So i have 95 civic coupe also. I was driving it the other day and my speedometer arrow started jumping all over the place. It constantly does this or just stays at zero. Rarely does it show the correct speed now. I checked the speed sensor and everything seems to be fine. What could be the problem?

 

could be the gauge cluster or a short somewhere...

 

Most likely is still the speed sensor. It's hard to tell something's wrong just by looking at it, but particularly inspect the pins on the sensor, and the socket on the wire. They are very prone to getting corroded and causing a short.

 

Is CEL code 17 thrown? If not, focus on the speedo and its wire from the VSS.

 

wouldn't he be getting a check engine light if it was the speed sensor?

my money is on a gauge cluster problem or the wiring leading to the gauge cluster. when speed sensors have gone out in my case the speedometer stayed at 0 all the time. when the "mph" jumped around, i replaced the gauge cluster and it worked fine. what motor do you have? stock?

 

My money is on this right here! ^^^^^^^^^^

Same thing happend to a buddy of mine this past summer. After looking and looking, we finally found that the middle pin on the VSS was corroded, and broke off and was stuck in the VSS plug on the wiring harness.

 

Yeah the motor is stock d16z6 in the eg. The check engine light is not on though for those who asked

 

does your vtec work?

 

Generally, yes, but I've had an obviously bad speed sensor (one of the pins was completely broke off and stuck in the female socket) that was throwing no CEL, and the speedometer was jumping like crazy.

Eventually it did throw a code 17 CEL.... after it had been broken for 2 weeks.

Just saying... these problems manifest themselves in different ways, and it's easier/cheaper to deal with a VSS than than a cluster. If all 3 of his pins AND plug sockets are 100% good and he's still not getting a CEL, I'd say look at cluster after that. It could very well be the cluster. But, if he's at the junkyard and sees a $5 VSS, I'd grab it and throw it in just to see.

 

yeah vtec works fine

 

isn't vtec affected by the vss?

 

its your speed sensor...same thing happened to me