Realist D.

It's been severely cold here in Toronto (-25C) and my speedometer has been malfunctioning because of the cold. During my 4 km drive to work after the car has been outside all night the speedo does not work at all, although the odo does work. After warming up in the underground all day the speedo works fine on the way home. I'm wondering why. And I'm a little worried that there may be a plastic part as a part of the speedo drive system that could simply snap in this cold weather (when it gets this cold plastic stuff simply snaps off in your hand). Anyone know how it works in an '88S4 AT?

Rez

Just a suggestion to start easy

Clean the speedometer/odometer drive electrical connector in the right forward corner of the spare tire well (pre-'90 models).

SteveCo

What are you doing driving your pride and joy in the winter? Just kidding! Since most northern dwellers store their 928s during the winter months, it is likely few people have experience with this type of problem. But that does not mean we will not try to help!

The speedo and odo are both electrically driven and are seperate systems (for the most part), so there's no fear of breaking anything as you might expect with a cable driven rig. As Rez indicates, you can check the electrical connectors in the extreme right-front corner of the spare tire well. Make sure all the connections are clean and securely connected.

I think your problem, however, may be with the electrical pickup mounted in the transmission/differential. The sending unit may get lazy when very cold and not read correctly (or at all). It is also possible that the same issue may be occuring in the speedo gauge itself, but I think this is less likely. My car does this for awhile after first out of storage for the summer season each year. It goes away with some mileage.

If the problem is the transmission/diff pickup, I guess it could be replaced, but I have not heard of anyone doing this. I'd check all the electrical connections first before considering anything else. It may simply be easier to live with this problem for the 2 months of the year it occurs. I'd like to know if the problem goes away when the transmission heats up to operating temp, even in the cold weather.

Regards,
SteveCo in St. John's

Realist D.

Thanks for the posts guys. I didn't realize the speedo was all electronic. I'm sure the problem is simply poor current caused by extreme cold. As I mentioned, the speedo does work after sitting in the underground, and I noticed it was "almost" working when I got to the office. Cleaning connections will most likely correct the problem. Thanks.

By the way, real men drive real cars all year long. I'm not stupid about it - I don't drive in deep snow, and I don't try to drive the car fast when it's really cold or foul outside. But there's absolutely nothing more destructive for a car than storage (IMHO).

John Veninger

And so far most 1990 models