TNP-Spectre

Hey there, I have a 98 Civic EX, (i believe it's an EX). Recently, not sure if its due to all the cold weather here, but my speedometer, tachometer, and odometer will ocasionally stop working. The speedometer will randomly sit around 20mph while at driving speed, and when stopped or slowing down will start to jump around a bit between 15-25. Then it will ocasionally kick back in. It's rather quite annoying, especially since I sometimes have absolutely no idea how fast I'm going. The center Dial (which contains all 3) goes out all at once. I'm not sure if its due to a burned out fuse, or a bad ground or what. It's also affected accurate mileage tracking, since when the speedometer goes out, they all go out.

I could really use help and would like to avoid going to a dealership, since we all know how they like to gouge us worse than the petrol pumps do. If it's a bad fuse, I'd like to know what that center dial on the dash is under Fuse #'s so I can check/replace it if necessiary. If it's a grounding issue, I'd love to know if its a self fix kind of thing without tearing appart part of the engine to get to it.

Also, my petrol gauge doesnt seem to be working either, it just sits at full the entire time, no matter how much petrol is in the tank. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, it would be most appereciated!

Thanks! I appereciate all the help I hope to get.

virgineg6

pull out the cluster an check your connections, if you have a buddy with the same car swap out clusters and see if the problem follows the cluster or stays in your car. check all your fuses and grounds. petrol!? where you from?

Former User

Please create informative thread titles - edited.

spAdam

iTrader: (1)

Check the stack of grounds on the thermostat housing. Take them off, clean any scale or crud from the area and reassemble.

silverbullet9626

i have the exact same problem except the only thing that doesnt work is the speedo. when your car warms up does everything start working again and does it throw a cel before it warms up

TNP-Spectre

Sometimes it does, but then sometimes it just randomly goes away, I'm sorry for the title, it was late when i posted this. I've also heard it could be the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) I'm gonna check into both of these.

As for the petrol, I've been watchin a lot of the "good" Top Gear lately, that n my roomate n his GF are british, so it rubs off lol

TNP-Spectre

/Bump for more opinions, as well as an answer to the fuel tank issue mentioned above.

todesengel885

i had a messed up speed sensor in my gen 5 and my tach always worked normaly. but my speedo would jump all over the place due to a intermittent connection between the speed sensor and the harness, or just die all together...

russ.shafer

i like the way you talk/type lol. it my be the vss make sure its pluged in good it is in the back of the trans

TOOLMAN1966

I had the Speedometer indicating 20mph and Odometer not working problem, half the time. The other half it worked perfectly. Mine is a 1998 Civic EX. My problem was a broken solder connection (often called a "cold solder joint") on IC1 pin 10. My circuit board is the one pictured by REVOAPPAREL in this thread on 8-15-2012. This pin is one of the epoxy (or glued) pins. I used the soldering iron to remove this epoxy from the pin before re-soldering it. (The heat kind of crumples the epoxy so it can be scraped off with the iron tip.) The Vehicle Speed Sensor signal comes into IC1 on this pin, but also on IC1 pin 12, and IC2 pins 10 and 15. __ I found which solder connection was broken in the following manner: Removed the circuit board from the speedometer/odometer mechanism (it pulls right off.) Attached a 12 volt power supply to IGN and GND. Used a voltmeter to read COS & SIN voltages. These 2 voltages tell the speedometer needle where to point. (RED voltmeter lead on COS+ and BLACK voltmeter lead on COS-.) (Don't look at the voltages with respect to GND. The speedometer doesn't see that.) When the circuit board was working correctly, the COS voltage was 5.04 and the SIN voltage was 0.26. These are logic levels ONE and ZERO. (If you remember your Trigonometry, the COS of zero is ONE and the SIN of zero is ZERO. Zero is the vehicle speed.) When the circuit board wasn't working correctly (this is when the needle would indicate 20mph IF it was attached) COS voltage was 2.47 and SIN voltage was 1.80. When I read these WRONG voltages, I started touching things and when I pushed on IC1 the voltages became correct for a moment. Then I used a probe to push against each IC1 pin individually and found pin 10 was the pin not making contact. __ A person should be able to use this technique to find a bad solder joint anywhere on the board causing incorrect speedometer readings when the vehicle is sitting still. ___ I also traced out the entire circuit board and drew a schematic. If I figure out how to post a scanned pdf of this, I'll attach it. ___This is my first post to any automotive thread. I sincerely hope this helps many of you out with your speedometer indicating 20mph problems! Enjoy Troubleshooting! ((Toolman1966 _ APRIL 14, 2013))

Semper_Fi_Powel

How did you fix this? Because im having this problem with my ej1, its really bothering me and i wanna know if i need a new cluster or if its just some wiring.