Cruise Control problems of the 2012 Chrysler Town & Country

I was traveling this Saturday on the highway. The cruise control was set at 72 miles per hour. The car was in a severe downpour. I disengaged the cruise control with the brake petal and reduced my speed to 45 miles per hour. Visibility was limited. I was looking for an exit to pull over and wait until the thunderstorm had passed. Since I was not using the cruise control, I pressed the stop button. Then I pressed the on/off button. The cruise control light on the dash did not disappear. In was concentrating on driving, staying in the lane and away from other traffic. The downpour was intense. I pressed the on/off button a second time. To my amazement and concern, the car entered overdrive and began increasing speed rapidly when I was trying to maintain my bearing and slow reasonable speed. I am an experienced driver. Any other person would have limited control of the vehicle. Quite possibly, running off the road into a ditch or tree. I sincerely believe a recall should be issued by the car manufacture to correct the severe defect. This episode clearly had my attention.

On November 16, 2016 I was driving my wife's 2012 Chrysler Town & Country back from school on the NJ parkway using the cruise control function. As I approached the back of a slower moving semi-truck I pushed the off button for the cruise control as I had normally done in the past. The van did not stop its speed. I pressed the brakes which is another way that the cruise control turns off, that did not work either. I was slamming on the brakes coming up on traffic at a high rate of speed and as the brakes slowed the car the accelerator would hasten my vehicle back to the speed that the cruise control was set at. It was the scariest moments in my life. I had used my quick reflexes to pull over to the side of the parkway, but the van's engine would not stop accelerating. I finally got the van slow enough to put the emergency brake on while my foot was on the regular brake, but the cruise control was still accelerating the engine. I then turned the vehicle off when the van was stationary. A few minutes later I turned the van back on to see if the cruise control was still malfunctioning and it began to accelerate again. I waited until I heard a noise in the engine that sounded like a switch turning off, I then turned the vehicle back on and the car acted normal. I had a scheduled appointment with pine belt Chrysler Jeep service set for November 23, 2016. I dropped the vehicle off in the morning to be examined, but unfortunately I had a wake for my grandmother who passed away that week and they did not get to even look at the cruise control issue. I took the vehicle back and inertia set in over time, plus they were going to charge me a diagnostic fee to look at the car malfunction. I did not bring it back again for that service since money was tight at the time and I have not tried to use the cruise control function in the car since that almost deadly time.

The contact owns a 2012 Chrysler town and country. While driving 70 mph with the cruise control engaged, the vehicle began to accelerate independently without warning. The contact stated that the vehicle accelerated up to 90 mph. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 64,000.