Another Speedo Problem

[sonic789]

All,

sorry to bother you with this one but the speedo on my 2001 Rav 4 has now given up, although the vehicle seems to run fine otherwise. Originally the speedo would fluctuate violently (even at a steady speed) but now does not register at all. Looks like there have been a few with this trouble and I have checked the internals of the car (foot well etc) and everything looks dry and clean. I have also looked at the vehicle speed sensor, cleaned the terminal block and applied WD40, even taken out the sensor from the transmission case, all unfotunately to no avail. When looking inside the transmission (through the sensor hole) you can see a metal 'strip' fixed in the gear box, (but not sure if this is the sensor ring or something else?) (as another earlier post indicated that if this had come loose you needed a new gear box !). Thus would be grateful if anyone can advise if there is anyway to check whether the actual sensor is faulty please (before I g can buy a new one as they are £200 new) and whether you can check for the sensor ring or if this can only be done by a dealer etc. The speedo has therefore not worked for a couple of days, but a quick trip down the shops yesterday showed some signs of movement (violent fluctuations), but once I turned the car off the speedo failed again, thus seems more intermitent and indicates that there may still be hope, but lost for any other ideas or thoughts on where to look for the fault. thus can hope or input would be gratefully received please. cheers. Martin

[Joylove]

Is everything else on the cluster working perfectly?

[anchorman]

The sensor is the most likely culprit. It would be easier to check by substitution but if you can spin it in the vice with a drill or something you should be able to generate a small voltage on a multimeter.

Shcm might be able to give some typical values.

[bothwell_buyer]

If its the same as my series 1 gearbox, then the ring in the gearbox has come loose from the mountings within the gearbox. If thats the case and it reads as if it is, then its cheaper to get hold of a used gearbox, than strip down the existing. The last gearbox I picked up was £300.

I don't know why it is, but the ring inside the gearbox shears from its mountings and so the sensor just picks up whenever the ring moves. Check that the sensor is ok in that the electrical connections are sound. I've read of one or two others suffering the same, but it seems an odd uncommon fault.