This morning whilst driving my 1992 Ford Taurus to work, I heard a sudden whirring noise and my speedometer needle jumped all the way to the maximum regardless of my actual speed and continued to make an unpleasant whirring noise as if the needle were trying to go higher if it could. The only time it stopped and went back down is if I had come almost to a complete halt. Luckily my commute is rather short, but I think if I had had far to go eventually something would pop and the speedometer will be no more. Any thoughts? What kind of $$$ damage might I be looking at? Thanks in advance…
Before I take it to someone,
A 1992 likely has a speedometer cable. Probably more like $ to replace rather than $$$.
Yeah, and if it went to zero, then it would be the cable. However, it went to the max reading, so it is going to be the speedometer itself.
Check a Haynes repair manual, but I’m guessing that mkleich is correct about the car having a speedo cable. However, that would suggest to me that the instrument cluster itself was broken rather than the cable. The cable just spins, faster as the tranny shaft goes faster, and it’s the instrument itself that turns this into an MPH reading by virtue of a spring loaded plastic clutch assembly. My guess is that this assembly, internal to the speedo and not repairable, has failed. repair may mean replacement of the entire instrument cluster, not an inexpensive process. The cluster itself is expensive and the labor is odeous.
You may want to search the local boneyards for a replacement cluster. Most today are link via internet, so they can search out a replacement for you.
Thank you both for the info… I guess I’ll know for sure tomorrow at the mechanics’.
It does sound like the speedometer itself has failed. A cluster should be easy to find at a salvage yard, but they are not terribly difficult to replace.