ednja

I got this van earlier this year and noticed sometimes a clicking noise coming from the area of the speedometer (not sure if this has something to do with the problem, but might be). After driving the van a few thousand kilometers, the speedometer was saying I was going about 40km faster than I was. I stopped, shut off the engine/restarted a few times and the needle dropped down to zero. It seemed to be good after that. I generally go with the flow of the traffic and the reading looked normal, until a couple days ago. I was on a long trip and the speedometer needle maxed out past the last numbers (probably would be about 230km/h, even though going with the flow with other cars at about 100km/h. If I stopped, the needle would drop down to about 100km/h, then driving along the freeway again it would just stay maxed out. After I got back to city traffic and turned the engine off and on a number of times, then needle has slowly dropped down some but still has the problem. Right now it says about 80km/h when I'm going with the flow of cars in 50km/h speed zones. I noticed when I'm stopped and turn the engine off, the needle might or might not drop down a little, but even if it does drop a little, it just stays there even though the ignition is turned OFF. I don't know if the speedometer is powered up in any way when the ignition is OFF.

This van has 2 crankshaft position sensors and 1 camshaft sensor. I believe the 24x crankshaft sensor behind the crankshaft pulley/damper is the one that is used for determining the speedometer reading. One article that I read said that if the cruise control works, then the problem won't be with the crankshaft position sensor. The cruise control works perfectly. I'm wondering if I should go ahead anyways and check the signal from the crankshaft sensor.

I've also read that if the other gauges in the instrument panel are working normal, then it's not likely that there's a problem with the speedometer itself, and it's likely a problem with the crankshaft position sensor or the PCM.

I haven't yet gone underneath to check the condition of the connectors and wires. Of course I hope the problem isn't the PCM. At this time, I'm suspecting the problem is with the speedometer itself. I suspect that there is a signal from the crankshaft position sensor because the needle does move up and down with the vehicle speed (unless it's maxed out).

I'm hoping to get some feedback/opinions on what the problem might be and where to get started on it.

ednja

I haven't logged into here for a long time. I fixed this problem. The stepper motor for the speedometer was faulty. I soldered in one from my spare parts collection. Some people buy all the stepper motors with the latest updated version and replace them all while the dash is open, but I just used spare parts. It wasn't difficult to get the instrument panel out and back in.