what I mean when the actual figure drops right down when the car tries to keep the speed you have set.

Surely your foot constantly adjusts the throttle for dips and hills as well and a foot is more likely to over compensate??

My experinces are that Iv'e never noticed a difference in mpg so if it does does suffer on cruise its fairly minimal and well worth loosing 1-2mpg.:icon_thumright:

EDIT
Just to clarify that my experiences are based on diesel engined cars.

My wife will be using the cruise on her daily motorway trip to work, that will soon show if there is a noticeable dip in fuel consumption.

 

[JamS3]

Well my driving has always given me better fuel economy than cruise!

 

[benw123]

I use cruise at every opportunity since I've owned my Sportback and the all-time figure on DIS is showing just over 47mpg. I accept that cruise is making lots of constant adjustments to the throttle, but it can't be open and shut several times a second otherwise progress would be very jerky.

There's probably little in it but I will try a regular route with and without cruise in similar conditions to see if there is a noticeable difference.

 

[JamS3]

What i trying to explain is that because you want a constant speed on cruise say 70mph for example the throttle is used much more on cruise to a degree than your foot would be driving as subconsciously you would not be religiously sticking to 70mph going up a slight incline in "manual" foot mode.

However on cruise the throttle would be applied quite heavily to maintain the 70mph up the incline. Have a look at the instant mpg DIS reading to see what I mean.

Its this which makes cruise slightly less economical, than your foot!

 

[coupe-se]

What i trying to explain is that because you want a constant speed on cruise say 70mph for example the throttle is used much more on cruise to a degree than your foot would be driving as subconsciously you would not be religiously sticking to 70mph going up a slight incline in "manual" foot mode.

However on cruise the throttle would be applied quite heavily to maintain the 70mph up the incline. Have a look at the instant mpg DIS reading to see what I mean.

Its this which makes cruise slightly less economical, than your foot!

The cruise on the A3 doesn't give the surge when you hit a hill like my Hyundai, Ford and Mazda used to. The cruise on them let your speed float 3-4mph above and below the set figure (which was a pain at times).
The A3 sticks bang on the selected speed (I use the DIS digital speedo readout) and I haven't felt any big surges like the other cars I mentioned. This also maybe due to the torque of the 170 TDi engine not needing big throttle changes as even when driving manually, hills do not require me to press harder on the accelerator.

4 days since the last fill up and usual commuting and there does not seem to be too much change in the mpg .......... although this may be due to the wife using the cruise now and not just hammering it home!!! Maybe the cruise is a self restraint tool, thats why its more economical.

 

[SamDude]

It sounds like a glass half full/empty situation.

Relatively speaking:
If you normally hammer it - cruise will give better mpg
If you normally light foot it - cruise will give worse mpg

YMMV

 

[Skittler]

>> "It sounds like a glass half full/half empty situation."

Or if you don't have cruise control at all, then the glass is simply the wrong size

 

[SamDude]

No.

I was comparing the relative mpg for cruise control for drivers who light foot it (glass half empty = worse off) and those who hammer it (glass half full = better off).

Relatively.

 

[DIABLO636]

It sounds like a glass half full/empty situation.

Relatively speaking:
If you normally hammer it - cruise will give better mpg
If you normally light foot it - cruise will give worse mpg

YMMV

Spot on.....:icon_thumright:

Thats exactly what i found with my last car which had cruise control.