speed sensor issues
 

I was driving down the road a couple of weeks ago and my speedometer started jumping around going nuts. A couple more miles and the car started to run really bad slow shifting/ no shifting at all. Pulled into a auto parts store to have the check engine light scanned to find out it was a speed sensor. I got back home, looked up on YouTube how to change it, and ran into a Eric The Car Guy video. I did what he said to do to make sure it was the sensor. I unplugged the connecter and drove it down the road to see if if would run properly, which it did. I ordered one and replaced it. long story short it didn't help the problem. I took it to Honda so they could diagnose it and they tighten and cleaned the connection. They gave the car back telling me its fixed and ready to go. I pulled out onto the road and noticed the speedometer wouldn't register until I hit 2,000 rpms, but it was running fine. Next day drove it, it messed up on me again. Took it back to Honda a couple of days later for them to tell me it was running just fine for them and the scan isn't pulling any codes. I heft there and it ran good for the most part but the speedometer would jump around when stopped, but smooth back out once you got going. I took it to a auto part store and had it scanned one more time and the same speed sensor code came back up. The car just spiratic at times. Some times its fine others the speedometer jumps around and car will run bad. Sorry for the long post but I am not sure what else to do next. Any help wold be great

Re: speed sensor issures
 

What's wrong with the car?
I can't tell you.
I don't even know what sort of car you have, you didn't bother to tell us.
Wiring issues?
ECM issues?
Got a scanner of your own that can display live operating data?
5th and 6th gens seem to have speedometer problems.


If you paid actual money for the dealer to figure it out, they aren't finished with it yet.


Maybe they have no idea what your complaint is.
Maybe they gave the job to someone who should not be trying to do electrical work.
Maybe the mechanic doesn't have a license and can't test drive your car to see what's wrong. Maybe they think the code scanner can solve the worlds problems.
IDK, but I can guess and be snarky all day.

Every dealer should have at least one smart tech that can actually fix cars along with fixing all the other techs' screw ups LOL.
Ask for their rocket scientist to fix it.

Take the service advisor (or a senior tech, hopefully a smart one) for a quick ride and demonstrate your problems.
SHOW THEM WHAT IT DOES WRONG.

Let them have at it.

When they tell you it is fixed....
Then take the same advisor for another ride. Make sure it is actually fixed before you pay and leave.

Re: speed sensor issures
 

sorry I forgot to mention that it is a 96 Honda Civic ex coupe with the vtec engine in it. I'm having issues with my speed sensor. Sometimes the car runs fine with no issues at all, but most of the time my speedometer is jumping around everywhere and that's causing the transmission not to shift. The first visit to the dealership they cleaned and tighten the connector. They drove it and said everything was perfectly fine. I noticed it acting up again so I took it back to the dealership, and they said that they didn't see anything wrong with it. They said they drove it several times and everything was fine, with no codes being thrown. On the way home it started acting up again, and that's when I went to the parts store and had them run the scan to reveal the same speed sensor code. The service adviser the second time there told me that it sounds like a bad sensor or a wiring harness issue. I was just wandering what I should try next to resolve this issue. Should I replace the speed sensor again, its not on heard of to get a bad part every once in a while. I don't think its the gauge cluster itself because that wouldn't make the transmission hesitate to shift.

Re: speed sensor issures
 

sorry forgot to mention that it was a 96 honda civic ex vtec. The first visit to the dealership charged me 92.00 for a diagnostic. they cleaned and tighten the connector and sent me home. That made the problem more inconsistent when. I first start driving the car it runs bad and the speedometer jumps around, but once you drive it for a while it seems to straight out and runs fine. The second visit didn't cost anything, but couldn't get the car to act up there, so they sent me home again. They promised me they had there best guy that was qualified to look at it.

Re: speed sensor issues
 

This is only a guess:

Read this bulletin carefully

PDF LINK: http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/misc/...%2315_fuse.pdf

Your car might be in the middle of intermittently getting the suspect wiring shorted and trying to blow the fuse mentioned in the bulletin, but it hasn't shorted for a long enough time to blow that fuse or set the rest of the mentioned codes.

Re: speed sensor issues
 

Thank You so much for the info. I checked the fuse and sure enough it was blown. I replaced it and it works just fine now. The speedo still don't register till you hit about 2000rpms, but it seems to jump up there after that, and runs just fine. I've still got to check the wiring under the car and correct that issue. I sure wish I knew about the service bullion before spending all that time at the dealership. It just looks like they should have known about a service bullion. Anyway thanks again for the help.

Re: speed sensor issues
 

The info is certainly available to them IF the tech chose to use it.
Sadly, most shops just can't hire a full staff of top gun techs.



If that fuse was blown it probably should have had most of the other codes mentioned in the bulletin.