The car in question is a 1996 Mercury Mystique GS, Zetec, ATX.  The transmission was replaced in 2003, and is probably still under warranty if I can find the paperwork. 

  Today, my wife, a couple of friends, and I, were trying to go from Sacramento to Oakland.  About 2/3 of the way, the speedometer went dead. 

  I had trouble with the speedometer before, which turned out to be a fuse, so I decided to pull off at the next exit and check that.  The fuse was fine this time.  See this thread.

  On getting back on the road, I found that the transmission wouldn't shift out of first.  Eventually, we figured out I could manually shift it up to second, and we ended up driving slowly back to Sacramento in second.  On getting home, I hooked up my OBDâ??II system, and took the car for a drive.  The only relevant code is P0500, which pertains to the Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS).  This makes sense.  I also determined that the OBDâ??II system believes that the VSS is reading zero MPH regardless of how fast I might actually be going.  I did, however, also find that now the transmission is shifting through the gears as it should, but it is shifting harder than before; as in you can feel prominent jolts when it does.  After a while of driving, the OD OFF light begins flashing, as it did most of the way back to Sacramento. 

  No transmission-related codes, however; just P0500. 

  The object shown below, as seen through the front driverâ??side wheel wellâ??is that the VSS?  The clips on the connector to it are broken, but the connector seems firm enough that it ought to work.  Where do I find the VSS if this isn't it?  And is there any way to test the VSS, beyond noting that both my speedometer and the OBDII system seem to indicate that no signal is being received from it?  Would a malfunctioning VSS explain my transmission oddities?  Certainly, it would explain the dead speedometer.  Does it affect the odometer as well?  I think the odometer is also stopped.

  Is there anything that anyone can tell me to help me diagnose and repair my current round of troubles?


Hyster E60XM-33 1996 Mercury Mystique GS, Zetec, ATX To email me, remove the string HatesSpam from this address:BobHatesSpam@Blaylock.to