98 Pathfinder Speedometer Malfunction

[goinkster]

Hello, I have a 98 Pathfinder, 4X4, Automatic. I am having a problem with the speedometer. While traveling at any speed the speedometer needle will bounce about +-5mph above whatever speed is registering, then momentarily drop to 0 mph then back to whatever speed I am driving. It is progressivly getting worse. All of the other instruments on the cluster are working correctly. I have read other posts about the Vehicle Speed Sensor and am curious if anyone else has a similar year PF with the same problem. I have read that there is a VSS on the Transfer case as well as one on the speedo itself. If you have had this problem what did you do to fix it? I am leaning toward the VSS on the transfer case, but don't want to throw the money at it if enough other people have confirmed the speedometer VSS has been the problem for them. Any advise on this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[elwesso]

it could be the VSS... However what I woudl do is try to do is find both an instrument cluster and a VSS used. The VSS is $117 from our sponsors, but i dont think its hard to replace (may be able to do it yourself)..

You could easily tell whats going on by hooking a volt meter up to the VSS.. The voltage will go up and down as speed goes up and down.. You could get even a simple ($2) analog VOM and watch the voltage as you go down the street.. If the voltage goes crazy on the VOM, then you know thats what your problem is (VSS). If the signal is fine, then you know you have a problem with the instrument cluster.

WELCOME to NICO!!

[goinkster]

Hi, just wanted to update this one and put it to bed. I changed the VSS this morning and the speedometer is working correctly now. I ordered the Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) Part #25010-0W100 $117 online, and the Pinion gear which does not come included with the VSS part #32743-74P19 $14 online. It was not that difficult to change out. It is located on the Transfer Case, passenger side near the back. It is a little bit hidden behind a heat shield. I followed advice to soak the VSS and its bolt with penetrating fluid. The bolt and the VSS came out very easily. There are several heat shields, which need to be removed in order to disconnect the wiring connector for the VSS. I found getting the connector disconnected to be the hardest part of the job. The rest of the job is self-explanatory once you are under there looking at it. The reason I am going into this amount of detail hear is that the Factory Service Manual for this states that the transmission cross member needs to be unbolted and a jack used to lower the transmission and transfer case in order to change the vss. This almost scared me enough to take it to the dealer. I decided to give it a try myself first. You can do the job without lowering the transmission. Anyway, I didn't get too many replies to my post, so I have to assume not too many people have experienced this with their 96-99.5 PF. If in the future someone has the speedometer issue I had, go ahead and change it out yourself, it wasn't that bad.