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For a while now, my speedometer has been intermittent. What I mean by this is that it will stay at 0, until the car warms up, if it is not very cold outside. After enough time has passed, it will start moving, but it is not accurate. This generally happens when I am moving. When I slow down enough, the needle will drop to 0, thus setting that current speed as the new "0 mph" floor. The only time my speed is accurate after that is if I come to a complete stop.

I did a lot of reading, so here is what I have found out so far.

When I do the needle sweep test (can't remember exact name), all of the needles except the speedometer will sweep as expected. Once the speedometer is moving (ie, warmed up), the speedometer needle moves as expected during the sweep test.

There seems to be three main possible causes from what I have read.
1. A bad/dying VSS. How can I test to see if this is the problem? It seems to require a fancy Honda piece of equipment to troubleshoot directly.
2. A bad/dying gauge cluster. Is there a way I can verify this? I would rather not have to replace this, as it is the priciest part from what I can tell.
3. Some wire is getting exposed and not working until it warms up enough to expand and make a good connection again. I also read that there is a firewall behind the gauge cluster that sometimes causes this issue as well.

Any others I have missed? Suggestions on where to start?

Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 518

Needs a cluster.

 
Rep Power: 0

Even if it works after the "warm up"?

I was thinking about again last night, and I thought that the problem was somewhere between the cluster and what drives the needs during the sweep test. What drives the sweep test? Anything in between besides cables?

Thanks for the reply ezone. I was hoping it was something different.

 
Rep Power: 518

Doesn't matter.
The sweep test is part of the self diag tests on a 7th gen cluster.
Failing the self test is failing.
Needs a cluster.

The processor inside cluster drives its own self test.

There are no cables.
Only wires and data between the cluster and any other part of the car.

HTH

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks again ezone! I was hoping there might have been a loose wire or something else, but after what you posted, it looks like Santa is bringing me a new cluster for Christmas.

And thanks for explaining how the sweep test works. It helped clear up some things in my mind.