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speedometer not working & I think temp gauge


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I have a piece of garbage 2000 ranger 6 cylinder 4 liter which is ruined by rust. It would be a great truck if it weren't for the rust but I can barely work on anything without rusted bolts rounding off and needing to be grinded into a square to get a wrench on it. The frame is cracked from rust so I gave up on maintenance basically. I am getting rid of it soon. I has a failed inspection sticker because I think the whole exhaust pipe disconnected from the engine but simply 2 bolts to tighten to fix it would be a nightmare and can't reach the spot easily to grind bolts into square and use blowtorch to loosen. It has an EVAP leak even if I do get the exhaust connected again which they guy said the whole gas tank might need to be dropped to fix the evap problem (again, rusted bolts nightmare). Only about 75K miles and no major problems besides the rust and runs lean especially in winter. Sin the cheap grade metal they used on this truck. Previous owner had it sitting in a lot unused basically and lots of road salt rusted it. Next truck I am washing salt away and using all types of products. I sprayed $400 worth of rust reformer on this it did nothing but continue to have 1/8" rust flake chip off. It's basically a death trap being sold for parts.



ANYWAY.... My speedometer and odometer stopped working a month ago but I've been driving long enough that I can tell around how fast I'm going. I put off fixing it but did plan on replacing the $15 part before getting whatever I could for this truck sale.

I looked into fixing the Speed Sensor but seems a bit trickier than it might be and put it off again for a few weeks.


NOW I have a leak of antifreeze/coolant. BUT the dash gauge for temperature has always stayed at neutral/OK.

I noticed the radio area was blazing hot a few times and then checked and yes the coolant/antifreeze reservoir is empty. I filled it up a couple weeks ago and radio is hot and reservoir is empty again. No puddle on driveway so I guess it leaks only when driven.


SO, is it safe to say that there's something wrong in the dash wiring hence the speedometer and probably temp gauge are not working? The fuel gauge at least works.

In other words, should I not even bother trying to replace the $15 speed sensor because it's probably an even bigger problem in the dash?

as for the radiator leak, I'll run engine and see drips hopefully an easy fix but hopefully not a line with a metal threaded connector which would most likely be rusted nightmare.
 


ericbphoto

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Interesting. It is a shame that someone allowed rust to take over like that. It is easy to do, though, when you live in snowy places or near the ocean. I would pull the speed sensor and inspect the gear on it before buying the sensor. Regarding the other issues...

I noticed the radio area was blazing hot a few times and then checked and yes the coolant/antifreeze reservoir is empty. I filled it up a couple weeks ago and radio is hot and reservoir is empty again.
I am really puzzled about why you lump these two issues together as if they are related. Surely you don't think coolant is leaking into your radio. That would take an extremely major malfunction.

The heat around the radio area should be addressed. I would pull the radio and examine the wiring in that area, looking for signs of overheated wires - melted insulation, charred connections, etc. Or maybe there's a problem with the air duct for heat&A/C.

The coolant loss will be different. Does your oil look ok? If it looks milky like cappuccino, then coolant is leaking into the oil - that's bad. if you see oil in your coolant overflow reservoir, that's bad, too. There are many threads around here for troubleshooting coolant loss. Do a search for "glove test". It could also be a small leak around the water pump or thermostat that only really leaks under pressure when you're driving and not much after you park. That takes a good inspection of the engine with a flashlight.

Sounds like a good candidate for someone who wants to do an engine swap if you can narrow down the coolant loss issue. Part it out on Craigslist. It takes time and effort. But might end up being your best choice to get some money back out of it.
 

RonD

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In 1998-2000 Rangers the ABS light on the dash would be on if rear axle speed sensor(VSS) was the problem.
Speedometer/odometer and ABS share that sensor
Does the ABS light on the dash come on with Key ON, and then go off?
If so then VSS is not the speedometer issue.

Behind the radio is the GEM(generic electronic module), it controls cab lights, wipers, door ajar, and also speedometer/odometer, I can't see it heating up but.............can't see radio doing that either.

Cooling system runs with about 14psi internal pressure after engine warms up, so yes you could have a small coolant leak that only leaks when there is pressure in the system, and it is leaking onto warmed up engine part so evaporates as it leaks leaving no drips on the ground.
You can rent a cooling system tester, it is basically a rad cap with a pressure gauge and a hand pump.
With engine cold you install it and then pump up pressure to 20psi, then watch for pressure to start dropping and then coolant to start dripping, cold engine so it can't evaporate.

As engine warms up coolant expands, this is where the 14psi pressure comes from, any extra coolant(above 14psi) is sent over to the Reservoir(overflow) tank, thats why the HOT line is on the tank
Loss of some coolant won't cause engine to overheat, and overflow tank would be at HOT line at that time, as engine cools down(shut off) it pulls back in coolant from the overflow tank and if there was some coolant lost then it would replace that with coolant from overflow tank, so make it lower, below COLD line, or empty if enough coolant was lost.
 
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the radiator leak (if there is one) isn't really my main concern. I'm mostly asking if you think there's something in the dash wiring which is causing the speedometer and odometer, and probably the temperature gauge from not working or if I should try replacing the $15 speed sensor first.

Thing is ,the frame (cracked) and bolts and everything are all so destroyed from rust that I'm not going to get much for this truck whether the speedometer is working or not. I'll probably get rid of it for salvage since the actual engine and trans etc are a better metal and has some good parts with somewhat low mileage.

Replacing the speed sensor, I thought I checked videos a week ago and it seemed there could be a problem where this could turn into a sorta project instead of basically just loosening and reinstalling 2 bolts, but I just checked again and seems pretty easy as long as I get the right part though autozone's finder which is usually accurate.


I guess I'll try speed sensor first. Or just inspect as suggested.


What I honestly meant about the dash/radio feeling hot was that the heater/AC control knob area, the knob you turn from blue to red to change heater amount, that particular knob more than the others felt extremely hot a few weeks ago driving while 95 degrees out. I never noticed that before. Then I checked radiator reservoir was empty (with engine cooled down). I filled it up about a week ago and yesterday felt the hot knob again and reservoir was empty again. Filled anti freeze reservoir last night, drove 2 hours today and reservoir is full still - maybe a slow leak. BTW, it's green coolant so thankfully not oil in there but I'll check dipstick too, changing oil soon so will check that too. I'll check speed sensor tomorrow if I find time, but I won't drive it without coolant.

what I meant is that, knob felt really hot, temperature gauge always stays at neutral, anti freeze/coolant reservoir was empty, so I figured the temperature gauge is broke also and shoulda read as hot. IOW open dash wiring (forget that probably) or try installing speed sensor for $15 it makes the salvage price maybe go higher instead of sounding like a %110 POS truck. FYI, the odometer doesn't turn either so not that hard to just unplug speed sensor and put many miles on a vehicle and then sell it as lower miles, but I don't think many people do that.



RonR, the ABS light is always on anyway because I have no ABS on my rotors! Had a big problem with pepboys because of this. When I entered my specs to use their vehicle parts finder, it SHOULD have told me the ones I chose had no ABS (all the others said if so or not I learned this afterwards). So after redoing my rotors like 4 times (thought I sprayed rust reformer spray on the sensor on the truck (not rotors), put back together ABS light still on. Thought I got grease on the sensors since I replaced bearings too at the time, put back together. I did a $400 rotor job like 4 times because it shoulda said these rotors have no ABS disc I finally figured out. I email them and say I want free correct routers and appreciate some store credit or discount or something for a) bringing this to their attention and b) doing a $400 rotor job 4 times before figuring this out. Next day, pepboys and autoszone websites had this corrected (they obviously have the same company doing their websites even though they're basically competitors (or maybe merged, but anyway). But finally after more convincing I got the free correct rotor but never installed them once I learned the truck is too rusted and basically a parts truck..


and thanks for the coolant lesson, I will see first if there's an obvious leak while it's running, then try some more advanced tests.
 

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