OBD-II trouble code
P0570: Cruise Control "Accel" Signal
The accelerate command is faulted. Its telltale is unique in the family: a tap-to-add-one-mph that stops working while press-and-hold still does. On adaptive cruise vehicles the same fault arrives disguised as a radar complaint.
Quick facts
- System
- Powertrain
- Category
- Cruise Control
- Severity
- Low severity
- Drivable
- Usually safe to drive short-term
- Repair cost range
- $0 – $800
- DIY difficulty
- Intermediate DIY
What does P0570 mean?
P0570 is set when the module receives an invalid accelerate input. Accelerate asks cruise control to raise the speed it is holding, and on modern vehicles it does that in two distinct ways from the same control — which is the detail that gives this code its most recognisable symptom.
Hold the control down and the vehicle accelerates continuously, adopting whatever speed it has reached when you let go. Tap it briefly and the set speed rises by a single increment, usually one mile per hour or one kilometre per hour. Those are two different interpretations of one contact closure, separated only by duration, and they degrade at different rates. A contact that has begun to wear or accumulate film will often still satisfy a sustained press, because a long closure gives an imperfect contact many opportunities to make somewhere along the way, while failing a tap, where there is one brief window and no second chance. So the complaint "holding it works but tapping does nothing" is not a vague description — it is a precise account of a bouncing contact, and it is a symptom no other code in this family produces.
The same mechanism runs the other way and is equally telling. A contact that bounces on closure can present one physical press to the module as two or three separate presses. On a vehicle that increments the set speed per tap, the driver sees the speed jump by two or three at a time from a single touch. That is worth knowing because it is easy to mistake for a software quirk and dismiss, when it is early evidence of a switch that will fail completely before long.
The second thing that separates this code from its siblings appears on vehicles with adaptive cruise control. There, the accelerate input does more than raise a number: it raises the target the system is working toward while the radar or camera holds the vehicle back to maintain a gap. That creates a symptom with a misleading cause. A driver following a slower car pulls out, presses accelerate expecting the vehicle to return to speed, and nothing happens — so the complaint is filed as "adaptive cruise will not speed up", which sounds like a radar fault, a sensor calibration issue or a camera obstruction. Those are expensive things to investigate. The check that separates them takes seconds: watch the set speed displayed on the instrument cluster while pressing the control. If the displayed number changes, the switch is fine and something else is limiting the vehicle. If it does not move, the fault is in this circuit and no radar work is warranted.
That adaptive cruise context also changes the cost of the repair, which is worth flagging before parts are ordered. On a basic cruise system the accelerate rocker sits in a small dedicated switch pad. On a vehicle with adaptive cruise, lane keeping and following-distance adjustment, it usually shares a pad with all of those controls, and that assembly is a considerably more expensive part for the same failure.
Common causes
- Bouncing contact in the accelerate rocker, failing brief taps while still passing sustained presses
- Worn contact in a rocker shared with the resume function, producing both codes together
- Liquid contamination in the switch pad leaving corrosive residue on the contacts
- Accelerate input stuck asserted, causing the module to refuse to arm the system
- Open or high resistance in the accelerate circuit between the switch and the module
- Cracked clockspring conductor affecting circuits that share the damaged section of ribbon
- Corroded connector behind the switch pad or at the base of the steering column
- Control module fault, or configuration lost after a module replacement
Symptoms
- Holding the control to accelerate works, but tapping to add one increment does nothing
- A single tap raising the set speed by two or three increments instead of one
- The resume code stored at the same time, from the same rocker
- Adaptive cruise appearing to refuse to speed up after a slower vehicle moves out of the way
- Set speed on the cluster failing to change when the control is pressed
- Cruise control refusing to engage at all, if the accelerate input is stuck asserted
- Function affected by steering wheel position on wheel-mounted controls
- Check engine light with no change in how the engine runs
Diagnostic steps
- 1.Test tap and hold as two separate experiments, because on this circuit they measure different things. On most modern vehicles a brief tap raises the set speed by one increment while a sustained press accelerates continuously. If holding works and tapping does not, the contact is making but bouncing, and that single observation identifies the failure mode without any measurement.
- 2.Count how many increments a tap actually adds. A contact that bounces can register a single press as two or three, so a driver reporting that the speed jumps by three miles an hour when they tap once has described contact bounce precisely. That symptom is diagnostic and is easy to reproduce on a quiet road.
- 3.On a vehicle with adaptive cruise control, separate the switch question from the radar question first. If the set speed displayed on the cluster changes when the control is pressed but the vehicle does not accelerate, the switch is working and something is limiting the speed — a lead vehicle, a speed sign recognition function or the radar itself. If the displayed set speed does not move, the fault is in this circuit.
- 4.Check whether this code is stored with the resume code. On the great majority of vehicles those two functions share one rocker, so both appearing together points at one contact rather than two circuits.
- 5.Read the input state at rest. An accelerate signal stuck asserted is a standing request to increase speed, which most control strategies will refuse to arm around rather than act on — producing a cruise system that appears entirely dead from a single stuck contact.
- 6.Establish the part content before pricing anything. On vehicles with adaptive cruise, lane keeping or following-distance adjustment, the accelerate rocker usually lives in a switch pad shared with all of those controls, so the assembly is a substantially more expensive part than the equivalent on a basic cruise system.
Repair cost
$0 – $800
Zero at the bottom for a connector reseated after column work or a pad that recovers once cleaned and dried. Diagnosis is $80 to $150. On a basic cruise system the switch pad containing the accelerate rocker is $30 to $250 in parts with half an hour to an hour of labour. On a vehicle with adaptive cruise, lane keeping or following-distance controls, that same rocker usually lives in a combined pad and the part alone runs $150 to $500, which is why the top of this range is higher than the rest of the family. A clockspring is $150 to $450 fitted. The number worth protecting here is the one you do not spend: confirm the set speed on the cluster does not respond to the control before anyone quotes for radar or camera work.
Estimate your repair
Run the numbers for your vehicle
Open the Repair Cost Estimator with cruise control switch / stalk replacement preselected. Adjust labor rate and vehicle category to fit your situation.
DIY vs shop
This is an intermediate DIY job. It usually involves diagnostic steps, specialty parts, and some careful work in tight spaces. If you have the tools and a service manual or trustworthy video for your specific vehicle, it is achievable in a weekend. Otherwise, a competent independent shop will be faster.