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Speedometer failure.

9

96Mystique

CEG'er
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
192
Long time since I posted here. My car has been doing great until just recently. I have a problem with my speedometer. I was out of town last weekend, and I was driving around, and I noticed that my speedometer had stopped working. It's done this occasionally, so I figured hell, it'll start back up as soon as I stop the car and shut it off. Well, I went into a store for about an hour, and I started the car. I was pulling out of the store's parking lot, and it still wasn't working. I drove it home. It sat for the next day. I looked over the fuses (Couldn't do much of anything, as I was at my mother's house and my tools are at my house, even the jack was... :blackeye: ) All fuses looked fine, but I replaced all of them anyway. I replaced all of the fuses under the dash, not inside of the engine bay. Well, I left my mom's house the next day, and I was taking my girlfriend over to her friend's house, and the speedometer didn't work at all that whole time. I spent a good 5-6 hours just driving around town, going to places I had to go. I picked up my girlfriend, and it still wasn't working. I get about 7 miles away from my house, and the speedometer starts working. I'm on the interstate doing 70MPH the whole time. I come up on the exit ramp, and I have to take it at 25MPH 'cause it's just a U-Turn, and I notice the speedometer is still at 70MPH, so I freaked my girlfriend out telling her I was do 70MPH on this very dangerous off ramp. :laugh: I get home, put the car in park, unload some things, and then proceed to park my car. It's still saying 70MPH. So I shut the car off, and then about 5 minutes later I start it again. It's still at 70MPH. I have no idea what could be wrong. I have checked it for debris in the cluster itself, but it's freely moving. Anyone know what I should look at? VSS? All my other gauges in the cluster work too.
 
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It started working after I messed with the fuse box under the dash. (My brake lights weren't working, so I had to check the fuses. Turned out the fuse wasn't getting a very good connection, for some reason...) Could the fuse box be my problem?
 
I did forget to mention, that my brake lights were working, even when my speedometer wasn't working. I just noticed that my tail lights weren't working one day, and I checked the fuses, and the fuse just slid out. I bent the fins on the fuse a little and both my speedometer, and brake lights worked fine. Is there anywhere I can buy a new fuse box, or would my best bet be a junk yard?
 
Please contact Mike (69Boss302). He goes to JY frequently.
Yesterday I went with him and I saw several Contours/Cougars with perfect fuseboxes and all fuses are all in.
 
Tony2005 said:
If your "OD Off" light starts flashing, you need to change the VSS soon thereafter. Within 50 miles or so, the ATFluid will be worned out. That is the last thing you want...
Click to expand...

"Worned out." That's great. It's like "she done wore out." :laugh:

VSS failure also often causes shifting malfeasance -- slow-witted shifts, and banging into gear on downshifts. I agree with Tony -- I wouldn't let anything like that go long at all.
 
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