1995 Speedometer Issues

I bought a 1995 Grand Am SE Quad 4 w/ Automatic less then a week ago and have ran into my first problem.
The speedometer needle started jumping around erratically and then went to 0 and stayed there for a while then began to jump around erratically again. All the other guages and lights seem to be working ok.
When I bought the car the seller said that he had recently had the heater core replaced at a local shop. Also I have noticed that the dash squeeks and creaks when driving over bumpy roads which leads me to think that the dash has been took apart at some point (maybe when the heater core was replaced) and maybe something is lose.
I'm not very car repair experianced, but also don't have the money to put it in the shop, so I was wondering what I should look for or do to try and fix it myself?

Any info would be apreciated....thanks

I'm not sure what you can do about the speedo, but I'm sure other members can give some valuable input on that.

As for the dash, being a 95 you are going to get some noise from the dash due to the fact that it is mostly plastic, about the only thing you can do would be to strip down the dash and tighten every nut and bolt you come accross as you reassemble it. That is the only way to make sure you have a tight dash. With the car being a 95 you will probably still have some noise.

One other thing you can do (as some will say) is to turn up the radio, oy is amazing how many noises go away with the turn of a knob,,,lol.

If the mechanic knew what he was doing then he should not have needed to tear down that much of the dash to get to the heater core.

I realize that my suggestion is not what you wanted to hear but I've done it to other cars I've owned and it did take care of most of the noises, besides it's a good wat to familiarize yourself with the dash assembly if you ever need to get into the dash to change a radio or make other repairs.

Good luck,

well, like hoags, im not sure what to do with the spedo. But i know that my 1995 grand am dash made a lot of nice too. The way to fix that problem is when you do go to tighten, take it of first, the out on some peel & stick foam around it. you can get some in basically any store that has like hardware and stuff. stick some around the edges inside of the panles. doing this will "cusion" the dash and it will not make as much noice. right now, my is doing great and it hardly ever makes noice. hope that give you some help.

thanks for the info guys..I probably need to familarize myself with the dash anyways to fix my speedo so if I can make it less noisy when it goes back together that would be a plus.

thanks again

That's the best way to look at it. You will learn mor by doing than by having some one do it for you. Like you say, your probably going to have to get to the speedo any way. What I'm going to suggest will take you a little longer to do the job but in the long run you will appreciate my suggestion: Since this will be your first tear down, what I would do is get a few sheets of paper and a pen or marker and as you remove a screw poke it through the paper and lable the location from where it came this way you will not end up at the last screw and find that you need a long screw and only have short ones left. I am telling you this from experience. One other thing; TAKE YOUR TIME!!! since you are dealing with plastic and some of the parts are held in place by clips and just pull off, if you are not carefull you can very easily crack or break the trim piece and that will just pi** you off.

I had a thought about the speedo...take a look at the transmission itself, look for the transducerand check to make sure it is tightly in place. I'm not positive of the location,but I will look it up in the Haynes manual and fire off a post as soon as I get a chance.

I'll get back to you,
Dan

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/0e/5e/c8/0900823d800e5ec8.jsp

It's a bit fuzzy but, the diagram shows ya how the dash comes off, scroll down a bit to get to the GA.

Outside of Hoag's idea about the transducer, oh btw is your panel analog or electronic?. the only other likely prob. is the speedo cable not tight at trans. or at dash, or the cable is just plain starting to go.

hi....thanx for the info....it is an analog panel.

thanks

AFAIK the speedometers don't use a cable (my 93 is fully electronic with analog gauge)...If you have cruise control see if you can use it when you gauge is acting up, if you can then the speedometer gauge or the wiring to it is messed up. If you can't then the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) or it's wiring is malfunctioning. Don't you just love these Computerized cars and all the headache when an electronic part fails and you can't figure out what broke.

thanks for the info...It hasn't acted up lately, but will check the cruise if it happens again.