Hello all,

I've been having an odd problem with my speedometer and odometer. A while ago they stopped working. A computer scan showed that the speed sensor had problems. The piece was changed and the problem went away....for a while. Now, when the car has been parked overnight or in cold weather, the speedometer and odometer won't work at first when turning on the car. However, after a few minutes, or sometimes after accelerating beyond 30 mph, the speedometer and odometer kick in and keep working (again, until I let the car cool down for some hours). If they don't kick in for some time the D4 will start flashing. It's also happened that when I'm on the highway at high speed the speedometer and odometer will suddenly stop working for a few minutes and the check engine icon will light up.

Can anyone help out with this problem? I've seen other topics with the speedometer and odometer not working at all, or erraticaly, but I here I can consistently see the issue each morning when the car is cold.

For the most part, everyhing else with car is fine.

Thanks

 

I'm guessing you replaced the speed sensor with a used one ?

 

Actually no. Or at least I hope not considering how much it cost (and I was told it was new). I'm not in the US, and at that moment for some reason the part was not readily available. I had to order and install it at a Honda dealership. It actually had a 1 year warranty. Almost like it was planned, about 5 months after the warranty was over the problem came back.

 

check wiring.

 

On the CB and CD cars its either the VSS or the chips on the pcb at the back of the speedometer itself. If you sourced a VSS from Honda I would be inclined to suggest the issue is now in the PCB.

If there was no issue with it randomly dying on the freeway after warming up, I'd suggest it was just cold solder joints getting old. That could be fixed by disassembling the cluster, removing the speedometer and PCB, and retouching every solder joint on the PCB. There aren't too many on there and half of the chips' points are potted anyway.

But because there is an intermittent issue, I'm inclined to say its the chips themselves going bad. Buy a used speedometer from eBay and swap the PCBs.

 

sometimes you can get intermittent problems from cracked solder joints, see main relay failure. Cracked solder joints usually cause an intermittent problem more often then dead chips do.

 

Cold solder would make more sense if it was just a temperature-dependent problem, but he's claiming it happens even when driving for a bit too. Just my theory, and its the same amount of effort getting back there to fix it either way.

 

When the check engine light (CEL) comes on, jump the OBD-II connector with a paperclip to get the CEL code (a series of long then short blinks), I believe you have to pull the ashtray to get to the connector. I'm curious what it is.

 

obd1, iirc. 98+ went OBD2, where the connector is in the standard place. By your left ankle.

 

also, get a bluetooth OBD2 adapter, cheap, awesome. I use my phone with the program 'Torque', as a technician it replaced my scanner, because it is easier to carry.

edit: prly not this guy, the thread starter. Make sure you have OBD2 before ordering)

 

I believe starting 1/1/96, all cars and light trucks were required to have the OBD2.

 

hmmm, now I gotta check, I thought it became req'd sometime in '98 so they were a bit early on that when the '98 came out...

maybe I'm thinkin' of Civic's (5g / 6g switch)