95 Accord LX Problem

It has 155,000 miles. On the way home this afternoon from a nearby town,
the transmission indicator light started flashing. This is the light that
shows what gear you are in. I was in "4" and that was what was flashing.
At the same time the speedometer cable went wild, fluctuating from 0 to
about whatever speed I was driving. After a few miles the orange "check"
light came on; it doesn't say what to check. The car ran fine so I continued
home since I was nowhere near any houses/business & it's the hottest day of
the year.

I'm guessing the speedometer cable, obviously. But could it be anything
else?

Nancy

 

It's probably your Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS). Common problem, and one that
creates just the symptoms you experienced.

However...get the Check Engine light code read BEFORE spending any money!
AutoZone will do that for you for free. Report the code back here (it will
be something like P0500, P0501 or P1791).

 

Expanding on TeGGeR's post: there is no speedometer cable. The transmission
and speedometer both depend on the electronic VSS to decide (a) what gear is
appropriate and (b) how fast the speedometer should say you are going.

The "check engine" light only tells you to have the Diagnostic Trouble Code
read. It galls me that the car knows what is wrong but is not expected to
tell the operator what the problem is. Grr! We expect the engine light code
will point to a VSS sensor failure, at which time the obvious thing is to
have the sensor replaced. Replacing the sensor without having the code
confirm that's really the problem is not good practice.

Mike