Little background. The speedo has been fucked up since about 3 months after I bought the car. It would decide when and when not to work. Annoying but livable. Figured it was just a loose connection in the cluster.

Now once I turn on the car the speedo immediately hits 60. Once I begin to drive it bounces between 60 and 20 till I reach a speed of aprox. 40 where it sits on 40. Any faster, it just stays steady on 40. Once I start slowing down and drop below 40 mph, it begins to bounce again between 20 and 60 until I come to a complete stop and it settles on either 20 or 60.

WTF is wrong with my cluster!?!?!?

 

no ideas???

 

Possibly the VSS or the speedometer head is going bad. Could also be a wiring problem though I doubt that.

 

Probably a bad speedo head. They aren't "common" but when there is a complaint such as the one you described... it is almost always the case.

 

Cost??? Difficulty to repair???

 

If your tach & odometer works, but the speedo don't work, it's probably the speedo head. More specifically, the circuit board in back of the speedo head.

Get a used instrument cluster from Ebay or a salvage yard, about $35 - $50.

Now to get to the cluster, you need to:

1. Remove the switches like cruise control, hazard, etc., gently use a small flat head screwdriver.
2. Remove part of the center console to get a couple of philips screws holding the plastic bezel.
3. Remove the plastic bezel, philips screws.

4. Remove screws to take out the old instrument cluster.
5. Take off the plastic cover of the cluster. There will be 4 philips screws holding the speedo in the back of the cluster. Gentle pull with your hand the speedo circuit board from the back if the speedo.

6. Plug in the circuit board from the newer speedo, this way you keep the same odometer reading. Reverse install with your old instrument cluster, but with a newer circuit board.


Not very hard, but takes several hours. You want to be careful not to break anything.

The Helms manual has great illustrations.

 

tach works but odo only works when the speedo is working

 

I guess it's time to put out the money for the JDM cluster I've been eyeing

 

KPH!!!1!1!!1!!111!