odometer again ?

Post by **januwan** » 04 Jun 2013, 13:53

I was driving home yesterday and noticed my odometer and trip counter did not work. I replaced the small gear 7 years ago and thought this time the bigger gear needs to be changed.

I was going to order new gears today but while driving to my office odometer and trip counter started to work.

I will check it again today coming back home but it looks like it fix itself, at least temporarily.
What is it? It cannot be gear once it is broken will not work.
Any guidance greatly appreciated.

Post by **jblackburn** » 05 Jun 2013, 07:02

My Saab had a VDO cluster and worked intermittently. I believe a tooth on the gear was just broken off.

Did you push the reset button while driving?

Post by **erikv11** » 05 Jun 2013, 21:22

Meaning - don't push it while driving!

I hardly push it at all any more.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 06 Jun 2013, 07:34

On the '96 and on models the stepper motor is on a PC board that plugs into the back of the main board. Those post connections can get flaky and cause intermittent problems. Re-seating the motor will usually clear it up if that is the problem.

...Lee

Post by **rspi** » 06 Jun 2013, 11:47

Also make sure you jiggle the ignition key to see if that helps.

Post by **januwan** » 06 Jun 2013, 22:29

Lee your explanation make sense. Odometer and trip counter works fine again. Both were off for 60 miles or so, the rest was functioning perfectly. I replaced ignition switch few months back and no, I wasn't resetting trip counter while car was in motion.
I always check trip counter with fuel level and it did not match at that time, I looked at the odometer and numbers did not change, than I pressed counter and was driving with zeros for a while. The next day while driving I noticed few digits on the counter. Since that moment everything is good.

Post by **januwan** » 09 Jul 2017, 15:05

Well, it happened again. My odometer and trip counter are not working. I was able to "fix" the problem, driving fast over a speed bump but "the fix" did not last long. Today, I noticed they do not move again. Looks like the dash will be going out.
What else (except Lee's suggestion) can be a source of this problem.
Any guidance greatly appreciated.

Post by **whilst** » 09 Jul 2017, 16:42

I think might have pinpointed your problem: "speed bump".
Sounds like OzLees' suggestion of 'poor electrical contact', may be solution.
HTH

Post by **erikv11** » 09 Jul 2017, 18:19

Sounds like it is time to just drop in another cluster, and be done with it. There is no reason to be bothered continually by this, in almost all cases the 850 odo just works. (OK except for the gear failure every 10 years or so, unless you stop pushing the reset.)

cnv · Post by **cnv** » 10 Jul 2017, 07:55

Hi,

What you describe looks like a typical electrical contact issue.
It can not only caused by loose cable connections, but cold solder joints as well!
It's worth checking the driver circuit and the small pcb with the stepper motor for poor solder joints, or, just to be sure, resolder all of them with a good flux (cleaning/flowing agent). While you're at it, it's recommended to also replace any electrolytic capacitors you see around the driver. They are most probably dried at this age and have only a fraction of their nominal capacity.
Beware the correct polarity!

(I manufacture and sell lots of odometer gears, and sometimes the problem is not only mechanic but electronic as well... The above process usually helps my customers.)