The speedometer on my 96 Maxima works intermittently. It works fine most of the time, but sometimes it just dies and comes back to life as if nothing happened.
I am assuming the vehicle speed sensor is bad. Is this correct?
This problem is not causing any other drivability problem. The car drives perfectly all right whether the speedometer is working or not.
I checked out the Chilton manual from the library, but it doesn’t show where the vehicle speed sensor is.
Can someone tell me where the vehicle speed sensor is?
Your assumption of a bad vehicle speed sensor (VSS) is wrong. If it were bad, it would affect engine performance, and turn the check engine light on. The VSS is on the transmission.
Does that mean something is wrong on the dashboard side?
Does that mean the vehicle speed sensor provide information to the computer as well as the dashboard?
I changed the VSS on my 1996 Maxima, too, and it didn’t help.
It was actually the speedometer that was bad.
If you’re mechanically inclined, this is actually not as bad as you’re thinking. I got a brand-new one, delivered, with the mileage pre-set, for around $225. Installed it myself in under 2 hours, and I’m pretty slow.
This problem, as I understand it, is pretty common with Nissans from this era.
On mine, the speedometer looked okay, but would occassionally trip the CEL. It turns out that the speed signal to the ECU comes off the speedometer. You’d think the signal from the VSS would feed both the speedo and the ECU, but you’d be wrong. The VSS feeds the speedo, and the speedo feeds the ECU.
When I changed mine, my fuel consumption fell by about 10%. Went from 20 mpg to 22 mpg. This makes sense, because now the ECU gets accurate speed information all the time, instead of sporadically.
Wow! That is one of the best answers today, and we have had some really great answers. Good job, Mike!