Adding Cruise Control to Corsa D CDTI - with new stalk

[Top Cat]

Looking for a little advise/pointers - can you help!

I have read and seen advertised you can change the stalk to one with cruise control and as the diesel Corsa D already have the Brake & Clutch sensor (not sure how you check) all you need to do is replace and then it says get a Tech 2 to enable.

My question is in my family/close friends we have 3 Corsa D Diesels:-

2010 1.3 CDTI 5 door
2009 1.7 SDTI 5 door
and
2001 1.3 CDTI 3 door corsavan

Can you purchase a cheap programmer to do this or is it cheaper to get a garage to change the settings, I would like to do 2 the 3rd if cheap?

I would like to play with custom CPU turning and though something like FGTECH V54 is that any good or would you purchase a combined tools to do both?

Thanks TC

[Over Carl]

The dealer device is the Tech 2 which costs a fair bit. You can get a device called OP-COM for a few ton, but you can get knockoffs for £30-50.

Tech 2 or OP-COM are for general diagnostics and changing coding parameters, and even immobiliser related functions.

Either way you will need the pin number on the card that should be with your owners manual. Costs something like £20-25 for a replacement. Once you've connected either tool to the car you can look for status of pedals when you press them. (Or you could stick your head under the dash and just have a look).

The FGTech Galetto isn't for diagnostics and those kind of jobs. With something like that you could basically get the flash file out of the ECU and onto your laptop. Then either you send it off to a company or modify it yourself using something like WinOLS then use the Galetto to send the modified back back into the ECU.

If you are really looking to experiment, it may worth getting something like a KESS or KTAG as well. With those, you can directly read and write to the flash so even if you mess up the firmware and can't communicate with the module anymore at least you can still restore it by direct writing to flash, although this obviously isn't as convenient as via ODB port.

[Squizza]

Might be a silly question, but why would you want to add Cruise Control to a Corsa? It is hardly the long distance car of choice and I have never found Cruise Control to be of any use on roads less than 50mph

More importantly however, in adding Cruise Control through some hack, would this not invalidate you insurance?

[Zoots]

It doesn't have to be a long trek on the motorway to use cruise effectively. I'm an old git with shit knees and it's nice to have a stretch!

On past cars I've done the stalk mod. Carl's advice is sound. All I'd add to that is if you don't want to get/use Tech2 yourself either speak to a VX mechanic at a garage and see if he'll press the right buttons for beer tokens. Offer £20 for 45 seconds of a job on a Saturday morning and he'll likely snatch your hand off. Another option is to try and hook up with the many fix-meets that go on over at the VX forums. Astra Owners Club springs to mind. There used to be a section on there I think, where mechs and techs members could advertise their location and services. Tech2 was never difficult to arrange.
The forum bods will be able to give you the part numbers for the brake/clutch switches. If they're not there, fitting is easy enough. Your big worry is going to be if the wiring loom isn't there. Some models they throw all the wiring in ready for them to have the factory/model extras added, some are just always going to be basic models so are without the looms. No wiring usually means forget about it, but some VX's were easy to modify.

[Top Cat]

Thanks for the replies, I am from South Wales the land of speed bumps and average variable speed cameras
I go through 4 stretches every day you wouldn't believe how many times I look at the speedo and I' doing 55 in a 50

Will have a look at the Op Com as for 2 or 3 cars would be the cheaper option and my son the 1.7 has only 1 key and a passenger air bag light on - so if I read the advert on EBay right will cover all these. Had a look at all 3 and cant see if any has a clutch switch so might be worth a punt at this one "OpCom - From UK - New - XP/W7/W8" and you can collect and its same town as my son work for £37.50 or extra £2.50 P&P if needed.

I didn't post a link wasn't sure if that was allowed, would that be a good starting piece of kit?

Thanks TC

[Over Carl]

Price sounds reasonable but you can only really find out the quality when it arrives.

I reckon you will be unlikely to get an unusable pile of junk but it does happen.