Alright so I was home first week of this month and took a trip with my max to boston to see my cousins. It was about 250 mile trip each way. On the way to boston I was cruising along at around 80mph but about 130 miles in to the trip, I noticed that my mileage wasn't going up anymore. So I slowed down to a complete stop on the side of the road and my speedo was stuck on 80 but everything else was working like to tach, etc. I turned my car off and the speedo went to 0, and started it back up. I started going back to the speed of the traffic and the speedo was then stuck on 0 and mileage wasn't going up still. So now I was, great... this pieace of ****... now I have to spend more money... After about 50 miles of driving with 0mph on my dash, all the sudden my speedo needle does 0~80 in a second flat and starts working again. I was happy but afraid it'll happen again.

So what was the problem there?

 

Bad speedo head?
Loose connection?

 

I thought the loose connection myself when it stopped then working again, but since I've never taken apart the speedo on the max before I didn't want to. On the VW Golf winter beater I have, the whole cluster is connected to only 1 connector... but anyways, hopefully it doesn't happen again..

 

i had something like this happen recently, but i unfortunately dont know what the problem is. i havent touch the cluster yet either so... hopefully it ll just stay workin. if not, good reason to change the lighting in there

 

My speedo always gets stuck at ~40mph, and depending how fast I am going above 40, it will then jump up.. Very annoying!

 

It will eventually get worse and cel will come up ( speed sensor ) replace the whole cluster.

 

Listen to my story, as it pertains to most of you! Starting a few months back I began having the same problem - speedometer would stay at 0, not count any miles, then all of a sudden jump right up to the speed I was going. A short while after, I got the speed sensor CEL. Replaced the speed sensor and it did nothing. I followed the recommendation by fellow .ORG members and removed the cluster, tightened all the screws located on the back, and put everything back. Problem solved - for about a week. It started acting up again shortly after and has been ever since. The only obvious advantage is that it's not marking any miles when it doesn't work, but if I flick the needle, it jumps right up. Now I know most of you are probably thinking - why fix it if it's technically preserving the value of your car? Well, I talked to a tech about it and he says that if left unfixed - over a period of time - it can screw up the way your transmission shifts (automatics). I am in the process of looking for a new cluster, as I've been having some ocassional slipping Hope that helps, good luck guys!

 

Why would the guage cluster have anything to do with the transmission slipping?!?!?!?

 

I'm guessing because the speedometer is what tells the transmission when to shift, since it's all speed-related.

 

Good thing I have a 5spd.