I have a 54 reg Ka (56,500 miles) which has been an amazing car for the last 3years until the last week. Since Monday I have been having to drive not knowing the speed I am going as the speedometer has completely stopped working (it is now stuck on zero). I took it into the garage I was told that it was probably the cable between the gear box and the speedo.

Anyway skip forward to yesterday when I took it for them to repair it- Here I was informed that this cable was not the issue and that it was infact something called the speedo drive gear within the gear box that was not working. They have informed me that this is an extremely rare and unusual issue and that the only thing they can do is completely replace the gearbox (they quoted a huge amount of money that nearly made me faint there and then) then the mechanic stated it would be a good idea to replace the slave cylinder and clutch at the same time (again eeek at the cost) in case these go in the next 12 months.

My questions are:

Has anyone ever had an issue like this and what cause of action did you take?

Are there any other options other than replacing the whole thing?

How much have people been quoted to replace the gearbox on its own/the gearbox, slave cylinder, clutch?

I really would appreciate some advice on this as soon as possible as really not enjoying driving without knowing the accurate speed of the car.

Thanks

i had the same happen on my old escort

you can replace it yourself

just goto fords & ask them for the speedo drive gear for the speedo cable that fits into the gearbox

it's a tricky job ( more fiddly than anything else m8 from memory)

took me 20 mins to do.

i recall it cost about £10.00 for the part

all you do isto undo the drive cable from gearbox then remove the drive gear

image here or similar looking part

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lrseries.com/resources/user/1cb0fd916f44d68f684380d37aed2f6395e29ef2/FRC3310-SPINDLE-GEAR-SPEEDO-DRIVE.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lrseries.com/shop/product/listing/6381/FRC3310-SPINDLE-GEAR-SPEEDO-DRIVE.html%3Fpage%3D2%26search%3Dspindle%26page%3D2&usg=__IB3pQ7QSCyD2CptNV4cXc4zGBoE=&h=425&w=786&sz=77&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=YnTjX35kVnOoPM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=192&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dspeedo%2Bdrive%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D839%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=112&vpy=505&dur=5192&hovh=165&hovw=305&tx=179&ty=92&ei=Jj2uTPCMHIzMswaZ6cmRDQ&oei=Jj2uTPCMHIzMswaZ6cmRDQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:0

i would be very suprised if a 54 plate Ka has a speedo cable? i would suspect that its a sensor. if its the sensor, expect to pay around £25 for the part plus 1/2 - 1 hour in labour to fit.

Thanks for the advice, thought I'd give everyone a uick update. I took it to another garage today and they say it is the sensor however the garage that I originally took it to appear to have done some damage and a bit of a bodge job to try and fix it. Basically the mechanic came out and told me that it looked as if they had taken a hacksaw/anglegrinder to it when trying to move the sensor, cutting a bit of the metal that holds it into place. They then obviously realised what they had done and tried to "repair" it by jamming it back in place and attempting to wedge it in place with a bog standard screw. Obviously I am more than fuming at this!!!!!!!!! This was not what I would have expected from a "reputable Ford garage".

The new mechanic is not sure whether they will be able to fix it properly so may still need to replace the whole gear box (sounds like they may give me a reasonable quote if they need to) still. So I am praying that this wont be needed.