I bought a replacement vehicle speed sensor from autozone last summer because my speedometer and rpm guages were acting up, causing my tansmission to shift incorrectly or not shift at all. My car only seemed to do it once in a while, so when i replaced the vss the cars speedo and rpm gauge started messing up worse than before for about 30 mins and then the problem went away for a whole year until recently. Its doing it again and it annoys the hell out of me, i use my car for work and school so i cant be letting it give me these problems.

Someone told me that the replacement vss's from autozone are crap and they go out pretty quick and they recommended i buy an aftermarket vss instead. The problem is i cant find any aftermarket vss's, does someone know somewhere where i could order one from that will last me longer than a autozone sensor?

 

NAPA... seriously, I would never put on anything else, or the dealer. I work with parts all day long and the differance is night and day different. Autozone is such crap, it should be illegal. dont get me started on advanced auto parts... they are just as bad. NAPA is the only thing with quality anymore. Even then, NAPA still sells "cheaper" versions on parts because people are cheap, then they wonder why it fails.. you get what you pay for. I could go on for hours *RANT*

 

Ok, is there a difference between a transmission speed sensor and vehicle speed sensor?

 

There is no transmission speed sensor. The VSS is mounted on the tranny tailhousing, maybe that's where you're confusing it.

I only buy my sensors from GM. You pay more, but the quality is much higher. And yes, Autozone sensors are crap.

 

Ok, reason i ask is because i was on the napa website looking up the sensor and they had a vehicle speed sensor for $56 and then they had some called transmission speed sensors for like $25. Thats why im confused, i know where the VSS is located i have replaced it before but when i saw they had a transmission speed sensor i was confused because i had never heard of it.

 

If it's not GM brand then it's aftermarket. Napa, autozone, whatever---all aftermarket.
GM = OEM replacement.

 

So pretty much they all suck unless their directly from the Gm dealership lol

 

Yea, you're pretty much taking your chances with any parts store sensor, etc.
I collect various OEM sensors and stuff that I find at junkyards, I've had good luck with most of them. And like the old saying goes, they don't make them like they used to, pretty sad when we're talking 5 or so years ago.

 

You already put one aftermarket sensor in and it only lasted a year (although good for an aftermarket sensor IMO). Just get a GM one and you won't have to worry about it again. My car has 250K miles and still has the original VSS. Do you think an Autozone VSS would last that long?

 

Dam and you have exactly 100,000 more miles than me, im at 148k right now. Ill have to find out how much their going to charge me for one...thanks for the help and sorry for the noob sounding question lol.