Hello all,
I've had a problem with my speedo needle. It's been working intermittently for 2+ months now. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I was told it was the vss (variable speed sensor) so I finally bought it and swapped it. Pretty straight forward, 2 bolts, pulls out, switch out the little pin on the inside, replace. It worked for 5 miles, then needle dropped. Any suggestions as to what to try now? instrument cluster? speedo cable (does it even have one?)
BTW: no check engine light, and tachometer works fine.

94 Honda Civic ex Coupe
Auto Transmission
154,000 miles

I've also seen that some engines have 2 VSS but I can't seem to find 2nd one on mine.

Thanks for your help!

 

sounds like something else besides the VSS is causing your VSS to go bad.

 

VSS stands for Vehicle Speed Sensor. It measures the speed of the final gear in the transaxle, which is proportional to road speed. There is only one. There is also no speedometer cable, the speedometer is electronic, driven by pulses from the VSS. The ECU also uses the speed data and if the VSS is bad it will usually turn on the CEL.

When your speedometer sits at zero, do the odometers keep rolling correctly? That is a sure sign that the speedo unit in the cluster is bad.

 

If CEL is on, check the CEL FIRST!!

If the CEL pertains to the speedo sensor, ding ding ding, it's probably just the sensor located ontop of the transmission.

If CEL is NOT on....
Problem: The speedo doesn't work but the odometer works.
Solution: Replace the cluster or just replace the speedo gauge

Problem: The speedo doesn't work AND the odometer doesn't work.
Solution 1*: Bad Sensor - Replace the speedo sensor in the transmission.
*CEL should be on
Solution 2: Bad Gauge - Replace cluster or just replace the speedo gauge
IF Neither solution above fixed it.
Solution 3: Check all wiring from the sensor to the gauge. Because the signal is disrupted somewhere.

More... https://www.hondacivicforum.com/m_56.../tm.htm#563292

 

sounds like speedometer is going bad.try to find another cluster with close to the same milage as yours already has. any cluster from 92-95 will fit you only need the center speedometer.

 

just take the cluster out and remove 4 philips screws from the back and swap them out. DO NOT TOUCH THE NEEDLES or mess with the milage.

 

I just swapped speedos and it fixed my erratic speedo.

 

its a common eg problem and every1s first answer is buy a $80 speed sensor! that is not the problem swap the speedo cluster itself. and bam its fixed

 

I have a 96 but that's exactly what happened to me. People told me, "change the VSS, that will fix it"....... but it didnt, I had to swap the cluster to solve the problem.

 

My 93 civic's speedometer goes berserk or under measures the mph when cold like in winter, but in the summer heat, it works fine. Odometer works fine but trip meter does get stuck sometimes. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.