zhastaph

I've got an STi5 RA and today the speedo has stopped working 3 times. Once it's stopped it stays stopped until your turn the ignition off and back on again at which point it springs back to life ...... for a while .......

I have a SECS monitor and this also shows 0 mph.

Yesterday I completely flattened my battery by leaving the ignition on for the entire day (don't ask) and had to jump it off another. I have just reset the ECU in case it's got corrupt, is this likely????

Any other suggestions? Where about will I find the sensor and is it easy to get at?


Cheers Guys

RichieD

Funny... must be the season for speedo working... speedo not working etc!

You will find that there is a heat shielded cable (containing 3 wires) that goes from the gearbox (drivers side) to the wiring loom just behind the intercooler (on the turbo side... next to the lambda connection to the loom).... as you have an STi you will probably have an electronic convertor somewhere in there too...

My speedo keeps jumping back into KPH... then MPH... and occasionally just dying.... turning off and restarting (some time later) resumes normal service... for a while... I suspect heat may be the problem.

Anyone else got any ideas?

zhastaph

bttt

megrac

have a go pulling the speedo out of the gauge cluster and resoldering all the solder joints on the back of it. it might just be a dry joint somewere.

SPEN555

I had this recently with my JDM. As said above it was the speedo convertor getting too hot and not working as it is close to the turbo.

I think they moved the convertor to behind the dash to avoid it happening again.

zhastaph

The converter, is that the little black box that is about half way along the cable before it gets to the gear box? This does run quite close to the down pipe.

zhastaph

For Richie or anyone else that's had this problem;

I managed to sort it today. I carved up the kph>mph converter (It woz in a black box all sealed in resin), sure enough there was a nice dry solder joint in there. I remade the joins, sealed it back up with holt melt glue and relocated it on top of the gear box. (it was dangling within an inch or 2 of the DP )

All now is well

BTW, cheers Dave for helping me get the plug off the box, reckon you saved me having to pull the IC off tonight

RichieD

Hmmm... after you 'carved up' the box... what was inside?!

zhastaph

Not a great deal I don't reckon

The unit was a little black plastic box filled with resin, so it made it quite inaccessible (sp?). I used a stanley knife to take the corners off the box so that I could pop the sides off. When I took the bottom of the box off the pcb woz pretty much exposed. It had about half dozen solder joins in it one of which woz quite obviously dry.

On mine the speedo loom had been cut near to both plugs and the converter soldered and black taped in in between them, I'd imagine most are gonna be the same. My advice, if you feel uneasy about 'attacking' the converter, is to remove it at this point on the loom and put a straight bit of cable in between, ie put it back as it would have been before the converter was fitted. Then run you car in KPH for a bit, this should then point conclusively at the converter (or not perhaps).

RichieD

This is becoming a bit of a saga!
I have already extended the cable to a more accessible place (so I don't have to keep whipping off the intercooler and breaking my back leaning into the bowels of the engine bay)... it seemed to sort the problem.. but I obviously spoke too soon!
I have already reverted back to KPH (before I read your reply) and have now confirmed the converter is the problem.

Took a stanley knife to the converter box (also before I read your reply!) and lopped the bottom off it... it all looked OK... apart from one solder joint which looked a little dull...
I'll let you know how it goes once its back in the motor!

Ta for your help....

zhastaph

You need a 'Dave' mate, he managed to unplug mine without the need for removing the IC

RichieD

Hmmm... your 'Dave' mate must have really long, double jointed, heatproof arms!