iSamoStefan

Vehicle Speed Sensor: Diagnoses/Symptoms

2002 Civic Ex, D17A2, 5 Speed Manual

1) Rebuild Engine
2) Speedometer doesn't work and check engine light P0500
3) Wiggle some stuff
4) Speedometer jitters, doesn't really work though
5) Remove VSS, plug in cable good and firm
6) Speedometer works!
7) One week later...
8) Issues when hard accelerating, jitters return.
9) Wiggle some wires
10) Speedometer stops working completely again and check engine light comes back.
11) Wiggle wiggle wiggle.... Nothing

So am I looking at a connector problem, or is the sensor the culprit(maybe banged up during rebuild?)?

My gut tells me its the wiring harness connector. I could just gut one from a junker and solder it on mine.

Hoping someone has a troubleshooting step to try so I don't just throw parts at it or waste time splicing a new connector.

Excerpt from the factory manual.
Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS)
The VSS is driven by the differential. It generates a pulsed signal from an input of 5
volts. The number of pulses per minute increases/decreases with the speed of the
vehicle.

GolNat

iTrader: (7)

I would check continuity from the sensor harness back to wherever the signal goes.

iSamoStefan

Can I measure as far back as to ecu area where everything plugs in under the glove box? I know there's a good ground and that one post was reading 12v and the other was like 5v or something. I measured with the battery turned on. I know this points straight at the sensor but i'm not sold.

Colin42

Try spraying like half a can of electrical contact cleaner in it​​

iSamoStefan

You really are helping prove how poorly I wrote everything up in my post lol. I did that, to both ends, pretty damn clean in my opinion. Good points keep them coming please

Slumpertcivic

vss sensor, failing ECU, or broken harness wire..
a pigtail and 3 10foot wires and a couple inline splices and you could easily rerun a new “harness” to the sensor.

Have you tried unplugging the vss sensor and reading the codes then?

iSamoStefan

No I actually havent unplugged the sensor to see if the problem is similar. That's a great tip though that will be tried. Thing is that the plug is so rough that it's hard to put on and take off. That's part of the reason for thinking its the problem. I want to know how far upstream I can check for continuity..