When I have cruise control on but not in use at that moment the car will engage cruise on its own. It does this at a high rate of acceleration with no Rhyme or Reason as to why. I have to be quick to get it to stop because of the high rate of speed. I do not use the cruise control anymore on my vehicle because of being unsafe. I have been lucky a couple of times I have not rammed into the vehicle in front of me through no fault of mine except for having cruise control on. No it has not been examined or inspected. The problem has not been confirmed by the dealership or and independent service center. It has been confirmed by various drivers of my car. None of them will use cruise control anymore.
Buick Century adaptive cruise problems
30 of the 1,688 owner complaints about the Buick Century describe adaptive cruise control problems, most of them for the 2001 model year.
- owner complaints
- 30
- worst model year
- 2001
- typical mileage
- 76,000
By model year
- 20041
- 20031
- 20022
- 200115
- 19993
- 19981
- 19961
- 19953
- 19942
- 19911
Often reported together
Sudden acceleration 4Headlights 2Transmission failure 1Loss of power 1Brake failure 1ABS 1
What owners say
The multi function switch does not work properly. When going around curves and corners you can't dim the headlights. Because the steering wheel doesn't allow the lever to go far enough to catch. Now my headlights will not turn on when the they are suppose to. My cruise control doesn't work. My A/C stops cooling when the speed reaches 60 MPH but if I move the m.f.s. (aka turn signal) it gets cool again for a few minutes. The other night my lights went off when I was meeting a car with its headlights on bright. It was a dark stretch of road. I almost ran in the ditch.
For almost the entire time of 16 years of owning this car, the set cruise control often times speeds uncontrollably. Have replaced the module twice but continues to happen. Local buick dealer tells me they have not heard of this before. I firmly believe they are untruthful.
Had transmission replaced at authorized gmc dealership may 2006 .this came with a warranty. Several times over several summers since then have taken vehicle into dealership with concerns that happened after vehicle would be driven in high humidity high temperature days after traveling a minimum of 60 miles mostly on state highways that are quite rough and curvy, I.e. It would take about 90 minutes or more togo this distance. Then when in bumper to bumper traffic and trying to move forward or stopping the car's automatic transmission would cause the vehicle to shake like jumping into the wrong gear and in more than one time the car's engine would die. It always happened at low speeds so luckily we didn't loose control of the vehicle. But, the only way to stop this from continuing was to stop and park to let the engine and or cool down. We even put on the heater while driving to help reduce the temperature gauge to go below the halfway mark. This car was purchased in shelton, wa not in ky, so we never experienced this prior to transmission replacement. The service department has never been able to duplicate problem, now the cruise control has stopped working. We have dashboard warnings continually stating low oil, service engine soon (when just completed), etc.
After setting cruise control it will take off and accelerate until you manually shut the cruise control switch off. I even tapped on brake and it would continue. This problem seems to be very random.
Tl* the contact owns a 2001 buick century. The contact stated when driving 35 MPH or more, the cruise control would independently activate and would cause the accelerator pedal to seize in the open throttle position. He would then depress the brakes and the cruise control would deactivate. The failure would occur intermittently. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the contact was advised that the failure was not common in his year, make and model. The dealer did not perform a diagnostic test. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 98,000.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 buick century. The contact was driving at 65 MPH with the cruise control set. Suddenly, the vehicle increased acceleration without warning. The brake pedal was applied several times and then the gear selector was shifted into the neutral position. The engine was turned off and restarted. The vehicle was able to resume normally. The failure occurred two different times. The contact stated on the third occurrence the cruise control was not engaged. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the technician informed that the failure could possibly be contributed to the cruise control module. The cruise control module was disabled. The failure mileage was approximately 105,000. Updated 10/01/2010. *lj updated 10/04/10
The problem I'm experiencing is with the cruise control. Once engaged, if the car gets into a situation requiring acceleration (e.g. Going up a hill), the car goes into high acceleration mode and does not stop once the set speed is reached. After initial engagement, but not with the control set, virtually any movement of the turn signal level causes engagement of the cruise control in the acceleration mode. Tapping the lever, activating the turn signal or high beam control cause the car to go into cruise mode under acceleration. I have allowed it to go as fast as 85 MPH to see if it would disengage and it did not. I first thought it was intermittent, but now that I have been playing closer attention to what was going on when it runs away, I can cause it to happen on cue. This is especially dangerous since it goes into accelerate mode until the cruise control is either disengaged with the power switch or the brake pedal. I have not yet gotten it repaired. The initial visit to the shop was unsuccessful in determining the cause or replicating the problem. I have since established how to initiate the runaway acceleration.
I purchased a 2001 buick century with lest than 1000 miles on it from the original order. In just a short time, it began to surge when the cruise control was on. It would keep accelerating until you turned it off. It still does this from time to time. I have checked with buick dealers, but they don't seem to know why. Sometimes it surges when you use the turning signal also.
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 buick century. While driving at approximately 50 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle suddenly accelerated. The contact turned off the cruise control but the vehicle continued to accelerate until the brakes were applied. The failure continued to occur intermittently whether the cruise control was engaged or not. The vehicle had not been inspected or repaired at the time of the complaint. The failure mileage was approximately 76,000. The current mileage was approximately 76,400.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the Buick Century adaptive cruise
Which Buick Century years have adaptive cruise control problems problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2001 (15 complaints), 1995 (3 complaints) and 1999 (3 complaints).
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