E4OD limp mode and bad speedo readings.

[Danoflapper]

Hi all, I just had this incident last night on my way to a buddies house down a bumpy dirt road. The speedo wasn't reading normally, and it was flickering within ten mph of my actual speed. And it wouldn't read anything below ten mph. It did that for a while then went into limp mode on my way home.

Today i checked the connection for the sensor and it was clean and undamaged. I pulled the VSS out and cleaned a small amount of metallic paste off of it with no change in the speedo reading. I plan on picking a couple junkyard VSS' up tomorrow after work and giving them a shot. If that doesn't fix my issues, would the wiring harness be the only reasonable thing left to blame?

Sorry it's not much of a question, I am just hoping to get some advice from the resident experts Thanks a ton guys.

[justinray]

Happened to me about a month ago.. Instrument cluster failure.

[Danoflapper]

How did you diagnose that as the problem and not faulty wiring? Is there a way to test my cluster with a multimeter?

[justinray]

Biggg long test, its a digital IC, what does the mileage say?

[Danoflapper]

Wonderful Long and drawn out sounds wonderful haha I appreciate your help big time.


The ODO reads normal and the miles roll on as usual. No error messages to speak of.

[justinray]

Haha, sorry if im no help here, iI tried to get help and NOONE really knows whats going on with the instrument clusters.. I ended up not replacing it for a month, til the odometer stopped working, converted to metric, then just gave a brief, lovely ERROR message.
Error means burnt up IC, Error02 means uncalibrated.

[Kevin 007]

On my old 1990, the speedo cable was still a manual cable from the back of the t-case and I simply unplugged the cable from the actual speed sensor and let the cable hang. Of course my speedo didn't work but it got me around without limp mode for a while till i got a new speedo cable in. This was a worn cable issue that got to the point where it effected the trans; while I was away working during the winter to boot!!!

[justinray]

94 is a rearend mounted speed sensor though. /:

[Danoflapper]

Haha, sorry if im no help here, iI tried to get help and NOONE really knows whats going on with the instrument clusters.. I ended up not replacing it for a month, til the odometer stopped working, converted to metric, then just gave a brief, lovely ERROR message.
Error means burnt up IC, Error02 means uncalibrated.

Okay so it sounds like if there is not a wiring fault with my truck, the cluster may be in the early stages of a meltdown? Wow, that is quite the downward spiral :O It actually switched to kilometers?? How much will a new cluster run me? Or did you find a used one?

I take it that you ran your truck with the blinking OD light for a month with no issues?

The transmission doesn't seem like it is in limp mode to me? It shifts fine and has every gear and the torque converter locks up as it should? It doesn't drive any different, but that dang light is on and the speedo flickers a little.

I replaced the speed sensor with a brand new one and it seemed to help a little. It reads low speeds now and it doesn't flicker AS much. I checked all the fuses in the dash and everything was fine.

If i get a scanner will that lead me in the right direction? Or if it is indeed an instrument cluster failure, is there a code for that?

On my old 1990, the speedo cable was still a manual cable from the back of the t-case and I simply unplugged the cable from the actual speed sensor and let the cable hang. Of course my speedo didn't work but it got me around without limp mode for a while till i got a new speedo cable in. This was a worn cable issue that got to the point where it effected the trans; while I was away working during the winter to boot!!!

I wish i had it that easy, but I have the electronic sensor on the rear end. I unplugged it and the blinking OD light didn't go away.

[justinray]

I cant tell you if my OD light was on because it hasnt worked since I bought the truck, iirc the IC from ford is about 350 dollars, I got one from a pick-a-part in town for 30, they didnt warranty it, but thats such a small price to pay I wasn't worried. It worked, and still does. Did change my mileage though. I waited to change mine until it started dogging the transmission back and forth between gears, start playing with my drivetrain and I'm getting rid of you. Ha