Both wacky at the same time? Possibly a loose wiring plug at the back of the cluster?

 

no its not that. i wonder if it is getting moisture in something. cause at first it was just doing the speedometer thing but everytime the speedometer gets messed up the car idles funny and it has less power. then after a while the temp gauge kept going to over heating then drop down to normal than go back to over heating. this damn car. i swear...

 

Well, I guess it still could be a flaky connector on the back of the cluster. That's the obvious place where the speedometer & temperature-gauge circuits sorta come close together. Or it's just a coincidence.

 

yea. i think something is wrong. cause when the speedometer acts up everytime it does it the car doesnt run right either. its doggy and idles rough. and my temp gauge has only acted up once but it was only acting up when the speedometer was messed up as well.

 

is it pretty easy to get to the back of the cluster?

 

Many auto repair shop have a smoke machine, you can have them do a smoke test for you. Usually the leak can be found in less than 1/2 hour.

 

what is the mian cause of the evap leak? anyone know what the most common problem is?

 

From your IP address (only mods can see this), you live in Minneapolis. Due to the road salt, the two-way valve can get corroded. My friend had the exact same code on his 99, and replacement was pretty simple simple in theory. Location is on driver's side of the car near the back tire.

Search the forum for P1457, because this has been covered in other threads. The valve is held in by a phillps head screw which can be a pain to remove due to corrosion. I pulled out the evap canister to have better access to the bolts. Use vice grips on the head of the one bolt to remove.

A faulty VSS should set an engine code. Have you checked for codes since the speedometer started acting up? The VSS should have nothing to do with the temperature gauge. When two unrelated items are failing at the same time, I try to find a shared grounding point. Not sure where the ground would be for the instrument cluster.

 

With the thread going over to the speedometer, I kinda forgot about the EVAP leak.

For the checks in that thread I linked, you could check the different solenoid valves in the EVAP system. One in the engine compartment & the rest are located back at the EVAP canister. Each solenoid valve should click nicely when you apply battery voltage directly to it. When I had a bad vent-shut valve it was so corroded that it didn't even make a sound when I energized it dirctly with jumper wires from the battery.

 

the jumpy speedometer and the idle was caused by the vss. that is replaced and taken care of. now i am just trying to fix the evap leak. can most of the parts for the evap be bought at a parts store?