Do I need a new speedo?

[RickPA]

Speedo needle rises to 50 and stops no matter how fast I'm driving. Slowly goes down to about 40 when I slow down or stop. Goes down to around 5 about 10 seconds after I turn the ignition key off.

Odometer and trip meter work OK.

What do I need, how do I replace it and where do I get it? (Please.)

 

[Positive Vibes]

Not 100% sure but it may be your speedo gear. Try a search. The speedo gear is a little $10 part.

What do you guys think??

 

[RickPA]

Update - Worked fine this morning but stuck at 50 again on the way home. Once it dropped back to 0 when I stopped for a light but mostly sorts of drifts down to about 40.

Forgot to mention - last night when it was acting wacky the speedo also moved when I was going in reverse.

I've searched the forums but didn't see anything just like my problem. Appreciate any help.

 

[Lee S.]

Here's my two cents....

In 2nd gen X's, the speedo is electronically controlled thru the computer so there won't be a speedo gear problem like in 1st gens. My understanding is the computer gets sensor info and and passes it along to the speedo. So unless your speedo guage itself is fried your problem probably lies in a bad sensor or a bad connection. Having said this I am not smart enough to tell you where to look. If it were me I'd probably look in a haynes manual which does lay out the various sensors pretty well. Short of that I'd probably do a search on speed sensor or something.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Lee

 

[Bronco638]

Not so fast, Lee.

The 1995-96 2nd Gens are gear driven speedos (sadly, I'm not sure about '97+ model years). At some point Ford switched over to an electronic sensor to drive the speedo. Sounds like to me that the sensor is not reading properly (dirty) or is failing. If the speedo is gear driven, it could be a bad speedo cable.

Hope this helps - Dave.

 

[Lee S.]

Not so fast, Lee.

The 1995-96 2nd Gens are gear driven speedos (sadly, I'm not sure about '97+ model years). At some point Ford switched over to an electronic sensor to drive the speedo. Sounds like to me that the sensor is not reading properly (dirty) or is failing. If the speedo is gear driven, it could be a bad speedo cable.

Hope this helps - Dave.

Dave, thanks for the correction....Just curious though...are you saying that the sensor feeds directly to the speedo or does it's data get fed thru the computer first?

Either way, it looks like we both pointed RickPA in the same direction so hopefully he'll be able to get a handle on this.

Lee

 

[RickPA]

Thanks everyone for the help so far. I'm going to check th e connection underneath but I do not much about what I'm doing. I can check wires but wouldn't know a VSS if it fell on my foot. Do the trip and odo work electrically too. They seem to work OK but from what I read they could be running slow. I'll have to check their accuracy but they do run even when the speedo hangs.

 

[ashleyroachclip]

I have a 1st gen X ...and had a speedo problem ....speedo would read 90 plus all the time , tho the odometer worked fine ...had to replace the speedo head ...and everything is fine now ....Ashley

 

[RickPA]

Thanks. Yeah, I think it is the head. I checked the trip meter and it's reading OK. Funny, it fails at the exact same place on the ride home. Maybe I should go home a different way. Does anyone know about the internals of the speedo? Is there maybe a return spring that's stretched with age? Can it even be worked on?

Thanks for all replies

 

[Bronco638]

Lee,

I don't know if the sensor feeds the speedo directly or if it runs thru the computer first. I would guess the latter. Perhaps someone with a '97+ who knows will chime in.

Ash, thanks for the input.

Rick, I don't know if you really want to be messing around with speedo internals (given that States usually prosecute for odometer fraud). Maybe Ashley could let us know what it costs to replace the head.

D.