93 Civic speedo works odo doesn't

[Cd]

My 93 Civic odometer and trip meter quit on me, but the speedometer still works.
I changed out the Vehicle Speed Sensor, and it it's actually worse now. The speedometer works, but is bobbing around at times.

This car is an automatic

BTW, I hooked up my SuperMID and it doesn't show any activity at all. ( of course it wouldn't. I just thought I would mention it . )

Thanks, in advance for any feedback

[Baltothewolf]

Maybe it's the speedo cable itself? Idk. The speedometer doesn't work in the Mustang, but the odd and trip do.

[Cd]

I looked around online on the subject, and apparently both the speedometer and the odometer run off the V.S.S.

I just thought it strange that the speedometer would work fine. It usually starts jumping up and down after the engine and transmission really warm up ( around 15 - 20 miles )
The odometer and the trip meter* don't work at all.

( * I'm not sure the correct name - the numbers that you can re-set at the bottom of the speedometer )

The biggest thing that bothers me about it all, is that I can't check my mileage !

[user removed]

I call them trip odometers but trip meter should be fine. Sounds like the speedometer-odometer unit is giving out. Might be worth it to look inside and see if it might be something simple. You never know until you try.

If you have to get another gauge unit, you could put one with a tach in it's place.

regards
mech

[Cd]

Thanks Mech. I was hoping it would be something simple like that, and not a problem with the transmission.
I don't hear any slipping between gears or anything. Acceleration is horrible with the car though, but I can't recall if it has always been this way. ( It's an automatic after all )

What do you make of what i was saying about the speedo going out after the engine/ trans warms up ?
It was like this a few years ago and i changed out the VSS. It seems to have fixed it, but now it acts as if it has gone out again.

Thanks for your help with that in the past. You give out good advice !

I have three VSS - one new generic part, my old one, and one from a junkyard.
I will swap between all three and see if i get lucky with one. I was just concerned about any transmission issues.

Thanks

[some_other_dave]

Is the VSS in the 93 in the transmission, or in the instrument cluster? On my 90 CRX, there was a spinning cable from the trans to the gauge cluster, and the VSS was actually in the cluster. I was never clear if the VSS ran the speedometer or just signalled the engine management system.

I know that in the mid-2000s, the VSS was in the transmission and the speedo and odometer were driven by electronic signals directly.

Anyway, if the odometer is mechanical, the gears that drive it could be stripped. I have fixed odometers in mechanical speedos in my "other car" by repairing a stripped gear. I'd be less confident in fixing a newer odometer, even if it is purely mechanical, but it is at least be worth a look.

-soD

[California98Civic]

The VSS is on the transmission in the fifth gen Civics. It's still a spinning gear like the 4th gen, but the sensor sends out an electric signal (no spinning cable). I think you have a cluster problem. That might explain why changing your VSS has not relieved the symptom permanently?

[user removed]

If either speed or odo works and keeps working then it is impossiblefor the VSS (signal generator) to be malfunctioning.

It's the same signal. The speedo measures the frequency of the signal. The odo measures the number of signals, regardless of the frequency.

The same number of signals equals the same distance (odo)

The same number of signals divided by the time it takes to generate them (speedo)

Plug in a different cluster and test before replacement without installing the cluster.

I would estimate the chances of a VSS replacement fixing your problem at below 1%.

regards
mech

[basjoos]

If your SuperMID isn't getting a signal, then that would point to a problem at the VSS or its connector/cabling feeding to the ECU (Yoshi's installation instructions call for the SuperMID to pick up its signal at the ECU's VSS input cable). But if your MID isn't getting a signal, I don't see how your speedometer could be working. When I have had odo/speedo problems, the MID would work fine even though the odo/speedo was dead. In the past I have had problems with bad solder joints in the odo/speedo cluster and a bad or intermittent signal at the VSS connector in the engine compartment. Coating the VSS connector's pins with silver conductive grease took care of the intermittent VSS problem. Disassembling the odo/speedo cluster (very easy to do) and checking/reheating solder joints and/or coating any internal connector pins with silver conductive grease have taken care or dead/jumping speedometer needles is the past. I have had to do this a number of time on my 92 civic over the years.

[user removed]

Check out any printed circuit board for bad solder connections. We used to get the digital dashes working by resoldering the joints on the power amplifier. I thunk the labor charge was 1 hour total and success was easily over 90%, high enough where we did NOT charge if the repair failed to get the dash working.

Digital dashes for "Disco" era z cars havenot been available for a very long time and were very expensive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dG0fwE7TC4

Even going back to the 60s you could usually fix things by backing off and retightenting the speed nuts that held the circuit board to the cluster housing.

Voltage drop, voltage drop, viltage drop. Find out where the power gets to and you have found your bad connection, right after your last reading.

Problem is the boards are getting smaller. I use a 10x loupe to do mine.

regards
mech