96 Neon Speed Sensor

I,m battling the speed sensor in my Neon.The speedo was acting goofy for a long time before it quit working.Check engine light comes on the dash.I put my ODBII scanner on it,the code says speed sensor bad.I went down to O-Reilly auto and got a new one.Put it in and reset the trip code on the computer.I get in car and take for a short drive and every thing appears to work.The other day,I had to run to town and the speedo works for a short bit,then falls to 0,again it quits.I pop the hood and look around,can,t figure out what is wrong.This time I replace the short pigtail of wires that came with the sensor.I try the car again,the speedo needle bounces around,how ever now the car will buck or shudder briefly,then run ok,but speedo won,t work. Could it be the speed sensor was a bad replacement part or could it be a bad wire from the sensor to the wire harness.The wire length is short and hard to see what is going on while I,m on my back underneath the car.Anybody else have a similar situation with their Neon?????

I had a '96 Neon that did a similar thing. After much diagnosis and research I ended up pulling the cluster out and "dropping solder" on every place I could on the pc board. Somewhere on the pc board was a bad connection. After I did this I never had the issue again.
A co-worker also had a '96 Neon doing the same thing. I removed her cluster, during my lunch break, and "dropped solder" as I had done to mine. Her issue was resolved as well.

We have dealt with the failure of the soldered connections on the back of the cluster many times. Go to NEONS.ORG for more info on this.

But, I have never seen the failed connection set the CEL. Sounds like a problem on the sensor circuit, not in the dash.

When you guys say cluster,are you referring to the instrument dash cluster???? I will check out the Neons.org in the meantime....

Yes. The speedometer on my car was occasionally "goofy" as you described yours.

Fixed loads of these this way.
Tons cheaper than buying a new circuit board.
You probably also have crank sensor wiring melted together. Which is another common problem they all have.

I/my daughter too had the goofy gauge readings (all gauges zero) from time to time ('98). Re-soldering the main CB on the gauge cluster fixed it. Per advice on this board, I Googled "Neon Instrument Cluster" or something like that to find the step by step.

There is a guy on ebay that sells repaired boards for $59, and then you send him yours as a core. But you have to specify no tach, 7 or 8 K tach. On the speed sensor, most parts stores electrical parts don't work half of the time like the factory stuff.

Well folks,I got around to checking out the Neon.org site and looked at the cluster repair video. I pulled mine and did the solder in the 2 spots on the circuit board that had 10 spots each to solder.I did that,the 20 spots,put it all back together and still had the same problem.I then proceeded to pull the part of the wiring harness that had the pigtail to the speed sensor attached and cut and resoldered that connection.Worked a lil better briefly. I guess I,ll have to pull the "Cluster" out again and look at soldering some more places on it.I,ll need to get a pencil soldering gun as the big Weller gun and tip I had was somewhat hard to finess the small spots that needed soldering. As far as I can tell,I did not see any bad spots in the wire harness.....I,ll keep trying....

I'm having the same trouble, so please let us know what you find.

On the soldering... I bought a pencil tip soldering iron (not gun) for <$10 for this project... worked great with some 50/50 rosin core solder.

I am having the same problem on a '97. Believe it or not, I must have picked up a piece of road trash that physically ripped the pigtail for the speed sensor from the main harness. So I replaced the sensor (that was an experience in itself) first. I couldn't get to the wiring harness where the pigtail was so using the FSM I opened up the harness at the end of the valve cove and connected the speed sensor wiring there. Total failure. Car bucked and lurched. I unplugged the speed sensor and am now driving with the tach as a speedometer. I see no option other than getting the car on a lift, removing that entire rear wiring harness and opening it up to see what is going on.

Finally getting back to the speedometer speed sensor problem.I pulled the cluster and soldered the back again plus a few extra places.Speedometer still dead.I,m going to pull the sensor back out.I think it might be bad and try another one. I,ll post again with the results.....

Well "Kids"...I got her fixed. 1st attempt today I went down to NAPA and got a new speed sensor,my theory was the new one from O-Reilly Auto was defective......nope....the sensor from NAPA did not make the speedometer go...so..........I unhooked the battery cables and proceeded to remove the wire harness again..... looking closer and pulling off the electrical tape wrapped around the wires and.....There it was....the white wire with the orange tracer on it that comes out of the PCM Black Box that hangs on the back of the battery tray was looping underneath what looks like 5/8 diameter tube I,m guessing was the EGR tube was burned through.....just so happens to be the wire that goes to the speed sensor.....and a blue wire was just starting to go too.....tape and splice...solder the joint..wrap it all up..put it all back together and YES........the ol speedometer was smooth as silk as I watched it go up and down......So, I now I have a spare speed sensor,and a new pencil tip soldering iron......

My daughter's did the same, but a loose sensor connection cured it. I'm blessed I guess