My buddy has a 95 civic EX with an auto trans, and his speedometer works once in a great while. Anybody know what would cause it to not work properly? All his other gauges work fine, just the speedo works once in a while (and odometer as well). Dealership told him over the phone (without looking at the car) that it is probably a speed sensor switch and the needle is probably broken. Estimate was around $500 to fix it and he doesn't wanna pay that to fix it. Any ideas?

 

i had that problem where the speedo would work and not work in my EJ2, it was the cluster, i changed the cluster and it worked fine

 

it could be the vss or the cluster

 

yeah my EJ8 has the same problem and i changed the vss and it still doesn't work so i am going to change the whole cluster.... The vss would be around $100 for your friends car instead of paying that $500 for someone who hasn't even looked at the car. If that doesn't work it would probibly be a problem with the cluster

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ejkid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yeah my EJ8 has the same problem and i changed the vss and it still doesn't work so i am going to change the whole cluster.... The vss would be around $100 for your friends car instead of paying that $500 for someone who hasn't even looked at the car. If that doesn't work it would probibly be a problem with the cluster</TD></TR></TABLE>

It could be any number of things. My speedo does it too and I've replaced the transmission (not b/c of the speedo problem), VSS, cluster and pigtail. The only other thing that it could be is the wiring from the VSS to the ECU or from the ECU to the cluster.

If you take the plug off the VSS on your buddies car, look to see if all of the pins are there. If not, that's where I would start.

 

You can buy my 94 civic EX speedo its manual tho if that matters

 

what is a pigtail?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ejkid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what is a pigtail?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The harness side of the plug that plugs into the VSS.

 

Where is the VSS located on Civics? I'm more of a Neon guy (go ahead and laugh I don't care ) and they are on the transmission on Neons.

I figured it could be the VSS, wiring to the ECU, ECU itself (unlikely), wiring to dash, connections to gauge cluster, or the cluster itself. Is there a way to test the VSS with a multi-meter or anything? I'm sure it gets voltage from the ECU, then is just a variable resistor controlled by vehicle speed, although I'm not sure. Hondas are messed up, you guys got your engines in backwards and all that crap lol.

 

It's on the transmission. If you go to the passenger side and look straight down between the battery tray and intake manifold, you'll see it.

 

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN SPEEDO FAILS AND OR WORKS FROM TIME TO TIME:

1st: usually its not the cluster because the only moving parts are the needles unless the needle(s) spin all the way around landing just below where the needle sits when the car is off.

2nd: there are times when the vss(vehicle speed sensor) fails which need replacing.

THE CLUPRIT: two out of 3 incidents its the plug that goes on the vss. the pins that are fastened in the plug come loose over time.

SOLUTION: find spare harness/plugs with similar pins used on the plug that connects to the vss and replace your faulty pins.

 

Thanks, I'll check that next time I see him. On Neons the stupid gauge cluster likes to crap out and all you have to do is re-solder the pins and it fricken works again. Just takes time to do it but it's easy. I've done it in 3 of the 4 I've owned, and the 4th one didn't come with anything in the engine bay