I am serving overseas and left my 2008 Civic with my elderly father.

He was going to drive it every couple of weeks to keep it going for me until I return.

That worked fine before and the car was fine.

However, this time, I came home for a day of leave and tried to drive the car.

When I got in the car, the cruise control light was on. I turned the cruise control off and the "cruise main" light went off.

However, when I took it out on the road, the engine sounded weird and it was bumpy and very uneven when I tried to accelerate.

Also, there is a light on with an exclamation point that is orange. That warning light stays on.

I read that to mean, from the manual, that there is an issue with the cruise control. However, my Dad says that the light means that a tire has low pressure and nothing else is wrong with the car.

Does anyone know if he left the cruise control on when it wasn't supposed to be and drove it around, if this could mess up the engine??

I am going to ask my sister to take the car to a mechanic but I have to report back to work overseas tomorrow and cannot take it in myself.

 

Leaving the cruise master switch on won't hurt anything. The cruise doesn't actually do anything until after you engage it with the button on the wheel. It's a pretty foolproof system, it disengages automatically when you press the brake or the clutch to slow down.

If the light with the tire icon and exclamation point is on you need to check the air pressure in all the tires. Driving on low tires will feel weird and damage the tires.