Gauge cluster (speedometer and tachometer) freezes up

Tiny
FEDUPWITHTHIS
  • MEMBER
  • 2004 NISSAN XTERRA
  • 83,000 MILES
Nissan Xterra- and car won't accelerate past the speed it gets stuck at. What could this be? Every few weeks I'll be driving along and without warning, randomly the car will get stuck meaning the speedometer and tachometer freeze up and the car will not move faster then the speed I got "stuck" at. Like if I'm going 40mph and it decides to freeze up the gauges freeze up and I give the car gas and it does a humming sound and won't move faster then the 40mph. Then if I take my foot off the gas the speedometer and tachometer will go down normally, but as soon as I put my foot on the gas again it will speed up, but won't go past that original 40mph it was stuck at.

the only way to unstick it is to pound on the dash and then the car will move normally, but recently it's not even responding to that, it now won't move faster unless I put it in neutral, rev it a little and put it back in drive, it will run fine for another week and then the nonsense of the speedometer and tachometer and speed freezing will happen all over again. What could it be?

We replaced distributor, speed sensor (3 times with OEM parts), changed the fuel filter, mass airflow sensor, put in a new battery. Nissan said there could be a short in the gauge cluster? Does that sound plausible? They wanted to charge over $1000 for that
Tuesday, October 9th, 2012 AT 10:08 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
KHLOW2008
  • MECHANIC
  • 41,814 POSTS
Were there any trouble codes?
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Tuesday, October 9th, 2012 AT 10:24 PM
Tiny
FEDUPWITHTHIS
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
No codes have come up and this has been going on for about 7 months now. In the beginning when this problem first started (about 7 months ago) the speed sensor code came up so we replaced it, but after replacing it the code never appeared again. The OD light flashed about 2 months ago on an occasion when the gauges started freezing up, but it went off after I turned the car back on and I took the car in to Nissan dealer and they found nothing.
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Wednesday, October 10th, 2012 AT 2:19 AM
Tiny
KHLOW2008
  • MECHANIC
  • 41,814 POSTS
Under such circumstances, it is possible something related to the meter cluster is not right and it could be a loose harness connector, a bad contact or ground circuit.

It could also be the connections at the PCM. Check the PCM and ensure it is dry and not contaminated as presence of water can cause intermittent problems that may result result in failure of the component later.
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Wednesday, October 10th, 2012 AT 2:33 AM

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