Intermittent Odometer and Gear selection malfunctioning?

1998 TOYOTA CAMRY
189,749 MILES • 2.4L • V6 • AUTOMATIC
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IGE AKEEM
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  • 1 POST
The Odometer disappears after some minutes on the road and the car speed or gear selection becomes irregular. Like dropping from higher gear to lower gear and vice versa until the odometer comes back on which might take some time. This happens intermittently.
Dec 23, 2022 at 8:41 AM
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STRAILER
  • ✓ASE Certified Mechanic
  • 54,832 POSTS
  • ASE Certified Mechanic
This happens when the instrument cluster shorts out causing the PCM to change gears unexpectedly. to be sure we can do a CAN scan which should pull up a code. you can get a CAN scanner (Controller Area Network) from Amazon from about $32.00.

Here is a video to show you how:

https://youtu.be/u-4syLc-ifQ

and

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/can-scan-controller-area-network-easy

Amazon CAN scanner link:

https://amzn.to/3sX8MCX

Here is how to change the cluster out which you can get a rebuilt unit for by searching Google or eBay. Check out the images (below). Let us know what happens and please upload pictures or videos of the problem.
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Dec 24, 2022 at 10:32 AM
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