NO Spedometer and transmission has trouble shifting

[ddog21]

My taurus has 157,000 miles and it's been rather trouble free but today the spedometer was acting erratic and it eventully just quit soon after the o/d off light came on and the so did the ses light and the car just has a terrible time shifting i was just wondering if anyone knows the cause of this it would be very good to have some information, Thanks

[Colt Hero]

Originally Posted by ddog21

My taurus has 157,000 miles and it's been rather trouble free but today the spedometer was acting erratic and it eventully just quit soon after the o/d off light came on and the so did the ses light and the car just has a terrible time shifting i was just wondering if anyone knows the cause of this it would be very good to have some information, Thanks

That's almost definitely the Vehicle Speed Sensor (~$40). Mine went out on my '97 after only around 40k miles and did the same thing. I thought it was a tranny problem at first. Speedo would drop to zero while on the highway, affecting cruise control, car would shift erractically. On my car it was located on top of the tranny case. I changed it from below - wasn't easy. It's only one bolt and one plug, but angle and position are everything in replacing it. Make sure you get the right replacement. My Taurus can have two different trannys (AX4S and AX4N) and the sensor is different in each case. Also, I had to pop the old plastic gear on the new sensor because mine did not come with one (~$10).

Your Check Engine Light should be ON with code ~P0500 (or close to this number) to indicate a faulty VSS.