’97 Saturn, Cruise control floors it

I've got a 1997 Saturn SC2 which has a rather scary problem.

After turning on my Cruise control and setting it to the desired speed, the car would gradually accelerate until the pedal is to the floor. After about 10 seconds the Cruise control would turn itself off (a failsafe I assume), but I'd really like to know what's going on.

It's my hunch that the Cruise Control system thinks that it's not going at the desired speed, and therefore keeps trying to accelerate to hit what it thinks is the correct speed, and shuts off when it is unable to do so.

This is something which gradually started to occur. For a while the Cruise control would work fine for about 15 minutes then it would do it's out of control acceleration, but now it does it immidiately after turning it on and setting speed.

The question is what's wrong, where, and how do I fix it? It'd be a great start if I simply knew where to look. Even if it's the computer I might be able to do something, but it's probably something simple. I'm wondering if it's a vacuum or servo problem. The key thing is -where-?

This problem is usually a sign of a defective cruise module. You need to determine whether or not it is a factory cruise or an aftermarket one.

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sparky

It's definitely a factory unit.

The problem is locating where the Cruise module is at, or determining if it's part of the onboard computer.

I believe that there should be an electric stepper motor used as the main cruise control module. Look for a cable that is connected to the throttle and leads to a BLACK/ silver box. The box is the cruise unit. About the only thing I can think of for you to check is the ground for it in the harness. Make sure it's good.

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sparky