Intermittent speedometer/odometer

[Dave_G]

Recently the speedo/odo in my iX started failing intermittently. I discovered by accident that if I pushed the trip odometer reset button I could get it working again, so it seemed like the common stripped drive gear problem. I took it out, and indeed the drive gear was missing a few teeth. So I bought a set of replacement gears. put them in, and everything was fine...


...for a couple days.


Now the speedo is intermittently stopping again, and I can again get it work sometimes by pushing/wiggling the reset button. I pulled out the cluster again, checked the replacement gears, and they look fine (as well they should, having only about 50 miles on them). I don't see anything obviously broken in the speedometer unit.


Any ideas of what to check next?

[cheffy30]

change the speed sensor back in the diff...
likely cause...

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[glnr13]

Need to reflow the solder on the board.

[Dave_G]

I swapped the speedometer unit into a spare gauge cluster I happen to have, and the problem is still happening, so I believe the problem is in the speedometer unit itself. It's acting like an intermittent electrical connection somewhere in the unit, which sometimes is fixed by wiggling the odo reset button. (Which is also why I don't believe it's the sensor on the diff, coupled with the fact that I recently worked on the diff and the connection was good.)


Is there a connection somewhere in the speedo unit itself that I should check?


I do have the speedometer from my spare gauge cluster that I could swap in, but the odometer is way off, so I'd rather not unless I have to.

[Gregs///M]

VDO Speedometers commonly fail, the circuit board will need to be refurbished.

[Dave_G]

Need to reflow the solder on the board.

I just found the link describing this process. Looks like that will be my next step.

[rwtags]

Check connector at speed sensor at the rear, mine had same issue.b the strain relief section of the wire was brittle and wore down the cable to nothing, over bumps it would cut off the speedometer.

[Dave_G]

Update: it was the circuit board on the back of the speedometer. I removed the board from my spare speedo, soldered it onto the bad speedo, and presto, it's all working now. Hooray for parts cars.


Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, even the ones it turned out not to be. :)