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Odometer broke

Is the car an automatic? Does it shift normally/properly? Or does it drive kind of funny? If everything else is normal then yeah it's the cluster, otherwise it could be the VSS sensor on the transmission.
 
What about your Speedometer ? ? Is it indicating correct vehicle Speed ? ? If it does, then the problem is inside the Gauge Cluster itself, with the Odometer (the trip meter is part of the Odometer) .. If the Speedometer is not working, then check the Vehicle Speed Sensor .. you may also want to post or search here for help: http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/
 
It's a '99 Sentra. I say who cares?

It doesn't have a cable operated speedo so the guides posted above don't apply. My wild guess is the cluster is bad. If you have a code scanner see if you can read the vehicle speed through the ODB port. That will tell you if the VSS is working.
 
If the VSS is working the ECU should still be tracking miles. You can get a OBD based hud for speedo if your cluster is completely fucked.
 
You can buy a used cluster online or from a junk yard. Then (assuming it's a digital odometer) your going to need an odometer reset tool that you plug into either the cluster itself or the OBD port to change the odometer to what it's supposed to be...
 
Meh, on an older car it makes no (legal) difference if the odo matches. Not worth the money to get it reset IMHO.
 
NutBucket said:
Meh, on an older car it makes no (legal) difference if the odo matches. Not worth the money to get it reset IMHO.
Click to expand...

Lots of people buy older cars (students, temp car etc...). Accurate mileage makes a difference with titling. Personally I would not buy a car with a broken odo, no matter how good it looks. For all I know he could have 250K on that engine.

Also you can usually find a shop or someone on craigslist who can do a odo reset for you for a small fee....
 
The car he has, according to what I can find, has the old mechanical type odometer / speedo. I also found this link which is supposed to be for your year car (you can also call them if you need more help):

www.odometergears.com/documentation/Nissan_Odometer_Repair.pdf

It tells how to fix this unit. Seems a common problem is a broken gear inside the unit. I expect that the main part of that web site, sells the parts as well.
 
steppinthrax said:
Lots of people buy older cars (students, temp car etc...). Accurate mileage makes a difference with titling. Personally I would not buy a car with a broken odo, no matter how good it looks. For all I know he could have 250K on that engine.

Also you can usually find a shop or someone on craigslist who can do a odo reset for you for a small fee....
Click to expand...
If it's a 15 year old econobox it really doesn't make much difference. At at point, it's all about how it drives.

Again, that's my opinion vs. your opinion. Plus in CA there's no legal requirement for accurate mileage reporting for anything over 10 years old. I figure at this point the OP is driving it into the ground anyway.
 
NutBucket said:
I figure at this point the OP is driving it into the ground anyway.
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yes i am gonna drive it to the ground, it has 206000 miles.

but I also want the Trip Meter to work, that's how I tell how much gas I REALLY should have left.

i will tinker with it over the weekend, thanks
 
Try the ODB scanner first. If the VSS works I'd try a new cluster. I think you should get a check engine light if the VSS doesn't work but I'm not 100% sure.
 
andylawcc said:
Hi all, my odometer AND the trip meter stopped working today; would the following 2 'how to' guides (which is on a Benz) be applicable to my car, which is a 1999 Nissan Sentra?

http://dieselgiant.com/repairyourodometer.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_5174338_repair-odometer.html
Click to expand...

Probably not.

Those guides deal with VDO gauge clusters from the 1980s and early 1990s, which all had a very specific problem with one of the plastic gears degrading with time. It's is staggeringly unlikely that the repair guides for VDO gauge clusters would be at all helpful in repairing the gauge cluster in your Nissan (which appears to be manufactured by Kantus Corporation, a subsidiary of Calsonic Kansei).

That said, if the speedometer still works and only the odometer has stopped, it is quite possible that the underlying issue is the same (a stripped or slipped gear). It's just that those guides won't tell you how to open your cluster nor point you to the problematic gear or tell you where to get a new one).

ZV
 
lol, it started working again.

other info: it stopped working at 205999 as it is about to go over to 206000.
Then, after i ran over a speed bump at not-so-slow speed, the odo and trip meter started to work again. Not sure if direct correlation, and not that I ran the speed bump intentionally, it just so happen i was looking at the gauge right after and saw them working .
and yes, the speedo worked all along.
 
So that pins it down to either a bad electrical connection or bad mechanical part, somewhere inside the gauge cluster. Had problem like that on 1989 Grand Am and it turned out to be a cold solder joint at a power resistor in the speedo unit (local shop wanted over $150 for a rebuilt unit) All I had to do was unsolder it, clean the leads real good, then resolder them.
 
cool, i like to solder stuff 🙂

but taking the cluster out and putting it back like it used to, not so much. I am sure i will mess it up.
 
andylawcc said:
cool, i like to solder stuff 🙂

but taking the cluster out and putting it back like it used to, not so much. I am sure i will mess it up.
Click to expand...

It's already fucked up, if you've taken apart plastic stuff before and know how to be careful, you'll probably be fine. Hardest part is getting plastic trim pieces off so the screws are exposed, everything else is straight forward.
 
my old dodge neon had a similar issue. Micro-fractures in the solder will cause the thing to fail. I had to heat the pins (connector side) to melt and re-form the connectors, and in one or two cases add solder to fix the problem. In my case it was the connectors that connected the gauge to the car.
 
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