Ack! Speedometer not working!

[paintnolish]

I have a 2005 Civic, in great shape, but last night, the speedometer stopped working. Anyone have any experience with this? TIA! Oh, and tell me it's not expensive!

 

[apirateslifeforme]

My 2002 Hyundai Sonata did this a year or two ago. I'd be driving down the road, and suddenly the needle would drop to 0. I always joked about getting pulled over, having the cop ask "Do you know how fast you were going?" and being able to say, "Honestly, Officer, no, I don't" If you know your car well, though, I'd say you probably can judge how fast you're going. And it's easier if there are other cars out there as well!

Cost me about $300 to have it fixed.

 

[Serena]

Just go slower than everyone else and you'll be going the speed limit. Now, if no one else is around, you'll just have to guess.

 

[sbell111]

Fixing speedometers can get spendy. Of course, you can plop a GPS on your dash for just about $100. Then you will know how fast your going.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Ours stopped working in a 2003 SUV. It ended up being a computer problem and cost around $700 to fix.

 

[Hercules10]

Actually it maybe just a worm screw that got outa whack. It can get expensive if you just take the car to a shop since getting the gauge out is labor intensive.

However if you can take the gauge out of the dash panel yourself and locate a speedometer shop they can usually fix it for under $100.

In my old Pontiac it was easy-cheesy to remove the gauge. But on my older Honda it was a royal PIA.

Good Luck!

 

[Dis_Dreamin]

It could just be a speed sensor that went bad too. Maybe you can go to a shop like an Autozone or Pep Boys to see if they can pull a code for you. Sensors aren't usually too expensive to replace, unless you can't get to it yourself and need to pay for labor to get down to it.

Good luck.

 

[cosine4]

Make sure that you check all of your fuses before sending it into the shop. It may just be a blown fuse.

 

[LindaG4458]

I had one go in a new (at the time) 1983 Toyota Corolla. It wasn't just the speedometer; it included the gas gauge and the odometer. Luckily it was still under warranty and the whole thing was replaced at no charge. The side effect was that the odometer began at -0- again. I had to disclose it at the trade-in for my first Camry.

 

[Squirlz]

Is it out of warranty?

 

[manning]

Fixing speedometers can get spendy. Of course, you can plop a GPS on your dash for just about $100. Then you will know how fast your going.

I did this and it worked great. I rented a car that had a speedometer that wasn't well marked. It was weird. The GPS came to the rescue.

Also my GPS was accurate. My car registers 2 MPH fast. When I compared te two, the GPS was right on the money. When the speedometer register read 30 the gps read 28. Did this at all speeds.

 

[paintnolish]

$700!?! No!!! See this ticker down there? We can't have car troubles. Priorities!
I did not even think of the GPS. We have one in dh's car, since that is the car we take on longer drives.
I drove it today and it was twitching and then started up again...we'll see what happens!

 

[Melmac]

This just happened to me a couple of weeks ago on a 2003 Jetta. The speedometer and cruise control stopped working (and the engine light came on). Turns out they had to replace the speed sensor. The car is still under extended warranty so I didn't pay for the fix but I think it would have been about $200-300. Good luck!

My 2002 Hyundai Sonata did this a year or two ago. I'd be driving down the road, and suddenly the needle would drop to 0. I always joked about getting pulled over, having the cop ask "Do you know how fast you were going?" and being able to say, "Honestly, Officer, no, I don't" If you know your car well, though, I'd say you probably can judge how fast you're going. And it's easier if there are other cars out there as well!

Cost me about $300 to have it fixed.

Funny enough - this did happen although the cop didn't ask us how fast we were going. DH and I were driving to a mall and he said "Look, your speedometer just dropped to zero and the engine light came on". Not 2 minutes later, flashing lights and a siren. The cop didn't ask how fast we thought we were going and I am really sure that the excuse "My speedometer just died!" probably wouldn't have worked - how many times do you think a cop has heard that one! I don't think the cop had a radar gun and just noticed we were going faster than normal. He let us off

 

[Imzadi]

Yes, it happened to me. I had a digital speedometer that would cut in and out. It was out more than in. I Googled for an auto salvage yard. Most of them now have all their used parts catalogued on a computer. I found a used Speedometer for my car for about $75. New would have been $300 + $35/hr installation. Instead, I unscrewed the dashboard, took out the old speedometer, plugged it in, screwed it down and reassembled the dashboard. Took about 45 minutes.