Speedometer Erratic

I have a Honda Civic EX 1993. The mechanic said that this is not due to a sensor and checked all the wires and said all of that is fine. And said only a new speedometer would fix it but I wonder if something else couldn’t fix it. Quite expensive to get a new speedometer, especially if it doesn’t help.

For about 2 years I have had a problem with the speedometer. It does not come on right away. In the summer it takes maybe 5-10 minutes to come on. In the winter it rarely comes on before I get where I am going (I live in a small town so about 20 minutes). Tapping on it does nothing. Once it comes on it works fine.

I rarely go on the highway unless going out of town. When I do go on the highway (high speeds) after anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on the weather, it first flips over to about about 100 mph, and then if I hit the front of the face of the speedometer it goes to the correct speed and works fine from there on. If I only stop for a short time, it comes back on fine. If I am stopped for a long time it goes through the same thing.

Sounds like something got loose inside or a the connections are corroding at the plug… You could unplug the unit and plug it back in a few times to see if this remedies the issue (cleans the plug connections a bit)…if not it may be an internal fault and not something you can tackle unless you are adventurous. Usually there are quite a few ribbon cables inside the cluster and you really cant fix those without a new cable. See if unplugging and plugging it back in does anything for you…aside from that its internal and you may need a new cluster. I think the speedo is a separate display no? If so…look into grabbing a new or used one?

Oh yeah…go under your hood and on your transmission is the speedo sending unit…there is also a plug going to it…unplug and replug a few x also… I doubt the sending unit is the issue…I think its more of a display unit issue.

Honda Civic
Model-Year ?

CSA

I have a Honda Civic EX 1993.

The mechanic said that this is not due to a sensor and checked all the wires and said all of that is fine–nothing loose or corroded. He said only a new speedometer would fix it, but I wonder if something else couldn’t fix it. Quite expensive to get a new speedometer, especially if it doesn’t help. (The mechanic is quite reliable–honest, good and we have used him for years, but had never seen something like this so had nothing to really go on and is assuming a new speedometer will fix it.)

I know nothing about cars, just trying to find a fix without spending a lot of money. I have already lived with this for 2 years. Could it last like this for quite sometime or or more likely stop working sometime soon? For city driving not so bad, but for highway I would rather not have to use the tachometer.

Had the same problem. I just used 55 mph as my reference and made marks on the tach for each gear at that speed. You could do them in different colors for different speeds in high gear. Red dot could be 65 mph in high gear for example. My biggest problem was around town with constant gear changing, school zones etc.

You need a new speedometer head. The speedometer takes signals from the vehicle speed sensor and the driver in the speedometer head drives the speedometer needle. Most people think the problem is with the vehicle speed sensor but the problem is with the speedometer head.

I know this because I just replaced the wifes speedometer head in her 97 Accord for the exact same problem.

Tester