00 Town and Country- intermittent speedometer working/does not start immediately

[starkon]

I have a 2000 T&C. Lately, the speedometer has been working intermittenlty. During the same time, the van has becom eincreasingly hard to start.
When you turn the ignition, the van sputters, as if the battery is dying, waits one or two seconds, and then fires up.
If the speedometer is not working, turning the van off and then back on has been resolving the problem, and making the speedometer functional again.

Please help- I do not want to get taken advantage of at the repair shop.

[89ltd]

some speedometers use a speed sensor instead of a cable located in the tail stock of the transmission, don't know if yours is the same, I don't have a manual for that year. A faulty speed sensor usually effects the tranmission only, I don't think the starting problem would be related. I would wait for some other imput from others as well.

[vipergg]

Originally Posted by starkon

I have a 2000 T&C. Lately, the speedometer has been working intermittenlty. During the same time, the van has becom eincreasingly hard to start.
When you turn the ignition, the van sputters, as if the battery is dying, waits one or two seconds, and then fires up.
If the speedometer is not working, turning the van off and then back on has been resolving the problem, and making the speedometer functional again.

Please help- I do not want to get taken advantage of at the repair shop.

try thoroughly cleaning the battery cables with a toothbrush and a water ,baking soda mixture . Also get a terminal brush and rough up the battery terminals and then reconnect everything and make sure it is tight , these era vans were very susceptible to poor connections . You could also have a weak battery that would some of these problems , take it to a auto store and have it load tested.

[neon_rt]

If your battery connections are faulty or the battery is old, the controller (for the gauges) will not get enough voltage to initialize properly and the gauges will not work. Letting the engine run for a while and then restarting will sometimes get them working. You do not want to continue operating this way b/c you may damage the computer. Also, it will burn your starter out (had this problem before, got lecture from mechanic).