Hello I have a 1994 CIVIC EX. I recently bought this car with the Speedo not working. It would come on about 20 miles into a drive on the interstate. But when I turn the car off it won't engage until I drive another 20 miles. So I changed the Vehicle speed sensor (VSS) AND THE PIN INSIDE. Still nothing. When I turned the car on and started driving, it came on for a split second. Then nothing. Cruise control doesn't work. I've checked the fuse. They're all good.

 

The vast majority of speedometer problems are with the connector itself. Either the pins are rotted, or they are deformed in such a way that they do not make solid contact. The symptoms you describe fit this situation perfectly: An intermittent (AKA wiring) problem with the VSS circuit.

I have not seen a speedometer fail in a Honda yet that was not caused by some other crap repair (IE "splicing the wrong wire" lol, etc).

 

The only issues I've had in my Hondas have been with the VSS. I've replace two with aftermarket ebay/amazon brands and that immediatey fixed the issue. Now, whether that was cause of the connector of the VSS I was replacing or the mechanical workings I can not say. I did try to clean up the inner workings and it didn't fix em so I just went ahead and replaced em.

 

I had so same issues like you are having. in the end I ran my own wire from the plug on the drivers side were the engine harness plugs into. bypass the harness with your own wire tell you if the problem is in the engine harness.

 

It is also very common for the solder joints to crack on the speedo circuit board. It's not that difficult to reheat the joint and add a little more solder. Most of the time you can't see the affected joint so redoing them all is the best route.

I also replaced my VSS first to no avail, but this did the trick.

 

do you have a check engine light on for the VSS? if not then it was not a VSS problem and more likely a problem at the cluster or the harness in between.