cruise control problem?

[doublehray]

Hi,

I have a 2005 Corolla S with about 12k miles on it. My car is completely stock right now. I notice that when I'm using cruise control and I go up an incline at highway speeds, the transmission drops down two gears and the tach goes to near 4000 rpm. At least that's what I think it's doing. If I go up the same incline without cruise control and attempt to keep my speed constant myself by just pressing harder on the gas pedal, the car only drops down 1 gear and doesn't work harder than it has too - which is the way I think it should work with cruise control as well. Why is it that with cruise control on the car seems to be dropping down two gears instead of 1? Has anyone else experienced this? On certain highways, the problem doesn't occur because there aren't any inclines steep enough for the car to go down a gear. However, on highways with lots of hills, I usually turn off the cruise control because I don't want the engine to rev so high.

[REN69]

That's why they call it "Cruise Control" you set the system to whatever speed you want to keep constant, then it tries to keep that speed as much as possible; which is why the transmission drops gears, to keep the same speed all the time at whatever cost, even if its 2 gears.

I believe the 1ZZFE engine is designed to rev at 7000rpm with no problems, even the 4AGEs are designed to rev to 7800rpm, and the 2ZZGE in the Celica/Matrix/Corolla XRS is designed to run at 8000rpm+ so don't worry because the engine won't break because of that. If anything the motor will love you for running it at the speed it was designed to run at.

[daniel2002p]

Mine does the same thing, its normal tho, it is just trying to keep your speed constant as much as possible

[usnretired]

It's a pain in the ar$e, but it is normal. The small motor has to work very hard to maintain the speed. It's best to just turn the cruise off when in very hilly territory. My v6 05 Taco does the same thing, but it skips down shifting on some of these same hills. The old 2000 v8 Tundra never shifted on the same hills. Power is good for climbing hills, but bad for mpg.

[DoubleEdgedWomb]

I turn it off going up the hill and then reset the same speed after I'm past it.

[REN69]

I use something better and more accurate than cruise control, it's called "foot" control.

[doublehray]

Thanks for the replies folks. My previous car was a 2000 VW GTI (4 cyl). Its cruise control wasn't phased by hills at all. But I hated the car for other reasons and I'll never buy anything with a VW badge on it again. I've also been turning off the cruise control on the hills. Thanks for confirming that this is normal for this car.