After coming to an abrupt stop in heavy rain going about 40mph, my speedometer stopped working and the transmission is shifting roughfly.

What could be the cause??? I have a 99 Forester with 130,000 miles. The ABS does not work, when I came to the abrupt stop the wheels did lock.

what year?

 

nipper

1999

hrmm any CEL or ABS lights on the dash. Any flashing lights on startup? Did you hit anything or run over anything?

No, but previous to the abupt stop I was on the freeway for 40 minutes driving through slush and heavy rain. Speed never topped 50mph.

how long you own the car?

 

The dead spedo tells me that you have lost both VSS sesnors, which are in the transmission, That will make for no AWD and wierd shifting.

 

 

nipper

try disconnecting the speedo cable on the top pass side of the front diff and spinning it with a drill to see if the speedo reacts.

 

there's a black cable with a black boot on a large metal fitting sticking up from the trans to the front of the diff oil dipstick (front passenger side right behind bellhousing). slide the boot up, remove the clip (find the side that's split and pull it horizontally from the other side. don't loose or mangle it), then slide the cable up out of the metal fitting. without pulling on the cable, put a drill on the square shank (don't tighten the chuck enough to damage it, just enough that it doesn't slip) and see if the speedo needle moves while spinning the cable - you'll need a helper.

 

if it does, the problem is likely in the front diff section of the trans. if it doesn't the problem is either the cable or the speedo head. you can pull the cable out of the sleeve to check for breakage.

 

and like nipper said, the odd shifting is because of the speed sensor (number 2, no speedo wouldn't necessarily mean vss1 isn't working) - without it's input the tcm gets wacky.

99 doesnt have a cable (at least thats what my books tell me)

 

Merry Christmas

 

nipper

I agree with Nipper, this car should have the

electronic Hall effect speed sensor.

 

I do doubt that both VSS#2 and VSS#1

are both bad though.

 

VSS#2

This sensor location is on the forward pass side of the diff

and is shown in the beow picture as

"mine is located here".

 

Note: VSS#2 (the one that drives the speedometer)

has been removed in this picture.

Here is what it looks like removed

 

The other location (finger point) is for the manual transmission.

 

I removed the drive, fit it into a corless drill

and turned the VSS.

The speedometer in my case worked.

My gear in the diff is stripped, hope this is not your problem.

 

Hope this helps and

Happy "Holly Daze"

actually guys that has happened to me with one my legacies.. its a bad front VSS... it will make the trans shift erratically and speedo not work... change that sensor and you'll be ok... take a look at the picture that skip has posted and change that sensor, the VSS2...

 

good luck

 

Neo

if it had a cable it probably wouldn't have broken:lol:

Thank you all for the info. The next morning the speedometer and transmission were working properly. Could it have been a moisture problem???

Thank you all for the info. The next morning the speedometer and transmission were working properly. Could it have been a moisture problem???

 

 

Yes. Get under the car and check the connections to make sure.

 

 

nipper