Can’t you just give it slightly enough throttle to override the cruise control and once at the bottom of the hill slowly reduce the throttle until cruise kicks in. If you’re cruising on flat ground with cruise control on you can step on the throttle to pass someone and then let off the and it will settle back into the set cruise speed. It doesn’t take much gas to override the cruise control. That’s how I do it with my car. With a little practice you can do it very smoothly.

I suppose I could press on the pedal giving a little more throttle because doing so temporarily cancels cruise. The easiest for me though is not even move my feet, just touch the cancel button to let it coast then hit resume when speed drops to set speed or up to 2 mph over. Auto braking seems to initiate over 2 mph above set speed.

I just wish Honda let us customize how we wish cruise to function because they offer customization for almost everything else, door locking, rev match, wipers, lights, lane warning, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
I suppose I could press on the pedal giving a little more throttle because doing so temporarily cancels cruise. The easiest for me though is not even move my feet, just touch the cancel button to let it coast then hit resume when speed drops to set speed or up to 2 mph over. Auto braking seems to initiate over 2 mph above set speed.

I just wish Honda let us customize how we wish cruise to function because they offer customization for almost everything else, door locking, rev match, wipers, lights, lane warning, etc.

Are you sure using the throttle cancels cruise control. It might be different on a Honda but I’ve never had a car that cancels cruise control because the throttle being touched. The brakes yes but every car I’ve ever owned will resume to your cruise control setting once you have dropped to the set speed even after being on the throttle.

I should have been more specific, on this car giving throttle while on cruise deactivates cruise as long as you are doing so. Once I let off the pedal the cruise light comes back on. This is the first vehicle I've had that did this, normally cruise remains active while temporally accelerating.

Maybe "termporary override" is a better term than "deactivate."

The Audi adaptive cruise control can be overridden with the accelerator, but it takes nearly flooring it. Then it downshifts and accelerates. Not a smooth operation. Gentle accelerator application does nothing.

On a steep downhill it would be a terrible ride.

There are a few places where the system erroneously goes into braking mode. This is where some specific freeway off-ramps start and for an unknown reason the system thinks it needs to aggressively brake. So the cruise control is set at 65 and suddenly brakes on the highway (I'm not taking the offramp). If I haven't switched off cruise I have to floor it to keep traffic behind me from hitting me.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

OP has a new Civic Si, so it's got 6 speeds & 3 pedals

If it's a 3 pedal car then OP should downshift into 4th gear. I drive a Fiesta ST and there is a 7.5% grade at the WV - VA transition on I64. I put the car in 4th and it never exceeds 80 mph on that downhill stretch. Back when I started driving we were taught to NEVER ride the brakes on a long downhill. Because the poor brakes at that time would overheat and you would end up halfway down the hill with no brakes at all. BTW, brakes in the 60's and 70's were improved compared to the 50's and earlier. One the most famous car testers in the 50's actually tested to see if a car had brakes capable of bringing a car to a complete stop from 70 mph in a 'panic" stop, many failed this test. Just something to ponder when going down a steep hill.

BTW do NOT break 80 mph in Virginia, it's a restless driving charge and they will lock you up and tow the car.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
.... 80 mph in Virginia, it's a restless driving charge .....

Like just your legs, or your whole being is restless?

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
Back when I started driving we were taught to NEVER ride the brakes on a long downhill. Because the poor brakes at that time would overheat and you would end up halfway down the hill with no brakes at all.

Okay, Boomer. Brake fade isn't a thing in 2025.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:

If it's a 3 pedal car then OP should downshift into 4th gear. I drive a Fiesta ST and there is a 7.5% grade at the WV - VA transition on I64. I put the car in 4th and it never exceeds 80 mph on that downhill stretch....
...BTW do NOT break 80 mph in Virginia, it's a restless driving charge and they will lock you up and tow the car.

This raises another complaint, where did the engine braking go? Both my previous Corolla and this Civic have very little, when down shifting down even a moderate grade rpm increases and the car speed continues to increase. Reminds me of 2-stroke motorcycles. What is the reason for this? I can kinda see the reasoning behind the cars ecm increasing rpm as you release the clutch in a lower gear for "smoother downshifts" to prevent shock and wear to the clutch when people don't rev match, but once engaged why is there still so little engine braking?

Downshifting to 5th probably wouldn't slow it down much but to your suggestion 4th along with the wind resistance at 77 mph on the hills I'm referring to might hold it back. But again why do we have to spin the engine so fast for so little engine braking?

I grew up riding bicycles then driving the low powered cars and trucks of the time that sometimes struggled going up hills, the last thing we would do would be to brake going down, momentum was our friend. In fact on lesser grades we often put them in neutral to "utilize the free energy.

This is how a friend from VA told me how their speed limit was grudgingly increased. Years back VA's max speed limit was 55, or maybe they had increased it to 60 after the 55 mph mandate went away. Neighboring states such as WV and others max limit was 70 mph. If anything, roads in VA were better and some should probably be 75. VA not only had low limits but also radar detectors are prohibited so they made a lot of money fining drivers for exceeding 60, and a whole lot of money on those going 20 over because then it was "reckless driving". It wasn't only about the extra fine revenue there was a whole industry making money off reckless fines including attorneys, judges, insurance companies, people selling safe driving "classes" that offenders had to pay for.
After years of people complaining the VA legislature finally discussed raising the max limit to 70 mph and needless to say the entities making a living from fines lobbied against it. It was finally agreed that the max limit would be raised to 70, the same as surrounding states, but reckless driving would be lowered from 20 over to 10 mph over to maintain 80mph as being reckless.

The reason why you don't see much engine braking is because engines are smaller and cars are heavier. Take the Honda Civic for example, I had a 1976 Civic with a 1300 cc four cylinder engine. That car only weighed in 1646 lbs. Now look at the weight of a Civic and it's near double of the original. As for engines you have a 1500cc Turbo or 2000cc non turbo. Total weight to displacement is the reason why you don't see as much engine braking.

BTW my other car is a 1985 Monte Carlo SS with an HT383 under the hood. That big old V8 means that for that long downhill all I have to do is pull it from overdrive down to drive.

As for someone noting that brakes are better today I will simply point out that Rotors are also a lot more expensive today. Rotors on that old Monte Carlo last over 150,000 miles and the replacements only cost 28 dollars each back in 1996. On my Fiesta ST rotors for the fronts are 165 dollars each and only lasted for 36,000 miles. So yeah, I'm still not riding the brakes on a downhill. I will also note that the Fiesta ST has a mpg indicator and on these long downhills I will see 99 mpg in that indicator with the engine turning IIRC about 4500 rpm. So it's not "dumping fuel", fact is the fuel injection is only feeding enough gas to keep the cylinders warm.

You do know you are not the intended recipient of this tech. This is for the idiot who will go down a 6% grade on cruise and don’t apply brakes because it is “adaptive” cruise.

Another example of catering to the minority of dumbasses.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
The reason why you don't see much engine braking is because engines are smaller and cars are heavier....

I must disagree because it's much more than weight. My little Corolla had a 2 liter engine with 13:1 compression and it had almost no engine braking. Same with this Civic.
Interestingly the engine management on some new motorcycles is doing some of the same thing "in the interest of smoother on/off throttling". My Honda Africa Twin had 3 options for engine braking; 1) a little less than normal, 2) very little, 3) almost none.

quote:

Originally posted by Beanhead:
You do know you are not the intended recipient of this tech. This is for the idiot who will go down a 6% grade on cruise and don’t apply brakes because it is “adaptive” cruise.

That's fine I realize that adaptive cruise brakes as well as powers, which is why I personally don't like adaptive. But this still brakes when adaptive is turned off.

Here is my take on the "modern" adaptive cruise control "issues" that you are experiencing with your new Civic.
I worked in GM Dealership service departments as an ASE Master Certified auto and light truck service technician, and routinely dealt with customers.
I have literally many thousands of miles riding with and driving with customers trying to show me a perceived problem with their new shiny car or truck.

I had a woman one day come into the dealership with a speeding ticket she had received while out on the interstate highway in her brand new car.
Going down a steep hill on the interstate, she had exceeded the posted speed limit (55 back in the day) and got a speeding ticket.
She took me out on a demo ride on a steep downhill and set the cruise at 55. At the bottom of the hill she was going close to 70.

I asked her to pull over when it was safe, and when stopped, asked her if her new car owners manual was in the glovebox, and if it was OK to get the manual out and look at it.
We looked at the owners manual section concerning cruise control. Plainly stated in the cruise control section was the multiple sentences describing cruise control operation.
It plainly stated that driver intervention was called for on steep downhills (step on the brake pedal) or also (step on brake pedal and downshift to a lower gear) and/or turn cruise control off.

This woman was furious with me because I had shown her in plain printed english, that her mishap/ticket was plainly her fault.
She was seriously lacking in common sense.
She had spent tens of thousands of dollars on her new car, and had obviously not read the owners manual, other than perhaps how to program the radio preset buttons, and the light on the sun visor makeup mirror.

So today, new cars are packed with computers, sensors, and electronics.
With ABS, the car can apply the brakes when it is programmed to do so.

Today's cars are programmed to keep the idiots, fools and terrible drivers from making mistakes, and getting tickets.
The adaptive cruise control is for them, not for you ridewv.
Thus ends the lesson!

Many/most people don't suffer through reading car owners manuals anymore, hell the one for this Honda must be over 500 pages with most focusing on infotainment, auto driving collision avoidance, and warnings. I've read all of it over the last few months.

Conventional cruise control never used to brake or downshift to slow down only maintain speed via throttle. Adaptive cruise introduced braking for hills and following.

Maybe since they've eliminated engine braking they felt it necessary for conventional cruise now to auto-brake going down hills, and following drivers can simply go around?