Speedo not working, VSS replaced, still not working
04-25-2009, 10:06 AM
#1
Speedo not working, VSS replaced, still not working As the title states. My speedo stopped working. I replaced the VSS. It still doesn't work.
Thoughts???
Andy
EDIT: 11/12/10
I found the issue and fixed it a month ago. Figured I would post the results. The VSS replacement worked for a little while. It turns out there was a larger issue at hand.
After the speedo stopped working all together I went and got a used cluster. Plugged it in and everything worked except the mileage was off some. I drove the car around like that for a little while. I was in my shed and came across the old cluster. I had nothing to do one night so I decided to take the old cluster apart and see how the thing worked and see if I could take the odometer out and put it in the newer used cluster. The odometer is solid state and cannot be swapped- or at least I didn't want to get into soldering anything. Furthermore, the speedometer output is directly associated with the odometer. If the speedometer doesn't work, the odometer doesn't work. The circuitry uses speed (mph) and time to come up with miles. The gauges, however, are powered by 'drivers' that are basically coils that use 4 points of electronic contact to turn the needle to its respective 'read out' according to the sending unit.
Knowing this I decided to pull the cluster in the car out and replace the speedometer driver with the one from the newer cluster. I then placed the original/older cluster in the car, calibrated the gauges via HPTuners and took the car for a spin. To no avail, the speedometer and odometer worked!!!! So it looks like my issue was the actual driver for the speedometer. The car only has approximately 95k miles on it. I didn't expect that to be the cause of my issue but it is fixed now. So I figured I would post the results in here to let people know who are seeing a faulty speedo and have replaced the VSS sensor/wiring and are still having issues.
Thoughts???
Andy
EDIT: 11/12/10
I found the issue and fixed it a month ago. Figured I would post the results. The VSS replacement worked for a little while. It turns out there was a larger issue at hand.
After the speedo stopped working all together I went and got a used cluster. Plugged it in and everything worked except the mileage was off some. I drove the car around like that for a little while. I was in my shed and came across the old cluster. I had nothing to do one night so I decided to take the old cluster apart and see how the thing worked and see if I could take the odometer out and put it in the newer used cluster. The odometer is solid state and cannot be swapped- or at least I didn't want to get into soldering anything. Furthermore, the speedometer output is directly associated with the odometer. If the speedometer doesn't work, the odometer doesn't work. The circuitry uses speed (mph) and time to come up with miles. The gauges, however, are powered by 'drivers' that are basically coils that use 4 points of electronic contact to turn the needle to its respective 'read out' according to the sending unit.
Knowing this I decided to pull the cluster in the car out and replace the speedometer driver with the one from the newer cluster. I then placed the original/older cluster in the car, calibrated the gauges via HPTuners and took the car for a spin. To no avail, the speedometer and odometer worked!!!! So it looks like my issue was the actual driver for the speedometer. The car only has approximately 95k miles on it. I didn't expect that to be the cause of my issue but it is fixed now. So I figured I would post the results in here to let people know who are seeing a faulty speedo and have replaced the VSS sensor/wiring and are still having issues.
Last edited by White.Lightning; 11-12-2010 at 06:16 AM.
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11-12-2010, 06:17 AM
#8
Bringing this back from the dead but I found the issue and figured it would possibly help someone in the future.
EDIT: 11/12/10
I found the issue and fixed it a month ago. Figured I would post the results. The VSS replacement worked for a little while. It turns out there was a larger issue at hand.
After the speedo stopped working all together I went and got a used cluster. Plugged it in and everything worked except the mileage was off some. I drove the car around like that for a little while. I was in my shed and came across the old cluster. I had nothing to do one night so I decided to take the old cluster apart and see how the thing worked and see if I could take the odometer out and put it in the newer used cluster. The odometer is solid state and cannot be swapped- or at least I didn't want to get into soldering anything. Furthermore, the speedometer output is directly associated with the odometer. If the speedometer doesn't work, the odometer doesn't work. The circuitry uses speed (mph) and time to come up with miles. The gauges, however, are powered by 'drivers' that are basically coils that use 4 points of electronic contact to turn the needle to its respective 'read out' according to the sending unit.
Knowing this I decided to pull the cluster in the car out and replace the speedometer driver with the one from the newer cluster. I then placed the original/older cluster in the car, calibrated the gauges via HPTuners and took the car for a spin. To no avail, the speedometer and odometer worked!!!! So it looks like my issue was the actual driver for the speedometer. The car only has approximately 95k miles on it. I didn't expect that to be the cause of my issue but it is fixed now. So I figured I would post the results in here to let people know who are seeing a faulty speedo and have replaced the VSS sensor/wiring and are still having issues.
EDIT: 11/12/10
I found the issue and fixed it a month ago. Figured I would post the results. The VSS replacement worked for a little while. It turns out there was a larger issue at hand.
After the speedo stopped working all together I went and got a used cluster. Plugged it in and everything worked except the mileage was off some. I drove the car around like that for a little while. I was in my shed and came across the old cluster. I had nothing to do one night so I decided to take the old cluster apart and see how the thing worked and see if I could take the odometer out and put it in the newer used cluster. The odometer is solid state and cannot be swapped- or at least I didn't want to get into soldering anything. Furthermore, the speedometer output is directly associated with the odometer. If the speedometer doesn't work, the odometer doesn't work. The circuitry uses speed (mph) and time to come up with miles. The gauges, however, are powered by 'drivers' that are basically coils that use 4 points of electronic contact to turn the needle to its respective 'read out' according to the sending unit.
Knowing this I decided to pull the cluster in the car out and replace the speedometer driver with the one from the newer cluster. I then placed the original/older cluster in the car, calibrated the gauges via HPTuners and took the car for a spin. To no avail, the speedometer and odometer worked!!!! So it looks like my issue was the actual driver for the speedometer. The car only has approximately 95k miles on it. I didn't expect that to be the cause of my issue but it is fixed now. So I figured I would post the results in here to let people know who are seeing a faulty speedo and have replaced the VSS sensor/wiring and are still having issues.
