Speedo failure

[mjt]

Hi all,

I've been having problems with the speedo ever since I bought the car. Whilst driving, or sometimes immediately on starting off, the speedo goes to zero and the mileometer (odometer) stops recording. Once the car has been switched off for a while it will then work again. It never recovers whilst driving. The speed sensor and the instrument panel have both been changed under the warranty but the problem is still happening and the warranty has now expired.

The nature of the fault suggests that it's still the VSS that causing it. I've seen it said in other threads that a faulty VSS can affect the running as the speed data is used by the engine ECU but the car runs perfectly normally whilst the fault is happening. Could this only apply to petrol models? All the other instruments work fine. What are the chances of the replacement sensor being "iffy". The fault is very random, the car might go for a couple of months before it shows up then it may happen twice in a week.

[brunomedina]

Velocity Sensos could be dameged but your related i suggest you check de painel and change it

One of this possibilits ou both

[vamp2k05]

that happened in my mages renault it was his speado cable bodge job garage he got it from had shorted the cable and it kept cutting out cos about £10 to fix

[SierraYankee99]

that happened in my mages renault it was his speado cable bodge job garage he got it from had shorted the cable and it kept cutting out cos about £10 to fix

Focus's dont have speedo cables. Its the Vehicle Speed Sensor thats dying. Costs about £90 to replace from MOST dealers. Prepare though, some say they have had to take the gearbox out to change it and charge nearly £450. Shop around and get a fixed price but GET IT FIXED. Worst case scenario your engine will stop running. My ex wifes did and she was doing 50 on the M25!!!!!! The car nose dived and 44 tonne of artic made sure it didnt need replacing, it wrote the car off big time!!!

[mjt]

I assumed that vamp2k05 was referring to the electrical cable to the VSS.

The other day I covered about 45 miles without a speedo and there was nothing unusual in the way the car ran. I wonder therefore if it's less critical in the diesel set-up.

I would imagine there should not be any great problems in getting the VSS replaced as it's already been done within the last six months. To me it seems unlikely, though not impossible, that the new VSS is also faulty although the nature of the fault certainly seems to point that way.