# Speedometer Dead, Odometer works...



## chadzeilenga (Apr 15, 2009)

I've got a 1999 Sentra GXE with two problems on the interior.

1. All of the dash lights don't work, and I've read this is probably the dimmer. Will check out today.

2. My speedometer needle seems to sit flat ~0-5mph no matter what speed I'm going. The Odometer is recording mileage correctly. I tried banging on the top, sides & face of cluster and didn't seem to get a reaction. I unplugged my VSS and put some dielectric grease in there. No change. When I am driving, the speedometer does seem to creep up slightly, but never above 5mph.


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

odometer works so VSS is ok
This sounds like the speedo head so either a used cluster or put it in for repair.


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## chadzeilenga (Apr 15, 2009)

*Some movement in speedometer*

I drove the car today and when I was going ~55mph the speedometer read about 20mph.


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

chadzeilenga said:


> I drove the car today and when I was going ~55mph the speedometer read about 20mph.


I've got a '97 Sentra GXE. When I first got it, the speedo was way off, really low like yours. My problem actually turned out to be the way the needle mounted to the shaft itself. I popped the needle off the shaft, squeezed the shaft just a little bit with a needle nose pliers and put the needle back on. Works great now. The shaft would spin without taking the needle with it up to a point, then the shaft would 'grab' the needle. So, 0-40 read 0, 50 read 10, 60 read 20, and so on, then around about 80, the needle would fall over to the other side because of the slop on the shaft.
Past that...the whole thing is probably demagnetized (look it up on wiki for how a speedometer works, magnetic drag, brass discs, etc.) and is done for...


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## chadzeilenga (Apr 15, 2009)

*That makes sense*

That makes sense about the needle slipping. I'd replace the cluster and keep driving it, but I'm planning on selling the car and don't want people to get worried about me swapping clusters. Maybe I'll tell them about it if interested and offer to do the change for them?


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

just find one with the same mileage or a little more, then you dont have to get a correction sticker from the dealer. Also the car fax wont show an error.
I found mine on car-parts.com


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## chadzeilenga (Apr 15, 2009)

Sounds good. Is there anything else that this could be or is it probably the cluster? My cluster & dash lights are out which I think is a bad dimmer switch. Didn't know if the two could be related.


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

if you move the dimmer back and forth it will often come on for a bit, the dimmer switch failure is very common.
I don't see how the speedo could be anything else, if the odo works then the signal is getting to the cluster, you could check the wiring diagram to make sure ...deleted.....


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

I looked and its the speedo, the VSS goes straight to the cluster and the FSM states the speedo coverts the signal to mph.
So its the loose needle or a bad speedo head.


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