Got some weird stuff going on... My son's 99 Maxima had the service engine light come on recently. I pulled the codes and got a P0325 (knock sensor bank 1) and P0500 (vehicle speed sensor malfunction).

In addition to this he says the dash instruments have been weird lately as well. He says that randomly while driving the needles all go nuts at the same time. Speedometer goes to 0 while driving, tach goes to 0 and temperature goes up to max. This lasts for anywhere from a few minutes to 30 minutes while driving.

So not sure what's up here, any chance the codes are related to the dash weirdness? Or maybe just a loose wire on the instrument cluster?

Also any thoughts on the codes? The knock sensor has come up before, like over a year ago and was cleared and fine until now. Speed sensor is a first...

 

The speedo has a known issue. It is bolted on to the instument cluster. The little bolts or screws go through the printed circuit board. Vibration causes the solder joints on either side of the screws to break. This can cause the speedo to drop to zero, then return to normal after hitting a pot hole or tapping on the speedo cover kinda hard.

This in turn can set the codes. The repair involves removing the speedo and resoldering.

Instructons are in the stickies.

 

Do you know which sticky? I looked through them and don't see it and searching this forum for relevant things has only turned up one thread that links to a now non existent guide... I'm probably using the wrong keywords or something but I can't find it...

 

I would suggest a cluster from a junkyard or ebay. I am not sure if only the 99's have a digital odometer. That would be the only problem is you would want to find one close to your mileage but since it is digital most yards don;t have the battery still installed.
You can try to replace the speed sensor on the transmission first. Pretty simple remove and replace.

 

I doubt the speed sensor would do this though, because it's the speedo tach and temperature guage that are all going wonky.

 

I tend to agree but just suggesting easiest fix first. A cluster issue might be hard to diagnose - only happens when going over a bump... I do think with all 3 acting weird the most likely cause is the cluster.

 

http://www.nicoclub.com/service-manu...Maxima/1999/EL

Review the above link page 69 - is the meter section. It appears the digital cluster offers a self diagnosis test and has a lot of info.

My 95 cluster does not have digital so I never read the above.

 

If you are interested, I have an extra that I will sell you. Where are you located ?

Richard.Szczepanski@yahoo.com

 

I'm just going to pop it out, tighten down the screws, look for corrosion on the connections, etc and see if we can do anything. If not looks like the best bet is to buy a new one, $100 on eBay is a bit steep but what else can ya do...

But if I do that the odo will be wrong forever right? Is that legal? Probably make it difficult to ever sell...

 

There are a ton of posts about this on the forum. Search for P0500. First thing is to tighten the screws on the cluster, then you might consider replacing the speed sensor, since it's a relatively cheap part. But I ended up replacing my cluster 2 or 3 times. If I ever sell the car, I'd be careful to disclose that the mileage is wrong. But I've got salvage title anyway, so a few miles likely wouldn't make a difference And we'll probably drive this car into the ground...


The knock sensor code shows up a lot with other codes. Get rid of the other codes and then clear the knock sensor code, that will usually make it go away.

 

You only have to replace the speedometer, and use your current odometer. I can certainly save you some bux.

 

I don't know how you can reuse the digital odometer if you replace the cluster... Also it's not just the speedometer, the tach and temperature gauge also sporadically break.

I took it out and tried tightening down screws and resoldering connections and that had no effect. There's someone advertising a rebuild on ebay for $100 which I'm contemplating since that would keep the odometer right, would have to loan the boy my car for a bit while we send it off but it seems better than swapping it out and having the wrong reading. I'm just trying to figure out how reliable an ebay listing for a cluster rebuild is...

 

No disrespect, but you are driving a 18 to 22 year old car. Unless your mileage is under 100K, who really cares what the odometer reading is? I believe having a functional speedometer, tachometer, temperature and gas gauge are far more important. At this stage in it's life, you are not likely to sell it and most people just want to keep their Maxima's in good running shape until they get to the point that it's costing way more than it is worth.
Your car...your right to get the odometer perfect, but there is always risk and downtime with sending the cluster out.
Good luck with whatever corrective action you take.

 

So for anyone else facing this, the repair worked great. Was $99 including return shipping (had to pay to ship it there) and they shipped it back the day after they received it so a pretty quick repair. it was done by AutoXpressTech on ebay.

At the time I was unable to find a used one for sale on ebay at all (there had been one or two but they sold), couldn't find any in junkyards, and only found one rebuilt one for sale that cost slightly more than the rebuild. So there really weren't any good options other than fixing it but someone more determined could probably be patient and find a used one cheaper, I dunno.

Not sure what all they did but it's worked flawlessly so far.

 

This is what I needed to read. I am sending mine to them ASAP.