Okay so I have been tracing this problem and i am on my last nerve! I have been building this car for the past couple of months and I finally got everything together and thought I was ready to go get it inspected. Pulled out of the garage and realized I had no speedometer. Drove alittle further and realized the odometer won't turn either. I have done my research and I tested and replaced the vss I also heard there were many communication problems in the Instrument Cluster so I swapped it out. Still nothing. The car is a 1998 Cavalier z24 with a 5 speed. Any help would be appreciated.
sounds like a broken wire or bad connection between the VSS and cluster. could also be the BCM. In NY the speedometer is not needed to pass inspection, don't know about MD though.
He said the car is a 98, wasn't 98 the switch over point from mechanical odometers to the digital ones or was that 99.
odometer switched to digital in 99
Im trying to get it fixed also to keep the actual mileage on the title. It gets hard to sell when the title says not actual mileage.
i had to swap out my VSS a few months ago. it flat out blew up on me. when it went it threw a check engine light PO500- Vehicle Speed Sensor circuit malfunction or something like that. replaced the sensor with a new one and had sparradic operation. the spedo would jump all over the place and the odometer would read about 1/10th of what the car was actually doing (every 10 mles it would read 1 mile). it was like that for like a month until i pulled the sensor again and cleaned off the magnetic pickup. tossed it back in and it worked perfectly. if theres a lot of metal floating around in the trans the magnet will pick a lot of it up. i have since changed the gear oil as well.
that's just my experience with the VSS, it could also very well be a wiring issue, which would be much more complicated, but i'd start with the simpler stuff.
MY VSS dies when my tranny (differential) was going. Metal everywere, changet the sensor and it worked good, it did start cutting in and out and a month laterthe diff. went on me, new tranny and 6 yrs no probles. I used the same sensor too, just cleaned it off. if theres metal, theres a tranny issue prolly. change fluid if you can
Fireboy153
Brady Fire Co. - Station 150
Long Live The Sunflower! (yea its not so "cool")
Tyler Alkire wrote:odometer switched to digital in 99
Im trying to get it fixed also to keep the actual mileage on the title. It gets hard to sell when the title says not actual mileage.
Some 98s have a digital odometer as well.
I dont think J-bodies ever had mechanical (cable driven) speedo's (1st gens maybe but I doubt it)
It HAS to be a wiring issue.
or a broken VSS or drive.
Weebel, you mean mechanical odometers, i think 82 to like 96 97 somewhere in there had them and maybe the very first part of 98. Then i think they went digital after that, because i think the sunfire has the same kind of setup as far as the odometer goes. Though maybe even some of the early sunfires had mechanical odometers.
As far as the speedo itself, i think 95 and up were from a speed sensor not sure.
I've got a 98 sedan base model 5speed with a digital odometer that doesn't work. I've been thinking about purchasing a used cluster off eBay, but I'm not sure if that'll fix the problem.
Nam you could probably go that route, but i think you would have to have chevy flash it for you though. Since we're on that subject, would mechanical odometer clusters work on our cars meaning like could you take a mechanical odometer cluster and say put it in an 05 cavalier. Or because 03 to 05 were digital odometers only clusters with a digital odometer would work.
My 97 has a "mechanical" odometer.... but its still all electric...
The reason his odometer isnt working is because the speedo isnt... so you need to fix the speedo first.
thanks guys. i figure its a wiring issue. guess ill start hunting now that i got a new dvom!
my vss puts out signal, so sys the scanner, but no odo or spedo. im thinking the cluster on this one.
Fireboy153
Brady Fire Co. - Station 150
Long Live The Sunflower! (yea its not so "cool")
