Speedometer issue and transmission shifting funny?

EAKEN95

MEMBER
1997 FORD TAURUS
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
97,000 MILES

On my Taurus, at times, usually after about 20 minutes of driving, the speedometer seems to shut off and drops to zero even while traveling a speed, and the transmission then fails to shift properly. If while it is in this condition, I press the CRUISE button on the steering wheel, even with the Cruise Control off, the problem fixes itself for a while, eventually it happens again, and the same process seems to snap it out. Any ideas as to why this is and what I should check to repair this issue?

I called a buddy at the local Ford Dealer who thinks it might be a speed sensor, but I question that only because by pressing the Cruise button leads me to think it might be related to the Cruise Control Servo or Module. What do you think?

Steve

2 Replies

BMRFIXIT

MECHANIC
19,053 POSTS

I would replace the vehicle speed sensor as a 1st step, here is the location in the diagrams below. They call it a turbine shaft speed sensor.

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Thursday, November 12th, 2009 AT 6:16 AM

BGBEVAN

MEMBER
14 POSTS

1997 Taurus, 200K mi. I had the classic problem indicating a speed sensor failure. Speedo didn't work and transmission shifted hard or stuck in low gear when heated up. There are two sensors on the transmission, the Vehicle Speed Sensor(VSS) located on the output shaft of the transaxle on the passenger side, and the Turbine Shaft Sensor(TSS) located under the exhaust manifold on the input shaft, accessible from the driver's side. I thought the VSS was bad but couldn't find it and ended up changing the TSS. This fixed my problem so my question is, which one of these sensors drives the speedometer? Both, VSS, or TSS? Most posts on this issue say to change the VSS when this problem occurs and make a vague reference to the TSS.