I just bought a 2002 dodge dakota 4x4 crew cab
im having issues with the cruise control
sometimes the cruise sign will came on when i press the sterring wheel button but wont stay on or engage at all.
it thru a code 1559 i went, and check all the wires and clear it out now is running and there is no code but still no cruise control any ideas what can it be?

 

If the cruise control on light is intermittent it may be the switch or switches. They can wear out. It also could be a clockspring failure. Does the horn always work - even while turning?

 

x2 on the switches. the one on mine is wore out and takes multiple taps to engage.

With that said, they are momentary signals on a 2-wire resistor map to make a poor man's mux circuit. a "simple short" will not cause cruise control to phantom on and off. A broken clockspring wouldn't work at all. A shorted clockspring might phantom (or if nothing else, certainly confuse) the module, that I'm not sure of.

Now with THAT said, after I disconnected my buttons and converted them to paddle shifters, I have seen the cruise light phantom on and off a time or two. I have no idea how. Inductive loading is the only thought I can come up with.

A DRB3 is able to scan the speed control section of the module and will give you a slew of error codes - found that through experience when I plugged mine in to tinker with the speedometer and found a bunch of stored module codes because my switches are unhooked to make them into paddle shifters.