Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Autowirral 2002 Ford Focus Intermittent Speedo loss

I have been suffering an intermittent loss of the speedo, and an associated loss of power. Originally I thought it was a faulty cluster as had been reported on a number of Ford forums. Had the cluster changed, hasnt made a difference.

Does anyone think it might be the gearbox speed sensor? My wife wants me to take it into Ford to be diagnosed but they want another £100 just to put in on the machine (Already spent £100 replacing the cluster).

What are the other likely causes? Have you had this problem and got it sorted? Are there any independent Ford specialist garages in the same way that Vauxhall owners have Vauxcare in Birkenhead?

Cheers guys

you might be best going on a ford focus forum for that one bud...

Thanks, I have done, and they told me to get the cluster replaced as it was a known issue. Did that and still got the fault. But thanks anyway.

hmmmm, odd one. Does the speedometer usually sit on 0 then every now and then start working and give you proper readings?

The other way around lol. It will work for a bit, then intermittently drop to 0 for a few minutes, then go back up. Sometimes the digital odometer readout will also crash showing just a series of lines ------ -----, and then will rectify itself again.

This was said to be common symptoms of a dying cluster, hence the original change.

If you are getting a loss of power as well, Id guess it would be more electrical / sensor related than a clutster issue.

Cluster gets its info from the ecu which gets its info from the sensors. If the sensors are working correctly, the car should run ok, but just the speedo clutser be effected.

If you are getting a loss of power also it could indicate that a sensor has an issue.

Unfortunatly, with most new cars you need to plug them in to find the problem. £100 diagnostics could be cheaper than chaning a few parts that turn out not to be he ones at fault...

Mine does this this aswell.

Will it bea problem ifidont get it sorted?

Im guessing it isnt doing the engine a whole lot of good. One problem I have noticed is that as you approach a mobile traffic camera its kinda hard to judge what speed you are doing if the speedo has gone off on one, resulting in 3 points!!

More than likley be the VSS, beware if you take the job on yourself as from whats been said it's a pain to get done, the sensor is arouund £130.

This could be a complete red-herring, but it could be your alternator starting to go (or at least the brushes), if the brushes are getting short then the alternator sticks loads of noise, drop-outs and spikes on the power rails which can upset anything electronic.

This was a very common problem with Volvos, you could replace half the car before finding out the real fault.

Only easy way to test is to try running the car on battery only by taking the belt off the alternator, if the belt drives the water-pump and/or steering pump then you can survive without them for a very short run.

ive seen this fault on a fiesta,

does it take a few secs for the gauges to work from switch on?

Happens on Fiesta's when a fuse is blown on, forget what one. Doesn't cause the clocks to fail tho.

Clocks can be working fine from start up, then maybe 8-10 minutes into the drive the speedo crashes. Its only the speedo that crashes, the rev counter still works fine no matter what.

'Intermittent Speedo loss', sounds like a problem that Michael Phelps would hate to get...

on fiestas is the radio fuse my mate suffers with it.

have read in car mechanics mag it can be down to the ECU common fault which ford know about.