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Speedo Dies, and then Lives!

S

Scorpion8

Hard-core CEG'er
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Jul 10, 2008
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I found a 98 Merc gauge cluster with tach from a Zetec 4-cyclinder engine and pulled it to replace the one in my rather spartan 4-cyclinder 98 Contour GL. Same year, same engine series, even was within 1k miles on the odometer, so all should be good. Popped it in and all seems fine, but occasionally while driving the speedo will die off to zero, and then come back again. Everything else seems to work fine, and the speedo works fine most of the time. I double checked the connections and I don't get the fuel light illuminating as in another thread on this topic.

Any ideas, please?
 
Swap in the speedo from your other cluster, unless you already did this to keep the same odometer. Regardless, my point is, use the other speedo with your odometer, lol.
 
So swap the speedo from the original gauge cluster into the new Merc cluster? What'll that give me.... is there some difference between the two?

Aren't they different sizes because the original Contour GL didn't have a tach, so the speedo was bigger. The new Mystique cluster has a tach, so the speedo "seems" to be smaller, or is that just cluster-envy?
 
Thanks. Not to continue pestering you, but what does that achieve? Shouldn't the Merc speedo work just as well as the old Contour speedo? What could be causing the die-off periodically?
 
Scorpion8 said:
Thanks. Not to continue pestering you, but what does that achieve? Shouldn't the Merc speedo work just as well as the old Contour speedo? What could be causing the die-off periodically?
Click to expand...
Well I didn't say it would accomplish anything, but I just find it interesting that the speedo stopped working when you swapped it :). But I figure that if your old one worked that you might as well try it.
 
Thanks! That's exactly the technical answer I was seeking. And that sounds like a tried-and-trueism that is probably quite applicable here.
 
Riddle Me This - Not all Speedo's the Same

Riddle Me This - Not all Speedo's the Same

Okay, spent all day fiddling with this and here's the scoop -- not all speedos are the same.

My 98 Contour GL has the basic cluster w/center speedo. I got a cluster from a same-year Mystique w/tach, thinking I could just swap it in one for one. As reported previously, the speedo on this one works and then will die, and then pop back up. There's no pattern to it, but it's obviously unacceptable. So I popped that cluster open, and pulled the speedo.

This one is a small speedo, with a ribbon cable connector. I have a V6 cluster also, but that speedo (while the same size) has 3 prongs as connectors. It won't swap into the planned upgrade cluster. My original GL cluster has the large center speedo (only), and that one won't fit either, even though it has the same ribbon cable connector as it's too large, and has different torx screw mounting holes.

So, back to square one with the plain jane GL cluster installed.

Does anybody have any idea why this Mystique speedo would just die off at certain times, and then pop back into life, only to die off again?

Doing a thorough search, I'm not the only one who's tried this, and others seem to find that it is just a one-for-one swap and will work.

A little help, please?
 
So your original speedo will not swap into the new cluster? The new cluster was from a four banger, right? I was able to swap my '95 speedo / odometer into my '97 Mystique cluster I got no problems, wierd :shrug:

Anyways, you may have just got a crapped out speedo from the junk yard... On the other hand, your VSS wiring may be fraying / shorting out... Something pinched my VSS wires and it caused the same exact thing, the speedo would just cut out on me... Most of the time it would stay dead for several miles before kicking back in...
 
Yes, the new cluster is from a Zetec Mystique-car. It even has a little 4 under the needle on the tach, whereas the Duratec cluster I have prominently says V6 on the tach. But no, the original GL speedo is too large and will not fit the Mystique cluster.

Then another question would be if the VSS wire was fraying and shorting, how come the speedo never dies when I put my original GL cluster back in? I've never had that problem at all. I was thinking possibly a bad conenction on the Mystique speedo so I hosed it with contact cleaner and reassembled but it does the same thing.
 
Is there a way to apply a small signal voltage to the cluster connectors in question and see if just the speedo is bad? Perhaps it has a cold solder joint somewhere that's intermittent.
 
What about the V6 cluster I have? I can mod the resistor for the tach, and make that work. The speedo shows 80 mph even sitting in the box so will that zero itself once a VSS signal is applied or is that cluster fubar also?
 
Scorpion8 said:
What about the V6 cluster I have? I can mod the resistor for the tach, and make that work. The speedo shows 80 mph even sitting in the box so will that zero itself once a VSS signal is applied or is that cluster fubar also?
Click to expand...
I'm getting slightly confused with the multiple gauge clusters you have, however, if you haven't removed the needle from the Duratec cluster, then you won't have to zero out the speedo. HOWEVER, the only way to swap in your odometer is to remove the needle. And yes, you can mod the tach with a 100k ohm resistor.
 
Thanks, but what about the Duratec clusters speedo reading 80mph+ while sitting on the bench unattached? Will that zero iteself, or is that speedo fubar?

Both clusters are within 1,000 miles on the odometers so I wasn't planning on swapping them just to avoid re-calibrating the speedos. But when I stuck the Duratec V6 cluster in it emitted a high pitched whine/chime. Was that a result of not having done the tach mod yet or a sign of incompatibility in years (I'm not 100% sure of the year of the V6 cluster).
 
Let me recount once again.

Original now installed: GL cluster, no tach, large speedo connected by a ribbon connector.

Want to install: Mystique cluster, same year, small speedo and tach, speedo connected by ribbon cable into back PCB.

Also have: Duratec V6 cluster w/small speedo and tach, speedo connected by 3 prongs into the back PCB.

Problem: the Mystique speedo dies and then jumps up intermittently while driving. I can't swap in my original GL speedo into the Mystique cluster because the large speedo is a different size and has different mounting studs. I can't use the Duratec speedo because it connects in a different way than the Mystique cluster.

So, am trying to devine how to check the speedo in the Mystique cluster and see if it's bad before I launch a search for a new small ribbon-connector speedo. Or any other issue that might be the cause. The VSS signal has been mentioned, but since my original GL cluster speedo never dies off, I discount that. It must be soimething inside this Mystique cluster.

Help!
 
Drove the vehicle to work today with the original spartan GL cluster in, and the speedo never dies off. So am pretty sure it's not a signal interruption from the VSS, just something funky in the Mystique cluster I got. And ideas about that problem?
 
STOP THE PRESS!

Okay, so your Mystique odo/speedo is "broken" I guess...

We missed a big point here somehow... Your Contour odo/speedo will not fit into the Mystique cluster because you need to take the speedo face off of the Mystique gauge and then attach it to your Contour odo/speedo... You will need to re-zero the speedo after you do this... When you take off the needles use a spoon on each side to pull it off the peg so you do not bend the peg...

I took a bunch of pictures when I changed mine over, so you can see what I am talking about... The actual odo/speedo device is exactly the same...

http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/blackdog007/Cluster%20Change/

Contour, speedo only face:

ClusterChange012.jpg


Mystique, speedo/tach face:

ClusterChange005.jpg
 
So, the concensus would be that the speedo in the Merc cluster is bad, and that swapping the Contour speedo in (w/faceplate swap and recalibrate) should do the trick?

Question, can I try the Merc speedo in my Contour cluster first? If it's truly bad, it should exhibit the same behavior. If it doesn't, then the issue is somewhere else, right? I was taught never to troubleshoot by putting good parts (my Contour speedo) into a suspected bad slot (the Merc cluster). Rather take the suspected bad part (Merc speedo) and put it into a known good slot (Contour cluster). That way if it's truly bad, it'll show up. If it's not, then you don't potentially fry a good part by putting it into a suspected bad spot.
 
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