I know this may seem stupid but does the idle speed and the speedometer have anything in related? The reason I ask is because just earlier today my check engine came on as I was driving home. It was not until I was already home that I noticed the speedometer was not working at all, neither was the odometer but the temperature gauge and the rpm gauges were. I put breather filters on the airfilter and the actual engine itself not thinking it would do anything to my idle speed but as I started it up after I noticed a significant decrease in idle speed. So I was wondering would the breather filters creat this low idle and/or would the low idle make the speedometer not work???? I am going to get the trouble codes tomorrow so hopefully that will help. Thanks for anyhelp in advance.

 

I bet the CEL is for the VSS. Kinda obvious when the speedometer doesn't work...

That should be unrelated to the idle.I think on some Hondas (I don't know which), the idle is held up high when the VSS is showing speed over some value. But that shouldn't cause LOW idle when the VSS goes MIA.

Depending on how you hooked upthe breather filters, they may influence your idle. Is the PCV valve & hose still there?

 

I tried taking the breather hoses off and reconnecting it back like i had it beforeand the idle seemed to go up alittle? Anyway, as for the speedometer I just replaced the entire gauge cluster that I got from a junkyarda couple months back because of a defective odometer so I hope its not thegauges that are broken again? Anyone ever experience their speedometer randomly stop working before?

 

The codes will help. One easy test to figure out if the speedometer/odometer or the VSS is shot is to try to use the cruise control when the speedometer is out. If you have no cruise control, then the VSS is shot. Your D4 and CEL would also be flashing since the TCU and ECU would detect a VSS problem. The rpm signal comes from the ignition control module, so it should still work fine.

 

Is your 96 LX a 4cly or V6?

 

4 cylinder

 

No D4 lamp if he has a manual tranny. He didn't say...

 

sorry its an automatic

 

I just took it up to advanced auto and got the trouble codes. The scanner said speed sensor so im guessing im going to have to replace it since I have read alot of others have had to replace theirs.

 

Tranny errors would be indicated by either the D4 lamp or the 'Sport' lamp blinking (I don't know which from year-to-year).

If you have an automatic and there's no tranny errors, then your tranny controller must be happy with the VSS signal. In that case it seems like a wiring problem for the VSS signal not getting to the engine's ECU.