94 Accord EX speedometer problem...HELP!

[mistertwister420]

Hey all.....I just bought a 94 Accord EX and I'm working the bugs out of it. One problem that's kicking my butt is the speedometer. When I turn the key to the "ON" position, the needle jumps to 20 mph (without the car running). Once I get going, the needle moves fine.....it's just 20 mph over what I'm actually doing. I thought it was the gauge cluster, so I changed it and the new one does the same thing! I'm thinking it might be the VSS (vehicle speed sensor)....because the needle never moved off 20 mph when I first purchased the car until I disconnected the VSS and reconnected it. Now it moves up as I accelerate....but like I said, 20 mph over. I also tried to disconnect the VSS and turn the key to the "ON" position, it still jumped to 20 mph. You'll be a God to me if you can help. Thanks!

[mwkirchner]

Originally Posted by mistertwister420

Hey all.....I just bought a 94 Accord EX and I'm working the bugs out of it. One problem that's kicking my butt is the speedometer. When I turn the key to the "ON" position, the needle jumps to 20 mph (without the car running). Once I get going, the needle moves fine.....it's just 20 mph over what I'm actually doing. I thought it was the gauge cluster, so I changed it and the new one does the same thing! I'm thinking it might be the VSS (vehicle speed sensor)....because the needle never moved off 20 mph when I first purchased the car until I disconnected the VSS and reconnected it. Now it moves up as I accelerate....but like I said, 20 mph over. I also tried to disconnect the VSS and turn the key to the "ON" position, it still jumped to 20 mph. You'll be a God to me if you can help. Thanks!

Quick check to see which it is.

Go down the highway and get up to speed. Set your cruise. If it holds a steady speed ... the VSS is doing its job. The speedometer head is bad.

If it does NOT hold a steady speed ... then the VSS is bad.

I know you mentioned that you put a "new" speedometer head in ... was it actually new? ... or was it just "new" to your vehicle (meaning from a junk yard or such).

This is really a cut and dry way to distinguish between the two.

[mistertwister420]

I put in a gauge cluster with 30,000 miles on it to try to fix the problem. I would say that is pretty new. Thanks for the reply...I'll try the cruise control solution. Are there any other things I could look at to try to fix the problem? It's just hard to believe that both my gauge clusters have bad speedometer heads. Anyways...thanks again!

[mistertwister420]

I did the cruise control test and my car worked fine....so I'll go with your advise and assume it's the speedometer head. I also noticed that the new cluster I put in doesn't have a cruise control light on it...so I'm going to tinker with my original cluster and see if I can't get it to work so I can have my light back..lol. Originally I thought all the gauges were broke (reading lower than what they sould) so that's why I replaced it in the first place. However, I replaced a thermostat, unstuck a fuel gauge float, and basically drove the hell out of it...now everything works fine, except the speedometer. Quick question.....if I remove the speedometer needle and place it 20 mph less than what it sits at when I turn the key on.....should that work?

[mistertwister420]

Fixed the problem!! Turned key on....waited for it to jump to 20 mph. Then I pulled the needle off and positioned it to 0 mph. Now it works fine... Thanks all!!