so i was helping a friend install a new gauge cluster in his gsr da and he had got a ls da cluster and now he said vtec isnt kicking in??? the speedo isnt working but idk if the old one did either because the needle had broken before he bought it... if the needle is too low past the 0mph will that cause it not to work?? and if the speedo isnt working would that cause vtec not to kick in??

 

Maybe I'm wrong but I can't see that happening. How does he know that VTEC isn't working?

 

well he let the car warm up took it for a ride to see if the speedo would work and it didnt move then he took it up and it jus climbed and no cross over... theres no way it did because his vtec kicks in hard and is loud...

 

The engine would be on it's face by 6500 rpm with no crossover, so if it made it up to 8000 you know you're on the secondary lobes.

 

well i heard if the vss isnt working then vtec wont switch over.. the car keeps climbing like a ls or like the car isnt warmed up...

 

On my DC2, and I imagine your friend's DA is similar, there is an orange signal wire that brings info from the VSS to the gauge cluster, but it splits before the gauge cluster to take it's info to the ECU. So an open in the gauge cluster wouldn't affect the ECU, but a signal erroneously going backwards through that wire could, I suppose.

It's possible that the LS gauge cluster is wired differently, and that the connector is set up in a way that is causing a signal to get sent through another pathway, although I don't think it's likely. The reason I say that is because, judging from the wiring diagram in my shop manual, it looks like many critical systems won't function if the gauge cluster is improperly connected. It's unlikely that only one wire would be different.

Also, I don't think the gauge cluster is sending any information backwards to the VSS. It's just reporting on the info the VSS sends it. So it shouldn't matter that the tach has a lower limit or the speedo isn't working. I think it's more likely that there is a bad connection from the VSS. Maybe you can trace the wires around and do some continuity testing.

Did your friend ever hit VTEC with the busted speedo on the old instrument cluster?

 

yea it was running fine for what it is... theres always that chance theres a bad connection so i can have him or myself check that... the only difference in clusters was the color of the back ones blue ones another... also the gsr has rev limit of 9rpms and the ls of 8rpm... if worse comes to worse ill throw the old one back in and see if the new needle will work even the odometer and speedo both werent working

 

problem solved.. probley would help to plug the speedo in didnt notice it and was a pain to put it